skötning (OSw) skøtning (ODan) skeyting (ON) skotning (OSw) noun

The transfer or conveyance of landed property. In all of the Nordic countries, as well as in England, this process is thought to have been accompanied by the symbolic placing of sod in the cloak (ON skaut) or lap of the person acquiring the property. The act is similar to an old Frankish legal custom of throwing a stick into the lap of the new owner and gives rise to the idea of a common Germanic custom of land transfer. Parts of this ceremonial process are described in various laws (e.g. GuL ch. 292 and Arne Sunesen’s paraphrase of SkL 78–80), but it is nowhere described in its entirety.

In Norway skeyting required a fee to be paid by the buyer (skeytingsaurar) for the service of documenting the transaction (bókarskeyting). In MLL it is stipulated that all transfers worth more than ten marks had to bear a seal from the law-man (lögmaðr, see laghmaþer), sheriff (sýslumaðr, see sysluman) or other official, or, at the very least the two parties had to produce a chirograph.

The medieval Swedish skaptfärdh may be connected with the procedure of measuring the land that was to be handed over. We know that measuring the acreage was important and OSw skapt may refer to the measuring-stick that was used for this purpose.

In the Västgöta laws and in ÖgL skötning eventually took on the meaning of ‘land given as a gift'.

conveyance ODan ESjL 1−3
ODan SkBL
ODan VSjL 13
OSw ÄVgL Jb
OSw YVgL Kkb, Jb
conveyance of land ONorw GuL Olb
donation OSw ÖgL Kkb
estate conveyance OIce Js Kvg 3
ONorw FrL ArbB 4 Kvb 8 Jkb 1
ONorw MLL Lb 10
land (given to a church) OSw SmL Refs:

CV s.v. skeyting; Du Cange 1883−87 s.v. scotare; F s.v. skeyting; KLNM s.v. bréfalausn, fastebrev, rättssymbolik, skøyting; Larsson 2009, 151–60; NGL V s.v. skeyting; Vinogradoff 1907