article
Law and literature in medieval Iceland
Ethnos • 57 • Published In 1992 • Pages: 31-49
By: Durrenberger, E. Paul.
Abstract
Medieval Iceland was a stratified society without a state to enforce differential access to resources. Like other stateless societies its law defined private rather than public delicts. It did so in terms of the concepts of individual holiness, inviolateness, and ways one could lose holiness by violating other people's holiness. This concept was central to notions of honor. As the institutional structure collapsed, so did concepts of honor. Icelanders recorded their law and sagas about their past and the 13th century as a response to these changes (p. 31).
- HRAF PubDate
- 2004
- Region
- Europe
- Sub Region
- Scandinavia
- Document Type
- article
- Evaluation
- Ethnologist-4
- Analyst
- John Beierle ; 2002
- Coverage Date
- tenth-thirteenth centuries AD
- Coverage Place
- general Iceland
- Notes
- E. Paul Durrenberger
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 48-49)
- LCCN
- 45053696
- LCSH
- Icelanders