bol (OSw) bol (ODan) bol (OGu) ból (ON) noun

Literally ‘dwelling’ and by extension referring to a farm including its farmland. In Danish laws bol refers to a certain part of the village land and the rights and obligations that followed, but may also be used as a land assessment unit. A specifically judicial use of bol in Norwegian laws was as a farming unit of a certain size, which was originally the basis for calculating the lease and later the taxation, and usually specified as to the unit measure, i.e. marker (see mark(2)) or mánaðarmatr (q.v.). There are several, sometimes conflicting, ideas of the nature of the bol in the Swedish laws. In Scandinavian texts in Latin bol is rendered by mansus, but the possible links between the uses of bol in Scandinavia and of the mansus in post-Roman Europe have not been explored.


cultivated land ONorw GuL Arb
OSw DL Bb

dwelling house OSw HL Rb
farm OGu GL A 3, 13, 28
OIce Grg Lbþ 206 Fjl 225
OSw ÄVgL Kkb, Jb
OSw DL Bb
OSw KrL Jb
OSw MEL Jb
OSw ÖgL Rb Bb
OSw UL Kkb, Jb, Rb
OSw VmL Kkb, Jb, Bb, Rb
OSw YVgL Kkb, Jb

farmland OGu GL A 47
farmstead ODan SkL 238
OIce Llb 14
OSw ÄVgL Äb
OSw ÖgL Jb Bb
OSw YVgL Äb, Jb, Föb, Add

homestead OSw KrL Jb Bb
OSw MEL Jb Bb
OSw SdmL Kkb

land OSw ÄVgL Jb
leasehold farm OSw MEL Jb
village unit ODan ESjL 2
ODan JyL 1, 3
ODan SkL 73, 74
ODan VSjL 78

Expressions:

gift bol (OSw)

gift farm OSw ÖgL Bb

sa bool aff sæthom (OSw)

Used of householders who own farms in several villages.

sowing land that is separated from the cultivator’s residence OSw YVgL Kkb

Refs:

Andersson 2014, 24; Christensen 1983; Ericsson 2012, 22, 24, 28, 270; Hoff 1997, 197; KLNM s.v. bol; ONP s.v. ból; Porsmose 1988, 234−36; Rahmqvist 1996, 29; Schlyter 1877, s.v. bol; Tamm & Vogt 2016, 25; Venge 2002, 8, 173, 283; Åström 1897, 193−98

Citation
  • ‘bol’. A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law.

  • http://www.dhi.ac.uk/lmnl/nordicheadword/displayPage/606
    (03/29/2024)