Gray Goose Laws

According to Ari Thorgilsson, the earliest Icelandic laws were modeled on those from the Norwegian west-coast law-province, Gulathing.

The ornate detail and appearance of the volumes suggests that they were created for a wealthy, literate man, though scholars cannot be certain.

In 1117, the Alþingi decided that all the laws should be written down and this was accomplished at Hafliði Másson’s farm over that winter and published the following year.

There is scholarly disagreement, however, about how representative the Grágás are regarding the legal tradition that existed during Viking age Iceland.

Arguably, the codification of oral law in the Grágás better represents Icelandic legal tradition post-Christianity, thus after the year 1000.