“I (Harald Fairhair) have thought of a match for thee; it was in my mind when thou didst endanger thy life for mine. Vigdis, the daughter of Thorir jarl the Silent, is a most handsome woman, and has much property; I will marry her to thee. Ingimund thanked him and consented” (Vatnsdæla Saga, c. 12).
In order that marriage should be regarded as perfectly lawful, the woman had to be “mundi keypt”; that is, bought with mund[[5]] acquired by a legal agreement between the man on one side, and the parents or guardians of the intended bride on the other, in regard to the dower or property agreed on both sides as belonging to the bride.
“The sons of Hildirid went to Thórólf and presented their claim to the property of their father Björgólf. Thórólf answered: ‘I know of Brynjolf, and still better of Bárd, that they were men of such generosity that they would have given you of the inheritance of Björgólf as much as they knew you had a right to. I was present when you pressed this same claim against Bárd, and I heard that he thought there were no proofs for it, for he called you sons of a concubine.’ Harek said they would get witnesses that their mother was bought with mund. ‘But it is true that we did not first present this claim to our brother Brynjolf. There was also to be a division between kinsmen, and from Bárd we expected honourable treatment in every respect, but our dealings with him were not long. Now this inheritance has come into the hands of unrelated men, and we cannot be altogether silent with regard to our loss. It may be that there yet is as before such difference in power that we may not get our rights from thee, if thou wilt hear none of the witnesses, whom we can bring forth that we are odal-born men.’ Thórólf answered harshly: ‘I count you the less legitimate as I am told your mother was taken away by force and brought home as a captive’” (Egil’s Saga, c. 9).
Mund was originally the name for all the conditions in regard to the property of both, especially that of the wife. This agreement was the most important thing at the festar[[6]] (betrothal, fastening). Children born without the payment of it were not inheritance-born—in a word, were considered illegitimate.
If the wife was poor and entirely without property the husband had to give a mund of twelve aurar, in order that the marriage should be regarded as fully legal.
“Next we must know how we shall buy women with mund, so that the child is inheritance-born. The man shall give that woman a poor man’s mund, amounting to 12 aurar, and have witnesses (at the ceremony). He shall have bridesmen, and she bridesmaids, and he shall give her a gift in the morning when they have been together one night, as large as the one at the betrothal. Then the child born thereafter is inheritance-born” (Gulath., 5).
“All men are not inheritance-born though they are free-born. The man whose mother is not bought with mund, with a mark, or still more property, or not wedded, or not betrothed, is not inheritance-born. A woman is bought with mund when a mark consisting of aurar, of the value of 12 feet of vadmal,[[7]] or more property, is paid or stipulated by hand-shaking. A wedding is lawfully made if the lawful man betroths the woman, and six men at least are present” (Gragas, i. 75).[[8]]
If a man married a girl without the consent of her parents or guardians, or made a runaway match, the husband was outlawed.
“Björn, the son of a hersir at Aurland in Sogn, was a great seafaring man; sometimes he was on Viking expeditions, sometimes on trade-journeys. One summer he was in Firdafylki at a feast where there were many people. There he saw a handsome maiden whom he liked much. He asked of what family she was. He was told that she was the sister of Thórir hersir, son of Hróald, and was named Thora Hladhönd (lace-hand). Björn asked her in marriage, but Thorir refused her to him, and so they parted; but the same autumn Björn got men and went with a full-manned skuta[[9]] north to Firdafylki, and arrived at Thórir’s when he was not at home. He took Thora away, and carried her home with him to Aurland.
“In the autumn ships arrived at Iceland from Norway, bringing the report that Björn had run away with Thora, without the consent of her kinsmen, and that the king had for that reason outlawed him from Norway” (Egil’s Saga, c. 32, 34).