(Gulathing law 62.) If a leysing wishes to have control of his bargains and his marriage, he shall make his freedom ale out of at least 3 sievefuls of malt and invite his master to it, in the hearing of witnesses, and not invite his master’s foes, and seat him in the high seat, and lay 6 aurar in the scales the first evening [of the banquet], and offer him the ‘leysing’s fee.’ If he takes it, that is well. If he remits the sum, it is as if it had been paid.
Ef þræll kemr á iörð eða býr, þá scal hann gera frelsis öl sitt, hverr maðr níu mæla öl, oc scera á veðr. Ætborinn maðr scal höfuð afscera, en scapdróttinn hans scal taca hálslausn af hálse honum. Nú vill scapdróttinn hans leyfa honum at gera frelsis öl sitt, þá scal hann beiða hann með vátta .ii. at hann megi gera frelsis öl sitt, oc bióða honum með .v. (fimta) mann til öldrs þess er hann gerir frelsis öl sitt […] þá scal hann þó gera, oc láta öndvegi hans oc cono hans kyrt liggia.
(Frostathing law IX. 12.) If a thrall takes up land or sets up house, he shall make his freedom ale, every man of 9 mælar [= 1½ sievefuls of malt], and kill a wether. A freeborn man shall cut off its head, and his master shall take the ‘neck-release’ off his neck. If his master will allow him to make his freedom ale, he shall ask his leave to make it, in the hearing of two witnesses, and invite him and four with him to his freedom ale. [If they do not come] yet he shall make the ale and let the high seat for his master and his master’s wife stand empty.
A master might dispense with this formality. He might take his thrall to church, or ‘seat him on the kist,’ and if then he proceeded formally to ‘free him from all debts and dues’ the leysing need not ‘make his freedom ale.’ (G. 61.)
Social status of the leysing.
Now let us see what change in social position and rights the ceremony of ‘making freedom ale’ or its substitute produced.
The leysing was still unfree in the sense that he could not leave his master. The following is from the Gulathing law (67).
Nú ferr leysingi ór fylki firi útan ráð dróttins síns, oc aflar sér þar fiár æða kaupa, þá scal scapdróttenn fara efter með vátta. Ef hann vill aftr fara, þá er vel. En ef hann vill eigi aptr fara, þá leiði hann vitni á hönd hánom at hann er leysingi hanns, oc fœri hann aptr hvárt sem hann vill lausan æða bundinn, oc setia hann í sess hinn sama, þar sem hann var fyrr.
Now a leysing leaves the district without the advice [or will] of his master, and earns property or concludes bargains; then his master shall go after him with witnesses. If he is willing to come back, that is well. If he is not willing, he [the master] shall call witnesses that he is his leysing, and bring him back, fettered or unfettered, as he likes, and set him in the same seat that he had formerly.