lýrittr (ON) lýrit (ON) lýritr (ON) lýritt (ON) noun

A prohibition or veto. These could be issued in a variety of circumstances during private cases, such as prohibiting a man thought to be deserting dependents from leaving the country (Grg Ómb 132) or forbidding owners of pasture land from grazing when boundaries were not properly established (Grg Lbþ 175). A similar, and probably related, term is used to indicate stone boundary markers (q.v. lýritti). Hoff (2012, 329) suggests that ON lýrittr parallels the concepts of actio auctoritatis or actio finium regundorum in Roman Law. One commonly accepted etymology of lýrittr is lýð (‘people’) and réttr (‘rights’) which yields an interpretation of ‘the law of the people, the law of the land’ as in GuL Løb and Jó Llb 26.

law ONorw GuL Løb
laws of the people OIce Jó Llb 26
veto OIce Grg Klþ 4 Þsþ 25, 37 Bat 113 Lrþ 117 Ómb 128, 132 Feþ 144, 158 Lbþ 174, 183 Misc 250
ONorw FrL Rgb 6
Expressions:

verja lýritti (ON)

to forbid by veto OIce Grg Þsþ 58

Refs:

CV s.v. lyritr; Finsen III:641−43; GrgTr II:400; Hertzberg; Hoff 2012, 329; KLNM s.v. lýrittr; ONP; von See 1964, 57−63; de Vries 2000 s.v. lyréttr