sialvasæt (OSw) siælvasæt (OSw) noun

Literally, ‘self agreement’. This was a system of mutual conciliation, whereby the injured party agreed with the person who had injured him on a compensation sum, as if it were an accidental injury. They did this before witnesses at the assembly. There was in this case no payment to the king, via his administrator as was usual in other cases of injury and it was thus considered to be an important concession, applicable in DL and VmL, that does not appear in UL. In DL it is made clear that the mutual conciliation must be in place before the king’s administrator becomes involved. Once he has raised the case, mutual conciliation cannot be invoked, and any conciliation or agreement (sæt) must involve payment to the crown. In VmL further details of the system are given. The right is counterbalanced by an agreement to supply one ship each year to the levy. The fact that stress is laid on the arrangement in DL and VmL shows that it was an unusual concession. In Jó it is prohibited for cases to be settled between two parties privately, since it denies the fine to the king. Jó Mah 19 has the related adjective sjalfsettr, translated ‘as a matter of course’.

mutual conciliation OSw DL Mb
OSw VmL Mb Refs:

Schlyter 1877, s.v. sjalvasæt; SL DL, 44 note 53; SL VmL, 95−96 notes 93−95