Lawspeaker

A Lawspeaker (Swedish: lagman, Old Swedish: laghma?er or laghman, Norwegian: lagmand, Icelandic: l?g(s?gu)ma?r) is a unique Scandinavian legal office. It has its basis in a common Germanic tradition, where wise men were asked to recite the law, but it was only in Scandinavia that the function evolved into an office. Two of the most famous lawspeakers are Snorri Sturluson and ?orgn?r the Lawspeaker.

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The office was most important in Sweden, where each province had its own lawspeaker who was subordinate to the lawspeaker of Tiundaland. The lawspeaker presided the Things, worked as a judge and formulated the laws that had been decided by the people. The lawspeaker was obliged to memorize the law and to recite it at the Thing. He was also responsible for the administration at the thing and for the execution of the decisions, and it was his duty to safeguard the rights and liberties of the people and to speak in their behalf to the king or his representative. It was the lawspeaker who, on the behalf of the people, recognized the elected king when he passed on the Eriksgata. However, after the establishement of the province laws, ca 1350, he would participate at the Stone of Mora with twelve companions from his jurisdiction.

Swedish: The term Swedish can refer to:...

Old Swedish: Old Swedish (Modern Swedish: fornsvenska) is the name for two separate stages of the Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages: Early Old Swedish (Klassisk fornsvenska), spoken from around 1225 until 1375, and Late Old Swedish (Yngre fornsvenska), spoken from 1375 until 1526....

Norwegian: When used as an adjective, Norwegian refers to anything that originates from Norway. It may refer to more than one article:...