Later, and after the establishment of the kingdom of Harald Fairhair, the commons as well as the odal became the property of the king; and William the Conqueror, after the conquest of England, considered himself to have the same powers as those usurped by Harald Fairhair and other northern kings.
“King Harald became the owner of all odals, and of all the land cultivated and uncultivated in every Fylki, and even of the sea and the rivers and lakes. All bœndr were to be his tenants, both those who cultivated the field and the saltmakers; and all fishermen, hunters and trappers, both on sea and on land, were his men” (Egil’s Saga, c. 4).[[461]]
If a person had been living on a common during the time of three kings, none of whom reigned less than ten years, he had thereby acquired full and legal rights to his land, even though he lacked the formal consent of the king.
“If a steward or messenger of the king charges a man with dwelling on land taken from the common without the king’s leave, and the man answers that the land has been held by him during the lives of three kings, none of whom ruled less than three winters, then if the steward or king’s messenger denies this he shall bring forward witnesses” (Frostath., xiv. 7).
When the king gave land to a man, his successor could take it back, so the gift was only valuable for the lifetime of the king.
The customs which regulated settlements made on the land in Iceland were probably very ancient, but it is impossible to tell whether they were handed down from the time of the first settlers in the North.
Asbjörn, son of Heyangrs-Björn, a hersir (chief)[[462]] in Sogn, died at sea on his journey to Iceland, but Thorgerd, his wife and their sons came to Iceland.
“It was the custom that a woman should not take up more land than a half-grown and well-kept heifer, two winters old, could be led across during the spring-long day from sunrise to sunset; therefore Thorgerd led her heifer from Thoptufell, near Kviá, southwards to Kidjaklett at Jökulsfell” (Landnáma, Pt. iv., c. 10).
“Those who came out later thought the first comers had taken too much land, and on that account King Harald Fairhair established a law that no one should take up more land than he could walk over with fire in one day with his ship-companions. They were to light fires when the sun was in the east, which were to burn until night; then they were to walk until the sun was in the west and make other fires; the smoke was to be seen from the one fire to the other” (Landnáma, v., c. 1).