kanceler (OSw) kanceler (ON) noun

Chancellor; a high-ranking official in the king’s court. Known in Norway from at least the beginning of the thirteenth century until the death of the last named chancellor in 1679. Duties of the kanceler are outlined in Hirðskrá, but they changed over time. Among these were the responsibilities of seglbevarer (‘keeper of the [royal] seal’), overseer of royal dispatches (including letters for landsvist ‘the right to reside in a realm or province’ and keeping copies of outgoing missives), management of royal incomes and registration of royal estates. For a time the kanceler was also head of the royal chapel clerics, though the position gradually lost its ecclesiastical duties after the Reformation. While most members of the chancery were stationary, the kanceler, as bearer of the royal seal, accompanied the king’s ambulatory court. After 1380, when Norway was ruled by foreign monarchs, the chancellor’s duties diminished and consisted mostly of issuing letters of peace (gridsbrev) and pardons (landsvistsbrev). From 1314 the Norwegian chancery operated primarily from Mariakirken in Oslo.

In Denmark the figure of chancellor first appears around the end of the twelfth century; in Sweden not until the end of the thirteenth century.

chancellor OFar Seyð 0
OSw KrL DbI
OSw MEL DbI Refs:

Kongsrud 2011; MSE s.v. chancery; ONP s.v. kanceler