Slaves, serfs, and tenants

The old provincial laws had their origins in the society of the Viking Age, when a substantial part of the population was unfree. Much of the legislation in the Gulathing and the Frostathing Laws was therefore related to slaves. Slavery was abolished during the 12th century, probably because it was unprofitable, and because the supply of slaves diminished. The church also disapproved that Christians were kept as slaves. Therefore, there are no references to the slave community in the Laws of the Land, except for the prohibition of selling people out of the country in the Human Inviolability section.

The largest population group during the time of the Laws of the Land were the land tenants. This was also common in the rest of Europe, but there were great differences in how land tenants were treated. In European feudal society, the nobility often controlled large tracts of land – fiefs – in the name of the king, primarily in return for military service, and some also had their own collections of estates. Peasants on estates of the nobility were often serfs, i.e. tied to the land and its owner, and had very few rights. As a rule, this relationship of dependence included an onerous work duty for the landowner, as well as the obligation to pay the rent.

In medieval Norway, there was no serfdom. The land tenants belonged to the free peasantry and generally had the same rights and duties as peasants who owned land. The tenancy conditions were firmly rooted in legislation, with clear guidelines for how tenants and owners should relate to each other. A Norwegian tenant was also free to leave the land, as long as this happened at an agreed time and the buildings and the land were in order when one left.