Cultural exchanges in the Middle Ages

The Norwegian Laws of the Land did not come out of thin air. They were influenced by significant cultural developments in Norway and international exchanges in the 13th century. During the reign of King Håkon Håkonsson, Norway developed a vast international network, strengthening its economic and cultural ties with Europe. King Håkon had contacts with many rulers, including those of England, France, the Holy Roman Empire, and Castile. His court was a hub of Norse historiography, translations, and law writing, producing notable works, such as The King’s Mirror and several royal sagas. King Håkon also admired European chivalric poetry, leading to translations of French, English, and German courtly literature into Old Norse. Cathedral schools were established in Bergen, Trondheim, Oslo, and Hamar as early as the 1150s. Although their main purpose was to train new priests, they also taught Latin, grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, thus promoting European scholarly tradition in Norway. King Håkon Håkonsson attended the cathedral schools of Bergen and Trondheim. Audun Hugleiksson and possibly Magnus the Lawmender were also educated at the cathedral school of Bergen. Many Norwegians also studied abroad, particularly at the Universities of Paris and Bologna. These universities experienced a revival thanks to two major developments: the rediscovery of Roman/Byzantine legal codification, which was the focus of studies at the University of Bologna; and the rediscovery of Aristotelianism, which became central to scholarly thought at the University of Paris and other major European universities in the 13th century. The latter also resulted in renewed faith in human reasoning, as opposed to the idea that rules and norms were divinely derived. These ideas were brought home by Norwegians studying abroad and promoted the notion that the king had the authority to act as a lawgiver.