útlegð (ON) útlægð (ON) noun

Outlawry (útlegð) was a common form of punishment in the Middle Ages. The most important crimes qualifying to such punishment were treachery, murder, breach of truces and pledges, and theft (see the survey in Riisøy 2015, 76). The person who was sentenced to útlegð was called útlagi (q.v.), utlægher, útlægr (q.v.) or útlagr (q.v.); OSw biltugher (q.v.), friþlös (q.v.). (The same word was also used to denote the property of an outlawed person: útlagt/útlægt fé, útlægr eyrir; útlegðarfé.) This meant that he or she was outside the law and excluded from society. Those who had committed even worse crimes, such as treason towards a lord or a master, aggravated arson, and murder by night, were considered to be níðingar (see niþinger) or vargar (see vargher) (the latter word esp. in compounds like brennuvargr, morðvargr, etc.). The corresponding verb was útlægja ‘to outlaw’. A deed leading to outlawry was said to be níðingsverk (OSw niþingsværk) or útlegðarverk (q.v.) .

The punishment was of two kinds:

(1) Common outlawry, which meant the same as expatriation, from which the outlaw could be released by making certain payments (so-called skógarkaup (q.v.) or friðkaup) to the king — in which case he was allowed to stay in the country or the district (within a restricted area, usually in the woods, hence the OIce terms skóggangr (q.v.), fjörbaugsgarðr (q.v.)) — and to the family of the aggrieved party. In more serious cases, he might even forfeit his property, which was then called útlegðarfé (q.v.). According to Grágás, the person who was sentenced to fjörbaugsgarðr was granted three sanctuaries (heimili, q.v.) within which he was safe during three years in Iceland. After that, he had to go abroad for three years. A resemblance to these three sanctuaries in Grágás is found in ch. 13 of the GL: If a man killed another, he could flee to one of three churches, which had status as sanctuary churches. These churches were situated in each third of the island and were therefore convenient places of asylum. After forty days had expired the killer must ride to the place where he wanted to draw up his peace circle, and someone else might negotiate compensation on his behalf (see Peel 2015, 113). The stipulation relating to a peace circle bears resemblance to an older parallel in Sweden. The ninth-century Oklunda runic inscription from Õstergötland is an early pre-Christian example of (legal) sanctuary: Gunnarr faði runaR þessaR. En sa flau sakiR, sotti vi þetta ‘Gunnar cut these runes. And he fled sakiR (“under penalty”, “guilty” or “outlawed”) and sought this sanctuary’ (see Peel 2015, 44−45). This means that before he reached the sanctuary, Gunnar was subject to pursuit and killing, with impunity of the pursuers. — In mainland Scandinavia the outlaw was excluded from the law province, alternatively (in the Göta laws) from the local court district.

(2) A more severe punishment was permanent or irredeemable outlawry, from which there was no escape. One who was sent into permanent outlawry was an óbótamaðr (q.v.), one from whom, or for whom, no fine could be received. It has been suggested (by Imsen 2014, 64) that being labelled útlægr signified execution: ‘… the perpetrator [of manslaughter] [was] ipso facto an outlaw, … . The latter probably implied that he was executed, even though some killers may have escaped to the forest and joined crowds of criminal vagabonds.’ The outlaw was usually denied Christian burial. According to the GuL (ch. 23) he or she had to be buried on the foreshore (í flǿðarmáli), where ‘the tide and the green sod meet’, perhaps in order to avoid corpses being placed back in the heathen burial mounds. Outlaws who were executed were often buried at the place of their execution.

exile ONorw FrL Intr 4
fining case OIce Grg Lrþ 117 Tíg 259
outlawry OIce Jó Mah 1 Llb 30
OIce Js Mah 4, 24 Þjb 4
ONorw EidsL 7
ONorw FrL Intr 3, 5 Mhb 7, 62 Var 9 Bvb 11
ONorw GuL Krb, Llb, Tfb, Mhb, Tjb, Leb Refs:

Breisch 1994, 130−33; Helle 2001, 99−101, 153; Hertzberg s.v.v. útlagi, útlagr, útlegð; vargr; Imsen 2014, 64; Iversen 1997, 57−58; Jones 1940; KLNM s.v.v. asyl, benådning, böter, drab, excommunicatio og interdikt, exekution, fredlöshed, förbrytelse, hämnd, incest, konfiskation, kviðr, landsvist, mansbot, niddingsværk, orbodemål, stigmenn, straff, styresmann, svangerskab, trolldom, tyveri, véfang, vindikasjon, ægteskab, ægteskabsbrud, ærekrenkelse; Nilsson 1989, 270−83; Peel 2015, 46, 115; RGA² s.v. friedlosigkeit; Riisøy 2010; 2014, 102, 106–23; 2015; 2016; Strauch 2016, 24, 50, 158, 228, 231; Wennström 1933