7 - The Theft of Food in Thirteenth-Century Norway and Iceland

Summary

Abstract

This chapter discusses how law codes in thirteenth-century Norway and Iceland developed to treat the theft of food. The chapter demonstrates innovations were taking place in thirteenth-century law to take into account the circumstances of the thief, ensuring the most vulnerable in society did not starve, and that the law code Járnsiða (sent from Norway to Iceland in 1271) was a stepping stone in the creation of the Norwegian Landslǫg (1274). Over time, the law was made more specific, the section on theft was expanded, and a structure was introduced that allowed for ‘grades’ of theft based on the amount stolen and the background of the thief, resulting in a coherent framework of rules regarding both legal process and punishment.

Keywords: Medieval Food; Medieval Law; Theft; Landslǫg; Norway; Iceland

‘La majestueuse égalité des lois’: The Majestic Equality of the Law

La majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain.

In its majestic equality, the law forbids the rich and poor alike from sleeping under bridges, from begging in the streets, and from stealing loaves of bread.

At the end of the nineteenth century, the French author Anatole France in the novel Le Lys rouge (‘The Red Lily’) makes the point in the quotation above that the formal equality of the rich and poor before the law leaves their wildly differing circumstances completely ignored. For this reason, it is just as illegal for starving people to steal a loaf of bread as it is for wealthy people, and as illegal for homeless people to sleep under a bridge as it is for people with stable housing. It is easy to find examples of this disparity in contemporary society. In the UK, for instance, despite Home Office guidance instructing councils not to target people for being homeless and sleeping rough, there are public space protection orders in over 50 local authorities, according to The Guardian newspaper. In terms of access to food, in 2017, when sentencing a man charged with persistent begging, Judge Michael Cullum told the court: ‘I will be sending a man to prison for asking for food when he was hungry.