Women - pride and responsibility

Although women are mentioned only a few times in the Human inviolability section, they could be punished for their acts in the same way as men. In the Laws of the Land, "man" (maðr in Old Norse) often means "human", and refers to any person. The most important difference between women and men concerned who should be compensated when women were subjected to misdeeds. Men were the heads of families and responsible for their finances; therefore, fines for violations against women went to their husbands or their closest male relatives. Similarly, the male head of a family was responsible for paying fines for crimes committed by women in the family.

The paragraphs where women are specifically mentioned are mostly related to offences such as abduction, rape, infidelity, and extramarital sex. These were offences that tarnished the honour of the family and the husband and, for unmarried women, their value as future spouses.

A man who slept with another man’s wife had to pay a full “man’s fine”, i.e. as in the case of murder, and half a “man’s fine” if the act involved an unmarried mother (widow), a daughter, or a sister. Even one who boasted of having slept with a woman without having done so had to pay a fine as if the act were real. In the older provincial laws, it was acceptable to kill a man caught in bed with one’s wife or another female member of the family. The Laws of the Land, on the other hand, prohibited this type of honour killing – like other revenge killings – provided that the offender made amends and did not repeat the misdeed. But if he repeated it, he was declared an outlaw.