Land tenancy

Because most of the agricultural land in the Middle Ages was rented out, it was important to regulate the relationship between those who owned land and those who worked it. While the older Gulathing Law gives the impression that leases were agreed upon for one year at a time, the Laws of the Land suggest that they could be valid for several years. In the event of a change of ownership, the tenant had the right to keep the tenancy for at least one more year, and a tenant’s heir had the right to maintain the tenancy for another year. There were a series of clearly defined obligations related to being a land tenant – not least, to maintain the houses and the land. The farm was not to deteriorate.

The rent was to be paid once a year, before April 14th, which marked the beginning of the summer half-year on the traditional Norwegian calendar stick. The rent was calculated in “mánaðarmatarból”, a unit of value based on the extent of land that provided the food that one man needed for one month. In charters concerning property relations, the value of a farm or share of property is most often estimated in terms of how many such units it yields. It was common for several landowners to have larger or smaller shares in the same farm. Ownership was thus usually linked not to specific parts of a farm but to fixed shares of the farm’s total rent. Land tenancy was the most important source of income for both the secular and ecclesiastical elites.

The Church was by far the largest landowner, and its properties were distributed among many ecclesiastical institutions and offices. The nobility and the king were also substantial landowners. There were also many among the common people who had land shares that they rented out. Witnessed charters were important for being able to claim ownership and the right to rent. Large landowners often had many scattered properties and managed their wealth through land registers.