"Guta lag" and "Guta saga": The Law and History of the Gotlanders

This book is an amalgamation of two works previously published in the Viking Society for Northern Research Text series. These publications were editions of an MPhil thesis ("Guta saga": The History of the Gotlanders) and a PhD thesis ("Guta lag": The Law of the Gotlanders) submitted to University College London in 1998 and 2006, respectively. Although both of these theses and the Viking Society edition of the former included the original Gutnish text, this was omitted from the latter for reasons of space. This book contains only the English translations of the texts, together with the supporting material from both previous published editions, except for the glossary in the edition of Guta saga. For the purposes of publication, the original theses were revised and reformatted to some extent but the majority of the material in them was retained, although some notes referring to purely linguistic matters were dropped from the edition of "Guta lag", since they referred to the Gutnish text not included. This book has been adapted from the two previous publications by the exclusion of the Gutnish text of "Guta saga" and the positioning of the translation of it following that of Guta lag, as it appears in the manuscript. The introduction to "Guta lag" has been redrafted to contain any historical and other material from the introduction to "Guta saga" not originally included. A separate introduction has been retained for "Guta saga" containing material that is additional to that relevant to "Guta lag". At the same time there have been some updates to the bibliographical references to take into account later scholarship, sixteen years having passed since "Guta saga" was edited, a number of inconsistencies between the two volumes and some typographical errors have also been corrected. --- "Guta lag", the law of the independent island of Gotland, is one of the earliest laws of Scandinavia. The historical appendix to the law, "Guta saga", was written in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Together, "Guta" lag and its accompanying saga provide an invaluable insight into the lives of people living on Gotland, the largest of Sweden's Baltic islands, in 1000–1400. Now, for the first time, these two important texts have been translated into English and combined in one edition, accompanied by an extensive commentary and historical contextualisation by Christine Peel. In the Viking Age, the island of Gotland maintained its own law and administrative system. It was distinctive among Swedish provinces, retaining its own laws until 1645, while mainland provincial laws were all superseded by national law in the mid-fourteenth century. Preserved in eight manuscripts, "Guta lag" illustrates the everyday life and administrative system of the people of Gotland. "Guta saga" tells the story of the island from its discovery by the legendary 'Þieluar', who removed the enchantment upon it, leading to its inhabitation. Read together, the texts provide a complete picture of an island unique among Scandinavian provinces, offering a rare view of everyday people in medieval Scandinavia. This innovative and timely translation will be fascinating and essential reading for scholars of Scandinavian studies and legal history.