Torun Zachrisson, Archeology, Stockholm University

2007-2012

The odal rights is a property right known from the early Middle Ages in Sweden and Norway, it was not dependent on the size of landed property, but was the result of a person's relation to previous generations. It required that the property had been inherited through five generations of the same family, then became the odal in the sixth, as older Gulating law state from the early 1100's in western Norway. Even in the Swedish provincial laws inheritance of landed property, adjacent to the fifth stage, are mentioned. According Frostating Law from central Norway, from the late 1100's, only three generations were required.
Men had priority access to the legacy of odaljord, women inherited chattels and outlying land. The odal right not only concerned the inherited land, it legitimized the free man's rights in society. It gave him a value through the wergild that could be demanded for him.
The question of the odal rights and its connection with the large settlement change that took place during the Iron Age has grown in actuality as the contract archaeological excavations have resulted in an ever increasing number of settlement remains from Late Roman Iron Age and the Migration Period. This has led archaeologists in central Sweden to again call attention to the remarkable pattern. For Östergötland's part the relocation of settlements begins about AD 500 and represents "one of the biggest changes in prehistoric times" (Maria Pettersson 2006:30). More recently, it has been seen in the light of the cosmic catastrophe that occurred in 536-537, which had global impact (see Bo Gräslund 2007). Property rights can then have been redefined with increased opportunities for private ownership of land, says Daniel Löwenborg (2012). Bo Gräslund (2012) argues that the stringent requirements that seem to surround the early medieval odal rights, in fact, can be seen as a metaphor for ancient rights, but in fact lacked significance, but when it came to claim rights to land ownership, which has been deserted during the 530s period of crisis.
My project has aimed at giving answer to: was there an odal right in central Sweden in prehistoric times? If so, when? And what was its background? How does the odal right relate to the midIron Age settlement change? During the project, a further questions have arisen, how and in which social forum the odal right may have been claimed, and the role of the bonded people in Iron Age society.

Main Results

The best way to understand what the odal rights consisted of is to look closely at the rituals that were used when your rights were questioned. Then one should enumerate one's lineage back to the grave mound and paganism, according to Norwegian laws from late 1200 - and early 1300's. The rights were defended by oral memory and with reference to visible graves, where the mound played a special role. In the Eddaic poem Hyndluljód practical guidance on this matter. Ottar is taught to remember his male and female ancestors as well as his ties to the main royal families and to list his five male ancestors, as if he was defending himself according to the Gulating Law. Snorri Sturluson wrote about the Norwegian king Olav Tryggvasson that he was odalborn to the kingdom, in the same text occurs paternal inheritance and langfeðgatall, ie men who follow each other, the son after the father of the same family. It shows the strong correlation between the royal genealogies and the kingdom paternal inheritance.

A group of Viking rune stones are specific concerning inheritance and ownership. In the inscriptions the words odal or langfaedrga, son after father in the same bloodline, are used or all the five male ancestors are listed. This inscriptions were all carved during the 11th century. They are geographically spread across Sweden, from Njudung in Småland in the south, to the Mälar Valley and up to Hälsingland. Another two inscriptions found in Rogaland and Vest-Agder in the south-western Norway. An older inscription from 10th century Södermanland mention langmödrga, daughter following the mother in the same family. Some historians, such as Michael Gelting and Knut Helle, have questioned whether there existed an odal right in prehistoric times. The odal right stems from the Christian community. When the Gulating Law requires that land must have passed down through six generations, this ought to be linked to the marriage restrictions of the canon law, were marriage was first allowed in the seventh stage, Knut Helle argues. But if the odal right was a late "loan" from the Roman Catholic Church, it is difficult to understand why the concept is spread and can be found in various parts of Scandinavia in the early 1000's.

The runestone from Eneby in Runtuna, Södermanland, shows that in the early 11th century there was odal land, as well as what was called old odal land. The Eneby runestone and Nora-rock in Uppland suggests that the words and concepts used to express odal rights had counterparts in the provincial laws from Sweden. This suggests that the runestone sponsors may have strengthened their property assertion by the type of mnemonic tools used in the oral precursors of the written laws. The odal rights property enforcement in five stages are cumbersome. But it is logical according to the characteristic of oral cultures. Oral tradition is characterized by being backward-looking, bound by tradition and repetitive. The codified laws rooted in the elderly Scandinavian oral society has been pointed out by Stefan Brink (2005). The odal right's emphasis on free men has its counterpart in the structure of assemblies that are established on the continent at the period 500-1000, where all free men would meet annually. The Swedish provincial laws has an emphasis on free, sedentary men (Christine Ekholst 2011). There are reasons to assume that property rights has been claimed and defended on the thing-meetings for the free men, on the assemblies of the hundreds as well as on the superior assemblies.

The concept odal has an older history. Old Norse odal can be understood as inherited landed property, family land, allodial property. Linguistically odal is related to adel, ädel. Etymologically, it is of uncertain origin, but may suggest an identification between the inherited land and the deceased relatives that it originated from. Odal is the name of the last rune in the elder futhark, probably from the 2nd century AD. But that rune names are assumed to date back to the time of the creation of the runic alphabet. However, they are not preserved from this time, but from the 700's on the continent and 800s in Scandinavia. But the fact that the word odal occur in various Germanic languages, such as protogermanic, Old High German, Old Saxon, Old Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse and Gothic speaks for its great age. What odal more accurately accounted for more than inherited land can not be specified for this oldest time.

The odal rights should at least go back to about 550 in midSweden, the period shortly after climatic disaster. In the Early Iron Age graves were constructed for men, women and children in equal parts as was tradition. In Late Iron Age visible graves were constructed for many men, some women and practically no children. Not everyone got a funeral worthy a visible grave, probably only those who were important in relation to the inheritance of the farm. Arched, stereotypical burial mounds dominate the cemeteries from the time about 550 onwards. These cemeteries get such a strong impact in the landscape, which should mean that there are common denominators. Large assemblies that gathered many participants have conveyed the right sort of grave. In central Sweden the period from 550 sees the beginning of an era the erection of large grave mounds. It goes hand in hand with the establishment of the royal seat and manorial domain in Old Uppsala, revealed by extensive archaeological investigations.

In the 300's, the "long" cemeteries in central Sweden were established, that continued to be in use to Christian times. In these burial grounds this phenomenon over-lying graves are common, the re-use of older graves (cf. Ann-Mari Hållans Stenholm 2006)? Presumably settlements that utilized this type of burial ground had a stable position in the landscape as well as a social one since that time. That these cemeteries expresses a property right in many generations is reasonable, if this property right was called odal is an open question.

In the runic inscriptions from the 11th century, that were erected in the farm landscape, men are given preference, as Birgit Sawyer has shown, both sponsors and as the subjects of the inscriptions. When the runestones instead were placed in the early church yards women became visible in the inscriptions in an unexpected way. This suggests that as long the rune stones were erected within the farm domain, the property rights governed who were to be remembered in the inscriptions in much the same way as who was to be buried in the visible graves.

The Late Iron Age society in midSweden viewed through the property rights-spectacles is a world with focus on free men. The women and female contexts that nonetheless are made visible in this male world would be interesting to highlight in renewed research. Moreover, assemblies have turned out to be of great interest in the creation of a common material culture over large areas.

The Background for the odal rights, is my most important single article, addressing historians and legal historians. But the project's overall results will be published in the monograph Property & honor, which is under preparation. The monograph provides a broad survey of the Late Iron Age society in central Sweden with a focus on property rights. There will also be a chapter discusses the thralls, who represents the other side of a society with a strong focus on free people.

Presentations at national and international conferences and seminars

Odalrättens ålder och ursprung, at the research seminar in Archaeology, University of Stockholm, December 2012

Property and honor - Settlement change in Midsweden 400-600 AD
or The Background for the Odal Rights, the IXth Ruralia conference Hierarchies in Rural Settlements in Vorarlberg, Austria, September 2011

Ofria - sätt att arkeologiskt identifiera trälar at XI Nordic TAG Mångvetenskapens arkeologiskap, Kalmar April 2011

The Background for the Odal Rights - an Archaeological discussion. The International conference on Law and Archaeology in the Early and High Middle Ages, AD 400-1200, Carlsberg Academy, Copenhagen, in December 2010

Property & honor - Social Change in Middle Sweden 200-700 AD, in the 61st internationale Sachsensymposion, The Development of Leadership and Elites in the First Millennium AD Haderslev, in September 2010

Trälar finns, men syns de? Att identifiera trälar arkeologiskt vid symposiet Ofria under järnålder och medeltid at the Early Medieval North European Seminar, University of Uppsala in November 2009

Land and Lordship, continuity and change, the Conference Settlement and Lordship in Viking and Early Medieval Scandinavia, Aarhus February 2008

Publications

Zachrisson, T. 2011a. Property & honour - social change in Middle Sweden 400-700 AD. The Development of Leadership and Elites in the First Millenium AD. The  61st International Sachsensymposion 2010 in Haderslev:141-156. Arkæologi i Slesvig / Archäologie in Schleswig.

Zachrisson, T. 2011b. Fjärran ting - exotiska föremål och nya seder i Mellansverige ca 550-700 e.Kr. Förmodern globalitet. Essäer om rörelse, möten och fjärran ting under 10.000 år:109-129. Red. A. Andrén. Lund.

Zachrisson, T. 2011 manus. In print 2013. The Background for the Odal Rights - an Archaeological discussion. Law and Archaeology in the Early and High Middle Ages, AD 400-1200. Red. M. K. Holst, L. Jørgensen & H. Voght. Scientia Danica. Series H, Humanistica, 4. Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. Copenhagen. 18 s.

Zachrisson, T. Manus. Egendom & ära - bebyggelseförändring i Mellansverige 200-1000.
    Monografi under utarbetning.