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be meant in this instance. The word skafl occurs in UL in the table
of contents against Chapter 49 of Mb and in HL in the chapter
heading of Mb 32 referring to one who steals any edible crop (e.g.
turnips, peas). In UL Bb 14 6 and other provincial laws there are
fines for felling another person s fruit trees, with varying levels of
fine depending on whether a tree was in fruit or not. The fine in GL
for picking fruit before September 8th appears to apply even to the
owner of the trees in question, or it might refer to trees on com-
monly owned land. The date might suggest the type of fruit that
was cultivated in Gotland (possibly apples), or the time when the
fruit concerned was ripe. Cf. KL s. v. Frugttræer.
59/6. Further instances of variable penalties depending on the per-
son committing an offence are to be found in Chapters 21/2 8, 22/
26 28, 38/6 9 and 51/3 4.
Chapter 60: Af messufalli
60/5 6. A feast of nine lessons in the Catholic Church was one on
which nine lessons (Bible or other readings) were included in the
NOTES 175
service of Matins. These services were reserved for the more
important minor feast days, others having fewer readings.
60/6. Schlyter (CIG, 379; CISG, 415) takes eþa hafas  or held as a
scribal correction for lesas  read , rather than a parallelism, but cf.
Notes to 13/7 8, 19/33, 21/16 17, 25/48 and 50.
60/7. The fine for omitting to say mass on a Sunday or major feast
day was twice that for a Friday or lesser feast day.
Chapter 61: Af dufli
61/4 and footnote. The sixth assembly is presumably intended here
as elsewhere. Dicing is forbidden in MEStL, which has a separate
Dobblara balker, and in MLLL VIII 28 (NGL 2, 165), but there is
no equivalent in any of the mainland provincial laws. Wessén
(MEStLNT, 292) assumes, therefore, that the phenomenon was one
encountered in towns rather than in the countryside. For the B-text
version, see Addition 9.
61/5 10. The second half of this chapter forms the closing section
of the B-text (following Chapter 83). Neither there nor in the A-text
is there a separate chapter heading, nor is the section listed in the
table of contents of either text as an independent chapter. It is this
paragraph that seems to suggest that GL, as it has been preserved
in the two Gutnish manuscripts, was either a living statute book or
a justice book, rather than merely a scholarly work.
61/6 10. Wessén compares this passage to the final words of the
preface to VStL: unde queme en niye recht dat in dem boke nicht
were, dat scolde man richten also id recht, unde scriuen dat in
beyde böke  and if there comes a new law, which was not in this
book, then one should judge what the law should be, and write
it in both books . He also makes the not unreasonable assumption
that additions following this paragraph in the A-text have been
made in just the manner described. In the B-text, following
the chapter on gambling and preceding these closing words, there
are chapters covering purchases on credit (absent as a separate
chapter from the A-text) and misuse of woodland (the first half of
Chapter 63 in the A-text). The remainder of the additions in the
A-text have been absorbed (in appropriate places) into the body
of the B-text and the chapter on tracks and paths appears in its
proper place.
61/7 9. Wessén (SL IV, 288 note 2 to Chapter 61a) points out that
legislation would have taken place at the general assembly.
176
THE LAW OF THE GOTLANDERS
Chapter 62: Hitta ier þet sum nylast var takit um loyski
62/1 and footnote. Cf. Chapter 19/104 07, where the fines are half
of those stated here. The content of this chapter appears in Chapter
20 of the B-text (cf. Addition 5).
Chapter 63: Um skoga
The title of this chapter covers only the first provision. The remain-
der of the chapter contains a miscellany of provisions.
63/2 4, 4 6. Cf. provisions in Chapter 26/38 40 and 50 52, and for
related provisions see 7/2 9, 25/26 37 and 26/55 61. The older
provision relating to tearing down a neighbour s fence limits the
fine to two marks, rather than the three stated here. On the implica-
tions of the difference, see Note to 26/50 52.
63/7. A glugga was an opening, not large enough for passage with a
vehicle and possibly no larger than a window, but perhaps large
enough for a person on foot to crawl through.
63/9 11. It seems that a pledge was originally a sale with right to
purchase back within three years (as in the B-text of GL, Addition
9/3 7). This gradually changed to a much shorter period and Chapter
30/2 5 suggests that change: the pledge-holder is instructed to
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