hogsl (OGu) noun

This word occurs chiefly in the phrase hogsl ok iþ, translated ‘consolation and provision’. In GL it states that this was what a widow was entitled to from her husband’s estate. The amount involved is not stated. It is clear that the two elements of the expression do not refer to the same thing, since the word hogsl alone is used to designate the amount of compensation that an unmarried mother had a right to receive from the father of her child. The meaning of hogsl put forward by Schlyter and Pipping covers both situations. The word iþ, which does not occur independently in the East Norse laws, means ‘work, occupation, diligence’ and seems to have had a transferred meaning to the payment and reward for the effort that a wife put into the upkeep of the family and property during her marriage. Wessén suggests that hogsl ok iþ together were the equivalent of the morghongæf (q.v.) that the husband gave the bride elsewhere in the provincial laws, since there is no mention of this in GL and the widow retained this even if she married again. A certain amount was also granted to her from the estate for each year after being widowed that she was unmarried and in charge of her family, quite separately from the hogsl ok iþ.

consolation OGu GL A 20, 20a Refs:

Holmbäck 1919, 221−22; KLNM, s.v.v. enke, lejermål, morgongåva; Peel 2015, 137−38 notes 20/54−56 to 20/66−70, 143 notes to 20a/24−31, 20a/27−28; Pipping 1905−07, cxii; Schlyter 1877, s.v.v. hogsl, iþ; SL GL, 268 notes 31 and 32 to chapter 20, 270 note 63 and 271 notes 67 and 71 to chapter 20a