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Usage determined the size and nature of the weapons, and the theatre of the Scandinavian combat. Desperate warriors chose an island, or a 'holm,' from whence neither could flee. The duel, therefore, often acquired the name of the holmgang. A narrow space was assigned to the duellists. A hide, nine ells in length, was extended upon the ground upon which they fought. Sometimes, also, the lists were enclosed by hazel stangs, or a ring was marked out by stones;--many of the Druidical circles, as they are called, were, probably, battle-rings of this nature. He who slipped under the barrier, or he who was beaten out of the ring, though his foot only passed beyond the boundary, was to be considered as conquered. This, indeed, was King Frodo's law. He also was conquered whose blood first stained the hide. Such regulations were obviously intended to save the waste of human life. A conventional termination was given to the battle, which satisfied the honour of the victor, whilst the vanquished knew that he could not obliterate his disgrace by protracting the struggle. It is not

the dog of Montargis, the faithful plaintiff was protected by a contrivance not dissimilar to that which here confined the stronger party. Grave authors who have treated on judicial combat, have receiv⚫ ed this romantic tale as truth, though it requires no great exertion of sagacity to doubt its authenticity. It has not been remarked, that the whole adventure is in fact borrowed from a romance, most probably of French origin-but which we have only seen in an ancient Spanish translation, Historia della Reyna Sevilla, Impreso con licencia en Valladolid en casa de la viuda de Francisco de Cordova, 1623.] The murderer, in the romance, bears the same name as in the French tradition, and all the incidents correspond, except that the dog is not furnished with a hiding place. The combat is oddly described; and an extract may amuse some of our readers. 'Dixo el Obispo, Macayre id a besar las reliquias, y seredes mas seguro del can e de vuestro hecho acabar.-E dixo Macayre, Señor no, no besare las reliquias, ni rogare a Dios que me ayude contra un" can; El duque Don Jayme solto el galgo, y dixole, a Dios 'te encomiendo que te vengue de aquel que a tu Señor mato, y el galgo dexose yr para Macayre. Macayre quando lo vido venir, tomo su palo, y pensole herir; Mas el can se abaxo y salto 'de' traves y no le pudo alcançar, y dio tal herida en tierra que mas de un dedo entro en ella, y el galgo andava al derredor mirando por 'do podria travar. y Nuestro Señor quiso mostrar ay un gran mila· gro que quiso ayudar al galgo porque tomasse vengança de quien mato a su Señor Aubertin de Mondifer - - . y assi anduvo assechando hasta que se fue a travarle dela gargarta ante que el traydor le pudiesse dar el palo y tuvolo como a un puerco que no se podia partir del '

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difficult to discern the affinity between these customs and the code which governed the more gorgeous exercise of the tournament: Nor do we want a more homely parallel. In the Kamping Matches of Norfolk and Suffolk, our East Anglian clowns are the genuine successors of the Scandinavian Kæmper; * and the observances which determined the victory of the champions of the heroic age, are rudely imitated by our churls, in wrestling, and single-stick, and boxing.

When we read of Scandinavia, it seems enveloped in a perpetual snow-storm. Its inhabitants are pictured in our imaginations, as a race of stern and barbarous warriors, intent only upon war and plunder; yet, according to their polity, the members of the community were knitted together by the closest social bonds. Moral duties were enforced by the penalties of the law which came in aid of the precepts and dictates of friendship, of charity, and of natural affection. The husbandman, if his own hinds failed him, could demand the gratuitous assistance of his fellow-yeomen in gathering his crop; and, with solemn earnestness, the law endeavoured to avert the hand of the spoiler, by reminding him, that the field, open to the trespasser, and unguarded by the master, was under God's lock, with heaven for its roof, though but the hedge is its wall.' The crew, whose united strength was unequal to the task of launching the vessel, could summon the people of the country to join in the labour; and if the ship of the seaman was wrecked, they were required to attend with their teams, to help him to save his property. When the mother died in childbed, the law ordered matrons of the hundred to give suck to the infant, each in her turn, and the corpse was borne to the grave by the neighbours of the departed. Even animals were considered as being, in some measure, included in the compact of society, The industrious beaver

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hath his house like the husbandman;' and if the beaver was killed, and his cell overturned, a fine of three marks, both for

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* See Ihre, in voce KAMP.

Now, it may happen that a man steals corn out of the field, and • breaks God's lock, and binds his burthen, and bears it into his lathe, or into the shaw, then he is called strawback, (v. Ihre, in voce Agnabaker.) If he is taken, and lawfully convicted, then hath he • forefaulted his life, and all his fee.-Ostgotha L. Edzöris, B. F. 33. The Westmanna lagh, though less severe, is equally poetical in its expression. 'If a man plucks ears of corn from the field, and is taken in the open fact, let him forfeit three marks, or defend himself with ⚫ the oaths of twelve men. The field hath the hedge for its wall, and heaven for its roof. '—W. L. Manhelgis, B. F. 82.

blood-wite, and hamesoken, was paid to the owner of the land. But the grim inhabitants of the forest, the enemies of mankind, were declared by Haco Athelstane to be out of the protection of the law. The bear and the wolf shall be outlaws in every 'place.' ['Biörn og ulf scal hvervetna utlægr vera ;']—a phrase which illustrates the Saxon definition of an outlaw,-the bearer of the wolf's head. Yet, notwithstanding this perpetual sentence of outlawry, the bear himself was entitled to a legal summons, before he could be punished for his misdeeds. But this strange opinion belongs rather to the history of superstition than to the history of law.

Scandinavia affords, we believe, the earliest example of a legislative provision for the relief of the Poor. He who could not earn his food, might claim a home in every house in the township. The owner was compelled to receive the beadsman, passing him on to the next farm, after he had entertained him during the period prescribed by law. Lest the churlish farmer might ill-treat the needy under the colour of the law, it was forbidden to refuse shelter to any pauper after sun-set. And if any mischance then befel him,-if he was starved by the cold, or torn by the wolves, the full blood fine was exacted from the inhuman transgressor. Poverty and riches arise, in an agricultural community, according to their natural and unforced average. Toil is the capital of the husbandman; his weal and his woe, his losses and his gains, are interchanged in each generation like the summer and the winter; and in each generation the account is balanced. Nor was the charity unwise which diminished the 'sum of human misery, by ensuring to the destitute a small portion of the harvest which others had sown and reaped. In the middle ages, Norway and Sweden alone possessed this system of Poor-laws, which were called into action there by the poverty of the Church. Few religious communities existed. The dole was not dealt to the beadsman at the gate of the abbey. No spire arose amidst the wilds, directing the wanderer to the mansion of the Cross, under whose roof the hungry were fed, and the weary found rest and kindness. It was therefore necessary that each individual hand should be compelled to afford that aid which piety-though perhaps mistaken piety-bestowed in other realms.

War might seem to be the most favourite occupation of the followers of the sea kings, from whose fury Europe prayed to be delivered. Yet their legislation is copious in determining the rights arising from the most peaceful of all human occupations. And the Agricultural laws contained in the Norwegian and Swedish custumals, in the books entitled the Landsleigo

Balkr, the Bygninga Balker, or the Widherboa Balker, are compiled with peculiar care and precision. Under an inclement sky, the harvest was not to be earned but by unwearied labour; and hence the legislators of the North protected the husbandman by their tillage code. No exact parallel can be found to this portion of Scandinavian jurisprudence. In Fleta, there are some chapters relating to the management of a manor, and pointing out the duties of the farming servants, or demesnial vassals of the lord. Of more importance is a treatise on Agriculture, written in Norman French, and which our English lawyers often included in their legal collections. Thus it is inserted in the Liber Horne, to which we have before alluded; but these works merely teach agriculture. They do not legislate upon the subject; whilst the Scandinavians gave a legal sanction to the custom of the country.' As elucidating the history of society in the uttermost march lands of European civilization, the agricultural law of the Scandinavians is of singular value. It presents a perfect view of their rural economy; defining all the rights and duties of the landlord and the tenant, the master and the servant. The following chapter, found in the code of Haco Athelstane, is repeated in the laws of King Magnus. *

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Now it may happen that a man buys work (i. e. agrees for labour) from a free man, then all the matters upon which they have agreed shall be well and truly held.'

If the husbandman (bondi) will not hold his covenant with • his labourer, but discharges him from his service, then the labourer shall crave his victual in the presence of two witnesses, and offer to do such work as they had before agreed upon and if the husbandman will not accept the work of the • labourer, then he forfeits three oras of silver to the King, and the labourer shall have his wages and the worth of his vic'tual.'

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But if the labourer will not hold his covenant with the husbandman, then the husbandman shall crave the work which the labourer undertook to perform, and offer to provide his • victual in the presence of two witnesses; and if the labourer 'will not perform the work, then he forfeits three oras of silver to the King; and he shall also pay to the husbandman as much as he would have received for his wages. But nevertheless, 'the husbandman is not to have the worth of the victual, be6 cause he keeps that to himself. '

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*This chapter relating to a pact, is placed in the Kampa-Bolkr, though rather out of its natural order.

And if any man knowingly takes another man's labourer into his service, then he forfeits half a mark of silver to the • King.'

And if a labourer undertakes to do one man's task, and cannot work it out, then trustworthy men shall reckon how ⚫ much ought to be foreprized out of his wages.'

If a labourer is sick or wounded, and lies thus during one fortnight, and no longer, then no abatement shall be made out of his wages, (provided it be ascertained by trustworthy men, that the husbandman ath enough to maintain himself); but if he lies longer, the loss of work is to be reckoned by trustworthy men, together with the worth of the victual he enjoys, both which shall be deducted; or otherwise let him 'leave his service and go to his relations.'

Equally minute and perspicuous are the laws which regulate the cultivation and management of the land; and they may be put in competition with the most accurate farming lease of modern days. The details of crops and fallows, of the manure which the farmer was to bestow upon the fields, of the course of cropping which he was to pursue, and of the stock which he was to leave at the expiration of his tenure, occupy many a chapter in these ancient monuments of legislation, and afford frequent proof of the comforts which had fallen to the lot of the Northmen. Luxury was denied to them by nature, and the magnificence of art was unknown; but they had corn in the barn, and kine in the byre; and the free and opulent yeoman ploughed the stubborn soil.

* If the Brehon laws were collected, they would outweigh and outvalue all the jurisprudence of Scandinavia. Hitherto, the authentic antiquities of Ireland have been miserably neglected; but we may now hope for better days, since the learning of an O'Connor is patronized by the munificence of a Grenville. That the ancient Irish, the wild Irish, calumniated as they have been by their invaders, had attained a high degree of civilization, may be inferred from the agricultural laws included in the Fragments published by Vallancey. The fines for trespasses are curiously detailed and graduat◄ ed. They had common land, and also much enclosed land. Heavy penalties were imposed for breaking fences. For a gap of the width of three stakes, a young bull heifer was paid; for five, a full grown bull heifer, for eight, a good heifer; for twelve, five cows. Timber trees were protected against injury: the country, therefore, must have been cleared, and well cultivated. We pen this note with peculiar pleasure, when we recollect that we first derived our information from one of the fairest of the daughters of the Gael

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