The Viking World (Routledge Worlds)

knowledge as the basis for the new product, and the transferring of laws to other regions,
as in the case of the Hälsinge Law, which is practically a copy of the Uppland Law. These
facts have naturally been revealed. However, for the tracing of older strata and details in
the laws, one has to look for things that differ. For example, the Hälsinge Law has taken
over the administrative structure from the Uppland Law, but used (obviously retained!)
a terminology totally unknown in the Uppland Law, which of course must have an
explanation.

THE FORSA RUNE RING: THE EARLIEST LAW

IN SCANDINAVIA

It is obvious that Viking society was a type of legal society, there is no doubt about this,
but it is very difficult to find traces of this and to reconstruct it. We have, however, some

• more or less – indisputable evidence of this legal culture in the Viking Age. One is the
  inscription of the runic iron ring called the Forsa rune ring.
  In the parish church of Forsa in the province of Hälsingland, northern Sweden, an
  iron ring with a runic inscription has been hanging on a door for centuries. The ring
  was observed and mentioned already in 1599 , and the inscription was published and
  translated around 1700 by the famous Olof Celcius. The ring measures 43 cm in
  diameter and it contains nearly 250 runes.
  Traditionally, and ever since an important and influential analysis of the inscription
  by the Norwegian Sophus Bugge in 1877 , this inscription has been called the oldest
  legal inscription (law-rule) in Scandinavia. There has been consensus regarding the fact
  that the inscription contains an ecclesiastical law-rule, regulating tithes, the protection
  afforded by asylum in a church or the illicit cancellation of divine service. The main
  argument for this being a church law is the occurrence of two key words, staf ‘(bishops)
  staff’ and lirþir ‘the learned (clergy)’, so read and translated by Bugge. The ring, and the
  inscription, has therefore been assumed to be from the Christian period, although the
  runes on the ring are very archaic; the same kind is found on for example the famous Rök
  runestone in the province of Östergötland (from c. ad 800 ).
  In an important analysis of the inscription, made by the Norwegian runologist Aslak
  Liestøl in the 1970 s, he was able to prove that Bugge’s reading of lirþir was wrong.
  Instead one should read liuþir. This does away with the foundation of the traditional
  interpretation and dating of the ring. There is nothing that forces us to tie the ring to a
  clerical context any more.
  The inscription reads:

: uksatuiskilanaukauratua ̨ stafatfurstalaki :

uksatua ̨ aukaurafiurataþrulaki :

: inatþriþialakiuksafiuraukauratastaf :

aukaltaikuiuarRifanhafskakiritfuriR

: suaþliuþiRakuatliuþritisuauasintfuraukhalkat :

inþaRkirþusikþitanunra ̨ tarstaþum :

: aukufakRa ̨ hiurtstaþum :

inuibiurnfaþi :

which may be translated as:

–– Stefan Brink––