aþal (OSw) aþal (OGu) adj.

Literally, ‘true, genuine’. A closely related word, originally meaning ‘ancestry’, came in later medieval Swedish to signify ‘the nobility’ (cp. frælse), but aþal in the medieval Nordic laws carried the connotations: ‘true-born’, ‘legitimate’, ‘proper’ and, of land, ‘cultivated’ (as opposed to woodland, marsh, etc.). An aþalkona/-man was thus a wedded wife or husband, as opposed to a concubine or lover; an aþal dotir (OGu GL) was a legitimate daughter, as opposed to one born out of wedlock; a man who was aþal gutnisker was a native-born Gotlander, as opposed to a foreigner. In GL, cultivated land was aþal jorþ and the proximity of this class of land in someone’s ownership was considered to be more valid in determining the ownership of disputed land than woodland or marsh owned by another. More obscurely, aþalköps fastar (OSw UL) were fastar (q.v.) present at an unconditional land purchase (the aþal fæst, ‘confirmation of unconditional purchase’, in ÖgL), as opposed to væþiafastar (q.v.), who were present for the mortgaging or pledging of land. Aþal værknaþer (OSw UL, VmL) was (heavy) work that was done on a working day (as opposed to that permitted on a Sunday). In DL the otherwise unrecorded aþalbogher (q.v.) is interpreted as the percentage (99%) of an inheritance that, in the case of ascendant inheritance, passed to the father or mother who alone survived the deceased, the remaining 1% passing to the maternal or paternal kin respectively. It was the ‘major branch’ of the inheritance. The prefix aþal-/adel- occurs as an alternative to oþal-/oþol- in words related to ancestral land and it also takes the meaning ‘main, principal’ in relation to settlements and roads.

cultivated OGu GL A 25
legitimate OGu GL A 20
proper OSw UL Kkb
OSw VmL Kkb
trueborn OGu GL A 20, 20a
Expressions:

aþal dotir (OGu)

legitimate daughter OGu GL A 20

aþal gutnisker (OGu)

trueborn Gotlander OGu GL A 20, 20a

aþal iorþ (OGu)

cultivated land OGu GL A 25

aþal værknaþer (OSw)

proper labour OSw UL Kkb VmL Kkb

Refs:

Peel 2015, 139 note 20/93; Schlyter 1877, s.v. aþal-