Whales

Many paragraphs in the Laws of the Land are based on regulations with roots going back a long time. One example is the regulations concerning whales. They were inspired by the older Gulating and Frostating laws and can be dated back to the 11th century. More than 200 years later, the ownership of this lucrative and unpredictable resource remained a highly current topic. The fact that the blubber, meat, and other parts of the whale were undoubtedly highly sought-after goods is shown, among other things, in Icelandic family Saga, which tell about brutal and bloody battles over several generations because of disagreements about whales that were washed ashore. The same was probably the case in Norway. In any case, whales washed ashore were strictly regulated in the Laws of the Land, and in far greater detail than in the earlier Norwegian provincial laws. Disputes over carcasses clearly show that whaling could be very profitable. The elite also had interests in whaling. A letter from 1338 states that Bishop Håkon in the diocese of Bergen was active in whaling at Sund Church in today’s Øygarden (an island municipality west of Bergen).

The hunting methods described in the Land Tenancy section are the same as those known from western Norway up to the mid-20th century and are still used in the Faroe Islands. The whales were driven into “whale bays”, where they were enclosed and shot, or they were driven ashore. This is a good example of how the Laws of the Land can provide detailed insights into everyday life in the Middle Ages. It should also be noted that there were high fines for disturbing the herring fishery by hunting whales. The herring was so important that it trumped the whale.