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the compensation relates to the status of the woman. One can com-
pare this provision to another in which a slave s master made payment:
three öre for a theft of up to an öre, three times the value plus the
property for greater amounts (Addition 8/1 3). In this case the owner
was not responsible for more than the value of his slave (Addition
8/30 32). This value seems to have been set at three marks of
silver or twelve marks in coin (cf. 16/9 13, 13 17). In Chapters
21/2 8, 38/6 9, 51/3 4 and 59/6, penalties also seem to be related
to the status of the wrongdoer. Wessén compares these provisions
with those in ÖgL Eb 3 pr and UL Kgb 6, which represent edsöreslag
(cf. Note to 12/9 10). Other points of interest are that it is not clear
whether a married or an unmarried victim is under consideration
and that no mention is made of rape by a slave of a non-Gotlandic
woman. This last would appear to be an error of omission.
Chapter 23: Um quinna gripi
23/3. A tuppr (OWN toppr m.) was a pointed linen hood worn by
married women and a huifr was possibly a headscarf, similar to a
wimple, worn underneath this.
23/5 6. In an agreement dated c.1199 between the governor of
Novgorod and the Germans and Gotlanders trading there (STFM I,
106 07), a provision relating to a similar incident set a fine of six
old grivna for the insult. The value of a grivna is not clear, as
there were several kinds (as there were of mark) (cf. MRL, 24 25;
SL IV, 272 note 3 to Chapter 23).
23/8 9. The clause excepting slave women from compensation
for anything but injury, which applies to the whole chapter, is
134
THE LAW OF THE GOTLANDERS
consistent with the statement in Chapter 19/141 42 that slaves
can neither insult nor be insulted.
23/9. The alliterative phrase nast eþa nestli refers to the two parts of
a clasp that fastened a woman s clothing, the hook and the eye
respectively (cf. GGD, 75 note 5; SL IV, 272 note 5 to Chapter
23). In LaxdSla saga, Chapter 75, nist f. is taken to be the fasten-
ing of Halldórr s gown, whereas nist n. was a pin or brooch (cf. ÍF
V, 219 note 2).
23/11 12. The hook and eye or clasp can hardly be the hann it
referred to; this must be the cloak to which they are the fastenings.
23/12 14. Reference to the maximum fine must be to the maximum
fine in this chapter, that is, two marks in coin. The laces presum-
ably fastened a woman s bodice. The provision that everything
must be returned to the woman refers to all the previously men-
tioned items (see SL IV, 272 73 notes 7 and 8).
23/15 30. The provisions in this part of the chapter fall into two
sets. The first set relates to manhandling of a generally boorish
nature, with fines rising from eight örtugar ( mark) to two marks.
The second set relates to approaches of a more sexual nature, with
fines falling from mark to nothing depending on the intimacy of
the area involved, under the assumption that a woman should have
registered her protest at the first opportunity, if she was to receive
maximum compensation. When a man committed what would to-
day be termed an indecent assault, a woman was held to have
agreed to it by implication (see GGD, 76 note 3).
23/21. The verb kera plead [a case] is common in early Danish law,
but has later been replaced both there and in Swedish law by klaga,
from German klagen (cf. GGD, 35 note 4).
23/27 28. Bugge (1877 78, 262 63) rejects the translation in tyGL
and by Schlyter (CIG, 58) of handar mair as en hand längre upp
(a hand further up), and proposes instead that the whole expres-
sion means videre, længere bort (further, further away), taking
handar to be related to OWN handan, meaning on the other side
and handar mair as a comparative (cf. Noreen 1894, 138; OSMS I,
463 s. v. handarmer; Rydqvist 1850 83, II, 443, 450).
23/28 29. The lack of any compensation for indecent (ohaiþverþr)
assault, despite the fact that it is called a fool s grip , is puzzling.
The sequence of fines clearly reflects the notion that a woman
should protest at the first opportunity, but in that case one might
query why the most invasive assault is described in the way it is.
NOTES 135
23/32. The alliterative phrase frels ok friþvetr free and freeborn occurs
in Swedish provincial laws (e.g. UL Rb 9 4, SdmL Rb 9 4, VmL Rb
18 3). The adjective frels and the noun frelsi n. freedom derive from
fri hals, someone who did not have the neck ring that denoted a slave.
The person concerned might be a freed slave. On the other hand,
friþvetr meant free-born (cf. ÖgL Äb 24: fræls ok friþætta), or
known to be free (cf. GGD, 76 note 4; SL IV, 273 note 10). The
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