Västgötalagen or the Westrogothic law is the oldest Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

 text written in Latin script and the oldest of all Swedish provincial laws

Swedish provincial laws

The Norse laws were originally memorized by the lawspeakers, but after the end of the Viking Age they were committed to writing. Initially they were geographically limited to minor jurisdictions , and the Bjarkey laws concerned various merchant towns, but later there were laws that applied to...

. It was compiled in the early 13th century and is known to have been the code of law used in the province of Västergötland

Västergötland

', English exonym: West Gothland, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden , situated in the southwest of Sweden. In older English literature one may also encounter the Latinized version Westrogothia....

 (West Gothland) during the latter half of that century. The earliest complete text is dated 1281. Small fragments of an older text have been dated 1250.

This legal code exists in two versions, Äldre Västgötalagen and Yngre Västgötalagen (the Elder and Younger Westrogothic law, respectively). A first printing in modern times was published by Hans Samuel Collin and Carl Johan Schylter in 1827, and a new edition by Gösta Holm in 1976.

A contemporarily current list of Christian Swedish kings, added as an appendix to the oldest manuscript of Äldre Västgötalagen, was written by a priest called Laurentius in Vedum

Vedum

Vedum is a locality situated in Vara Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 968 inhabitants in 2005.The company Vedum Kök och Bad AB, a manufacturer of kitchen and bathroom appliances, is located in Vedum....

 (same province) around 1325, his source being unknown. It begins with Olof Skötkonung and ends with Johan Sverkersson.

See also

• Geats
• Götalagarna
• Stones of Mora
  Stones of Mora
  Stones of Mora was the place where the Swedish kings were elected. The origin of the tradition is unknown.-Mora Meadow:In Lagga parish about 10 km south-east of Uppsala, but in neighbouring Knivsta Municipality, is Mora äng...
  
  

External links

• Collin, H. S. and C. J. Schlyter (eds), Corpus iuris Sueo-Gotorum antiqui: Samling af Sweriges gamla lagar, på Kongl. Maj:ts. nådigste befallning, 13 vols (Stockholm: Haeggström, 1827--77), vol. 1 at http://books.google.com/books?id=aZgyAAAAIAAJ&