Lawman Sigurd Havtoresson rules on the boundaries at Grini
DN 4/334 · 26 May 1348 · Gronin
What the letter says
Sigurd Havtoresson, lawman in Oslo, holds a court session at northern Grini in Haslum parish on 26 May 1348. Reidulv Ottesson, also on behalf of his brother Elling, has summoned Halvard Torsteinsson and Torgils Gunnesson in a dispute over the division of meadows and house plots. Witnesses swear to how the boundary stones have stood, and the other party has no counter-witnesses. Sigurd rules that the boundaries and the division of house plots shall stand as they always have.
The letter in modern English (excerpt)
To all men who see or hear this letter, Sigurd Havtoresson, lawman in Oslo, sends God's greeting and his own, and makes known: On the Monday before Ascension Day in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of my worthy lord Magnus, by the grace of God king of Norway, Sweden and Scania (26 May 1348), these met before me in court at Gronin, in the northern farm, which lies in Hasleim parish: on the one side Reidulv Ottesson for himself and with full authority from his brother Elling, on the other side Halvard Torsteinsson and Torgils Gunnesson. Reidulv then brought before me two men as witnesses, Ogmund Eilivsson and Øystein Narvesson, and they swore on the book that they were present, saw and heard when Reidulv Ottesson summoned Halvard Torsteinsson and Torgils Gunnesson with six nights' notice to Gronin, before me and my final judgement. They were to present all the evidence and all the documentation they had, and hear his evidence, in the case Reidulv brought for himself and his brother Elling against Halvard and Torgils concerning the division of meadows and tufter (house plots) in the northern farm at Gronin. Reidulv then brought forward five men as witnesses, Helge Ketilsson, Ogmund Helgesson, Jon Kolbeinsson, Herbjørn Jarpsson and Eivind Tordsson, and they swore on the book that as the boundary marks now stand, so it has belonged to the southern «tiaura bol» [uncertain reading] at Gronin. Otte Engelsson and Halvard Torsteinsson had divided between them in a lasting division, so that it shall l
Original text (excerpt)
Ollum monnum þeim sem þetta bref sea edær hœyra sendir Sigurdær Hafthores son loghmadær j Oslo q. g. ok sina kunnikt gerande at a manædaghen nesta firir hælgha þorsdagh a niunda are ok tyttukta rikis mins virduleghs herra Maghnusær med gudæs nadh Noreghs Suia ok Skana kononghs. komo a stefnu firir mik a Gronini j nordra gardenum er lighær j Ha(s)llæims sokn af einni halfuu Reidulfuær Otta son firir sik ok j fullu vmbode Ellinghs brodor sins. en af annare Haluardær Þorsteins son ok Þorgyls Gunna
Background
The letter is a letter of judgement from an ordinary neighbours' dispute over boundaries between two parts of a farm in Bærum. The issuer is probably the same Sigurd Havtoresson of Sudreim (died c. 1392), grandson through his mother of King Håkon V, who later married Ingeborg Erlingsdatter and brought Giske into the family. The letter does not say so, so the connection rests on name, time and place. A lawman was the king's judge in a law district, and he judged according to the national law of 1274. The judgement rests on sworn witnesses who remembered how the boundary stones stood, since there were seldom maps or written boundaries for the farms. Tufter are house plots, and a geil is a lane between fences. The letter was written a year and a half before the Black Death came to Norway and left many farms deserted.
People: Sigurd Havtoresson