vatubanda (OGu) noun

The vatubanda was a provisional ‘legally witnessed or testified safety circle’, later replaced by a more permanent one drawn up during the general period of peace following Easter. Of the medieval Nordic provincial laws, this word occurs only in GL. Kock suggests a relationship with Norwegian våtta, ‘take notice of; suffice’, giving vatubanda as ‘a circle of safety that one took notice of’, or which ‘sufficed for the time being’. Wessén thinks that a more likely root is a Gutnish vatta or vata f. with a meaning related to Old Swedish vat, vatt f., ‘the twelve men collectively swearing an oath; the oath itself’ or vatter, vætti m., ‘one of the twelve witness; the witness statement itself’. This may be compared to the expressions vattum minum and vattum sinum in ÄVgL (Md 1 and 3, Gb 7) and YVgL (Kkb 3 and Tb 1). The concept would thus be one of a ‘witnessed safety circle’. Comparison may be made with provisions related to the Icelandic fjörbaugsgarðr, ‘lesser outlawry’.

KLNM s.v. drab; Kock 1918, 364−68; SL GL, 256−57 note 9; Peel 2015, 111−13 notes 13/7−13/23−24; Schlyter 1877, s.v. vatubanda