Actually, there are quite a few documents from the years of 1438 to 1452 which mention Hallvard Gråtopp. Those which are known are printed in Diplomatarium Norvegicum referred to as DN and I shall here give short summaries of them.
Oslo, 9 August 1438 - Eirik Niklisson "encouraged and followed the King's Enemy and traitor, Hallvard Gråtopp", but then promises Lord Svarte Jøns and Squire Olav Bukk who shared the Castellany at the Akershus fortress that he never more will go against the King or his representatives at Akershus - DN III 535.
Oslo, 10 August 1438 - Sebjørn Niklisson joined the common people in Aker and Bærum when they refused to pay taxes to Akershus. Later he was "in the band of rebels and followed my Lord King's enemy and traitor Hallvard Gråtopp" when he tried "to damage and destroy Oslo and those who lived there". Sebjørn promised that he would not participate in such action again and received mercy from Lord Svarte Jøns - DN III 536.
Brunla, 25 February 1439 - Hustru Sigrid Niklisdaughter at Brunla declares that she is satisfied with the letter she has recently received from the bønder in the Gjerpen Skipreide. She will let the King and the Council of the Realm pass judgment on them regarding the attack on Brunla which occurred the previous year. On the back of the letter the following is written by a contemporaneous hand - "Hustru Sigrid's letter to the people of Telemark about the plundering they did on Brunla" - DN III 539. She thanks the common people for the letter they sent with Mattis Torgeirsson and says that she is satisfied with it. As witnesses she has requested that the good men, Torleiv Solvesson and Pål Reniksson, affix their seals to the letter together with hers.
Oslo, 3 March 1439 - Bishop Jens in Oslo sends a letter to all the priests in the Gjerpen Deanery "both in the Tithing Territory and in Telemark" and requests that they persuade the common people to enter into an agreement with Olav Bukk, otherwise they will be excommunicated - DN III 540.
Gjerpen, 23 March 1439 - This is a central document about the revolt of Hallvard Gråtopp. Hjarrand Toraldsson, Dean at Gjerpen and Canon of the Cathedral in Oslo, sends a long letter to all "who live in Telemark, as far as the Oslo Diocese extends". He also says that it was here the conflict began.
Henneseid discusses this document in his book and writes "The sources clearly report that the 1438 revolt began in Telemark and that certainly means those western districts: Tørdal, Nissedal, Fyresdal, Kviteseid" - page 61. In response it must be said that before the Reformation the Oslo Diocese never extended as far as to Nissedal, Fyresdal and Kviteseid. These districts belonged to the Hamar Diocese. We shall discuss this matter later and also examine, among other things, this whole document - DN III 541.
Oslo, 17 April 1439 - Torgjuls from Lahell in Lier sells one markebol of Vestre Åros in Røyken to Herlaug Mattisson for 60 mark. Herlaug is to give the money to the Highborn Olav Bukk as an injury-fine for "the riot, the solidarity and the letter to which Torgjuls affixed his seal together with Hallvard Gråtopp" - DN V 487.
Oslo, 27 April 1439 - Olav Bukk, Castellan at Akershus, writes to the bønder in the Skien District about the revolt of Amund Sigurdsson "and his followers and thereafter Hallvard Gråtopp and his followers" and invites them to a meeting in Oslo at midsummer - DN III 543.
Myrer in Røyken, 30 April 1439 - Herlaug Mattisson gives Torgjuls of Lahell in Lier a letter to which the Highborn Olav Bukk has affixed his seal and who has received 60 mark from Torgjuls for "the riot, the solidarity and the letter to which he has affixed his seal together with Hallvard Gråtopp". Olav Bukk gave Torgjuls a receipt on behalf of the King - DN II 554. This is the last time we hear of Olav Bukk.
Oslo, 16 December 1439 - Gudmund Helgesson from Holt in Ullensaker says that, because he had participated in the revolts first with Amund Sigurdsson and later with Hallvard Gråtopp, he voluntarily gives to Drottsete Sigurd Jonsson the estate called Kauserud in Ullensaker and 20 mark in money plus 3 pounds of malt at wintertime, 3 pounds within a year and 5 cattle in the fall - DN IX 258.
Skien, 1443 - Lagmann Gaute Eiriksson in Skien gives a receipt to Hallvard Ketilsson in Hjartdal who attacked Jusse Jakobsson, his Hustru and children on Brunla and in the Tanum church in 1438 - Lorens Berg: Brunlanes II, page 25 and DN XXI 321.
Mæla, 30 March 1444 - Orm Sigurdsson from Øverland in Kviteseid agrees on behalf of himself and his father-in-law with Herlaug Pedersson, Administrator in the Skien District, about a fine of 4 merk gold for the plundering and the disturbance they did to Herlaug. Orm would, in addition, give the Administrator a feather quilt and 5 lengths of cloth - DN V 522.
Brunla, 28 October 1448 - Sigrid Niklisdaughter acknowledges on behalf of herself and her son-in-law Hartvig Krummedike that she has received an agreement-fine from Torleiv Solvesson and Solve Torleivsson for the injury "which happened to us at Brunla" - DN III 577.
Skien, 17, April 1452 - Håkon Pedersson, Bailiff for Hartvig Krummedike in the Skien District, makes it known that Gunnar of Grave in Seljord has compensated for "the plundering and injury he did at Brunla and other places while in Gråtopp's following" - DN V 560.
In addition to these, there are documents which may be considered in connection with the conflict in the summer of 1438 but in which Hallvard Gråtopp is not named:
Oslo, 28 May 1438 - This is testimony from town officials and citizens of Oslo about what happened when Amund Sigurdsson, according to the agreement with Svarte Jøns, said he was willing to hand over the Bishop's residence in Oslo but later broke the agreement. The testimony was given according to the demand from Erland Eindridsson - DN XXI 282.
Oslo, 1 August 1438 - Olav Bukk, Castellan at Akershus, together with Dean Anders Mus at the Maria Church, Lagmann Simon Bjørnsson in Oslo, Squires Herlaug Pedersson and Sakse Petersson, five town officials among them Herlaug Mattisson and twelve citizens in Oslo give testimony about Svarte Jøns, Castellan at Akershus. He had asked them to examine the testimony from Harald the Goldsmith in a letter he had written against Svarte Jøns and his treatment of Amund Sigurdsson two years earlier - DN XXI 284.
Oslo, 6 November 1438 - Sigurd Jonsson and others witness how words were exchanged between Harald the Goldsmith and Olav Bukk when Olav accused Harald of counterfeiting his gold chain - DN VIII 331.
Oslo, 4 March 1440 - Lagmann Håkon Hoskollsson awards Herlaug Mattisson one markebol of Åros in Røyken because he has a letter of purchase which is one day older that the one Harald Gardsson received from Torgjuls from Lahell - DN V 498.
These summaries of the documents together with source references and explanations at the back
of this booklet are the bases for the portrayal of Hallvard Gråtopp from the Lindheim Skipreide
and of the dramatic events of the 1430s.
2. The Events of the Summer of 1438
From the documents mentioned above one can obtain an outline of the dramatic events of the
summer of 1438. We must remember that we only have the documents from the victors
available for our consideration. According to them, the following is what happened.
The Leaders
In the early summer, probably in June, Hallvard Gråtopp raised a rebellious band of men in the Upper Skipreide of Grenland, that is, the Lindheim Skipreide. He received the full support of the common people in the three other Skipreida in Grenland, that is, in Lower Telemark. Only the people in these four Skipreida were given collective fines whether they remained at home "or participated in the Gråtopp venture". Later we will examine these issues more closely.
People from other parts of Telemark also participated in the revolt. The leaders in those individual districts were fined when the tyrant rulers were able to track them down and then they reached an agreement as it says in the documents. This took several years and it is uncertain how many were apprehended. There may have been more included than we know about from the documents which still exist. The men from Telemark who, according to these documents, were fined were Orm Sigurdsson from Øverland in Kviteseid and his father-in-law Grim, Gunnar from Grave in Seljord and Hallvard Ketilsson in Hjartdal. From Telemark, that is, Upper Telemark, only these are mentioned.
The leaders were therefore primarily people from the four Skipreida in Lower Telemark. It was
thus the people from the four nearest districts in Upper Telemark who joined them subsequently.
The Attack on the Bailiff's Residence which was Called Mæla and was near Skien
Hallvard's band of men first came to the residence of the Danish Bailiff Herlaug Pedersson of Mæla "plundering" and "rioting" as he himself called it in 1444. Herlaug was one of those foreign bailiffs who remained after the revolt of Amund Sigurdsson in 1436 and the agreement the following year. Nowhere is it said that he was well liked by the common people and was therefore allowed to remain as was the bailiff at Lier for example. Since his estate was the first the rebels attacked in 1438, Herlaug was probably disliked.
By the summer of 1438, Herlaug Pedersson had been Bailiff there for many years. He is
mentioned on Mæla as early as 1410, but around 1438 it appears that he lived in Oslo. Later he
came back and was the Bailiff until about 1458 when he died. Herlaug was such a central figure
in the events of 1438 and in the settlement afterwards that we must return to him later in a
separate chapter.
The Attack on the Manor Called Brunla
From Mæla the band of rebels went to the noble residential estate of Brunla in Brunlanes. It was the home of Hustru Sigrid Niklisdaughter Galle and her son Olav Bukk. According to the letter from Bishop Jens in Oslo, this is what happened: Hallvard Gråtopp and his men plundered and took "property" from Olav Bukk, his mother and his sister, as well as from their churches and estates. We do not know any more about this. Sigrid Galle herself did not write anything concrete about the events on Brunla. She says, "God knows what happened to me but I contend that in no way have I offended those people who have done evil toward me."
But was it really primarily Sigrid Galle that the rebels were after? It appears that the Bailiff Jusse Jakobsson, also a Dane, lived at Brunla in 1438. He and his household escaped to the Tanum Church near Brunla but some of the rebels followed him. This breach of Church Peace later became one of the most serious grievances against Hallvard Gråtopp and his men.
It may appear that the Danish Bailiff Jusse Jakobsson was the actual target for the action against Brunla. At any rate, he received an injury-fine from Hallvard Ketilsson of Hjartdal. He had to pay it for the assault "on Jusse Jakobsson, his hustru and children on Brunla and in the Tanum Church". In the tumult damage had also been done to "the property" of the mother of Olav Bukk.
Olav Bukk did not live there at that time. In June of 1438 when the rebels came to Brunla, he
was the King's man at Marstrand. His father Markvard Bukk had died a few years earlier and
Jusse Jakobsson had become the Bailiff after Markvard Bukk and it is likely that he had lodging
or at least was at Brunla a great deal of the time.
Many Participated
In Brunlanes more people joined Hallvard Gråtopp. Among them are two who are known, Torleiv Solvesson of Linnum and his son Solve. Other than Olav Bukk and his mother, there was also one other family on Brunla which represented the foreign ruling class, the Dane Jusse Jakobsson. These people demanded and received recompense for the injury which Hallvard's band had caused.
Among the men who are known of those who followed Hallvard, one of the foremost was Torgjuls of Lahell in Lier. Lahell is an old landed estate, adjacent to Gullaug, an estate known as the residence of the noble clan of Tordenstjerne. Torgjuls affixed his seal to the letter together with Hallvard Gråtopp. This is the only time that a letter from Hallvard is mentioned. None of what the rebels wrote is known. Torgjuls was forced to sell land on Åros in Røyden in 1439 to obtain money for the fine.
In Bærum and Aker the bønder closed ranks around Hallvard in strong numbers and marched
with him toward Akershus. It must have been a rather large army which progressed toward Oslo
and Akershus. He also gained adherents among the people from Romerike under the leadership
of Nobleman Gudmund Helgesson of Holt in Ullensaker.
The Attack on the Manor called Sudreim
Gudmund Helgesson led this attack but we do not know more about it except that he had to pay a large fine for his boldness. Gudmund acknowledged that the attack was a link in the revolt of Hallvard Gråtopp. In the document about the fine, no loss of life is mentioned. Sigurd Jonsson who later became Drottsete must, however, have looked with great seriousness on the events at his home. Gudmund was given the largest fine of all. We must also add that Gudmund simultaneously paid a fine for having participated in two revolts, first in 1436 and then again two years later. This is not said about anyone else who was given a fine.
According to the document which Gudmund himself wrote, it is clearly stated that Hallvard
Gråtopp was the leader of the revolt, including the part of it which occurred east of Oslo. In
other words, it was a united and planned revolt in 1438. Perhaps the plan was that Gudmund
would go to Oslo from the east and Hallvard from the west?
Toward Akershus and Oslo
On August 1, 1438, the bønder were no longer in front of Akershus nor did they threaten Oslo. At that time the letter from Olav Bukk and the leaders in the city was composed. This letter concerned the attack by Amund Bolt two years earlier. Hallvard Gråtopp and his men are not mentioned. This indicates that his attack must have been completely without success or simply that nothing came of it. From the citizens and others in Oslo and Aker, as far as we know, came no demands for fines for injury and violence.
At only three places, it seems, did the men with Hallvard Gråtopp make any serious attacks. These were against Herlaug Pedersson of Mæla, against the noble residential manor Brunla where Olav Bukk was not at his home and against Sigurd Jonsson on the noble estate Sørum in Romerike. None of these attacks were of a very serious kind. Killing is generally not mentioned in the documents from the secular authorities. "Beat and seized the estimable men" is the strongest expression used.
The bønder must have had few weapons; they were not trained soldiers. The professional military men of Svarte Jøns and Olav Bukk must have engendered fear. Hallvard must have understood that he could achieve more through negotiations. In battle he and his men could accomplish little. He had to expect that soon many would want to go home because of the haymaking season.
It does not seem as if Hallvard Gråtopp negotiated with Olav Bukk before he left Akershus but perhaps negotiations occurred with people in the Gjerpen Skipreide later. Olav Bukk may have consented to discuss the demands. The letter which he sent to the bønder in the Skien District in April of the following year can be interpreted in this way. He probably promised the rebels that he would call a national meeting in the summer of 1439. In the letter of 27 April 1439, he extended an invitation to such a meeting in Oslo and says, among other things,
Olav Bukk accordingly asked all, learned and lay, poor and rich, women and men to write down complaints attested to by witnesses and to come to Oslo with them "around St. John's Day". Then these complaints will be investigated by the Archbishop, Bishop Audun of Stavanger, Bishop Olav of Bergen, Lord Eindrid, Olav Håkonsson, lagmenn and several members of the National Council. Finally Olav Bukk says:
The Return Expedition
From this it is clear that the band of rebels who came from the west in 1438 did not reach Oslo and at Akershus was able to accomplish little. Olav Bukk says in the letter dated 27 April 1439 that he does not know who this Hallvard Gråtopp was therefore it is not likely that they had met for negotiations. More likely Olav Bukk and Svarte Jøns sent out their professional military men and chased the poorly equipped band of rebels into flight.
In the 1400s, the weapons which the bønder had were spears and swords and also battleaxes. Those were the kinds of weapons which the army of Hallvard brought on their way toward Oslo and Akershus in 1438. They did not have that modern weapon, the crossbow, as did the professional military men. This made the bønder disadvantaged and that was decisive. Later we shall see that the rebels in Sweden, the men from Dalarna, had such weapons and so that situation was very different from the one which Hallvard Gråtopp and his men faced.
From the documents' report we notice particularly that those which are from secular sources do not mention the fallen or killed. This must be interpreted to mean that Hallvard Gråtopp and his men did not kill anyone but there were strong complaints about robbery and plundering and harsh conduct. It was because of this that there were demands for punishing fines.
The documents from the clergymen, on the other hand, mention that the revolt of Hallvard Gråtopp was "deadly for many". This indicates strongly that some of the rebels had fallen but members of the opposition had not. Since it does not appear that the rebels encountered opposition on the way toward Akershus and Oslo, it must either have been outside Akershus or on the way back that some fell. There is much which indicates that the professional military men not only chased the rebels into flight but also killed many.
It may be that Svarte Jøns and Olav Bukk had chased after the rebels a good distance of the way back and had attacked them. Perhaps they were chased as far as to the Gjerpen Skipreide where the three Lower Skipreida may have negotiated a peace while the Upper Skipreide did not give up as easily. The documents from February to April of 1439 may indicate something like that.
There may have been several reasons why the common people in the Upper Skipreide did not give up in the fall of 1438 because, according to the documents, it is clear that they did not. Olav Bukk's soldiers may have halted because it was too late in the autumn and thus the people in the Upper Skipreide had time to wait and see. A particular reason for the fact that the people there did not give up may also have been that the leader of the revolt stayed in the Upper Skipreide in the autumn and over the winter and that the common people there stood fast together with him against the conditions which Olav Bukk set.
3. The Men Mentioned by Name in Hallvard's Following
We know the names of five of those from Telemark who supported Hallvard Gråtopp. The four from Upper Telemark were Orm Sigurdsson and his father-in-law on Øverland in Kviteseid, Gunnar on Grave in Seljord and Hallvard Ketilsson from Hjartdal who does not have an estate connected to his name. (The fifth was Mattis Torgeirsson from Gjerpen in Lower Telemark.)
Gunnar on Grave must have been the same person as Gunnar Sveinkesson. In May of 1450 he bought - DN XI 168 - 3 ½ markebol of Meås in Seljord from Audun Gunnarsson. Gunnar gave full payment and also a spear as an additional gift. Gunnar was the last person we know who paid a fine for having participated in the revolt together with Hallvard Gråtopp. The letter about his having paid his fines is dated at Mæla on April 17, 1452. Later during the same year Gunnar was "vforsynio", that is, involuntarily killed by a man named Tov Ormsson.
The letter about the killing-fines which Tov had to pay was written on 28 September 1452 - DN I 599. The fines were determined by six jurors and six other honorable men in the amount of 24 mark gold, a heavy fine, so it is clear that Gunnar of Grave was an esteemed man whom it cost to kill. In order to provide the money, Tov had to sell 6 markebol of Rauberg in Seljord which was his patrimony and a similarly valued part of Gjuve in Seljord which his sister Margreta Ormsdaughter and her husband Niklis Ketilsson provided for Tov's use.
The case was once more brought up on Grave to a double, that is, twelve-man court of appeals and six honorable men exactly one year later - DN XI 173. The fines remained the same. The estates involved should be appraised at the best time of the year and that which was lacking in the fines should be paid in two installments a year with ½ mark gold in each. None of the fines leveled after the Gråtopp-struggle was as high as this. See below.
It appears that Gunnar had a son named Sveinke and that he was the father of Bjørgulv Sveinkesson. His son was Sondre Bjørgulvsson Grave and about him and that rich and mighty family on Grave there are many legends -- see, among other places, Landstad: Family Histories and Traditions from Telemark, Oslo 1924. Gunnar of Grave was thus not just anybody.
Orm Sigurdsson on Øverland in Kviteseid and his father-in-law Grim in 1444 gave all of 4 mark of gold for "plundering and rioting" against the Bailiff on Mæla near Skien. Otherwise we know nothing about that old family on Øverland. In 1647 Sondre and Bjørn Grave owned parts of Øverland together with Eivind Mebøen but Jon Øverland himself owned the most. We do not know anything about the connection between these families and Orm Sigurdsson. Orm himself is only mentioned in 1444.
The size of the fine for Gunnar of Grave is not mentioned but it may have been the same as the one Orm Sigurdsson paid. They were accused of approximately the same, Orm of "plundering and rioting" on the Bailiff's estate of Mæla, Gunnar of "plundering and damage" on the noble manor of Brunla.
Hallvard Ketilsson in Hjartdal - about him we can probably find more information. In 1427, Sira Ketil Ivarsson in Hjartdal gave full payment to Olav Audunsson and his son's sons Hallvard and Niklis Ketilsson for 8 markebol land of Sudgarden Flatland in Hjartdal. This was undoubtedly the same Hallvard Ketilsson who was with Hallvard Gråtopp and paid a fine in 1443. Sira Gottskalk Koneksson, Priest in Lardal, and two jurors witnessed the letter in 1427 -- DN I 515.
Perhaps it was the same Hallvard Ketilsson who was present in Skien as Juror in the autumn of 1447 and heard an open letter to Gottskalk Koneksson, then Bishop of Holar on Iceland, being read - DN I 585. At the murder case in Seljord in 1452 - see above - two of the jurors were named Hallvard Ketilsson and Niklis Ketilsson. The year before Hallvard Ketilsson and Torer Ketilsson were at Flatland in Hjartdal as jurors formulating a letter about an estate sale at Veggli in Numedal - DN IX 296. We must conclude that Hallvard was a bonde at Flatland in Hjartdal.
In 1424 Hallvard Ketilsson was a witness to an involuntary manslaughter on the Hjartdal Churchyard - DN I 496. He gave a report about what he had seen to the sheriff who was to write the letter to the King about what happened. Hallvard must have been a prominent man in Hjartdal. We shall look more closely at what we know about the men mentioned by name among the followers of Hallvard Gråtopp and the positions they had in their own district's community.
Mattis Torgeirsson was sent as a representative for the bønder in the Gjerpen Skipreide with the letter to Sigrid Niklisdaughter at Brunla and she replies in February of 1439 and is well satisfied with the offer. Mattis was a member of the lower nobility and lived at Holm in Gjerpen His son Herlaug Mattisson is mentioned as a Town Official and Lagmann in Oslo from 1432 to 1454 and we will meet him later -- see below.
Another son of Mattis Torgeirsson, Niklis Mattisson, who is mentioned from 1446 to 1481, took over Holm and inherited among other property Søndre Vegheim in Sauherad. His son Mattis Niklisson of Tufte in Gjerpen was married to Hustru Karin Anundsdaughter and as a widow in 1533 she transferred 3 ½ markebol of Søndre Lindheim in Sauherad to Rolleiv Torsteinsson Nordre Lindheim. Mattis and Karin had a daughter who was married to Olav Olsson of Skjærum in Lardal.
Torleiv Solvesson and his son Solve Torleivsson in 1448 gave an agreement-fine to Sigrid Niklisdaughter of Brunla. This is the first time the son is mentioned but Torleiv is mentioned as a juror in Brunlanes between 1422 and 1448 so he was an elderly man in 1448. These people who lived on Linnum in Brunlanes were of the lower nobility.
In the latter part of the 1300s, the father of Torleiv, Solve of Linnum, turned over 3 markebol of Sudgarden Holm in Hedrum to the Tanum Church in Brunlanes for 33 mark. He was married to Åsa Torleivsdaughter of Hybbestad in Tjølling. She gave part of Ranerud to the prestebord at Tjølling. Hustru Toron thus gave some of that estate as well as some of Bergan in Tjølling to the prestebord -- DN I 388.
Solve Solvesson of Hanes in Solum was probably a son or brother to Solve of Linnum. He had a son Torgrim who was married to Ragnhild, daughter of Herleik Eivindsson of Skalberg in Tjølling, who was also of the lower nobility. See more later.
Torgjuls of Lahell in Lier in the spring of 1439 gave 60 mark of money as a fine to Olav Bukk for "rioting, solidarity and a letter to which he had affixed his seal together with Hallvard Gråtopp". Torgjuls raised the money by selling 1 markebol of Åros, an old landed estate in Røyken. The buyer of that section was Town Official Herlaug Mattisson of Oslo, a son of Mattis Torgeirsson of Holm in Gjerpen who negotiated with Hustru Sigrid Niklisdaughter on behalf of the common people in the Gjerpen Skipreide.
The other owner of Åros was Harald Gardsson who was married to Hustru Marte Toresdaughter. In 1435, he bought ½ markebol of Åros from Klaus Bunte. Harald is mentioned as one of the King's sworn men and he participated as a representative for Røyken in Lödöse when Kristoffer of Bavaria was chosen to be Norway's King in 1442. The descendants of Harald lived at Åros for centuries, and were sheriffs and the leaders in that district's community.
Lahell is located near Drammen's fjord and the national highway to Røyken goes through the estate. Torgjuls and his family must have been among the most prominent families in Lier.
Eirik Niklisson settled with Olav Bukk and Svarte Jøns as early as on 9 August 1438. About Eirik, three jurors say that "this poor man Eirik Niklisson was unfortunately one of those who kept back our gracious Lord King's taxes and..... supported and followed Hallvard Gråtopp". Eirik promises that he will not do that any more and those three jurors "promise with him that he will hold to that". They affixed their seals to the letter but Eirik himself has no seal.
Eirik thus avoided paying a fine because he was a poor man. He was the very first person about whom we know who settled with the authorities after the revolt. It must have then been over for a while, probably early in July, when the bønder began to think that the haying needed to be done. Such an early settlement and such a judgment, almost an acquittal, shows that "the attack" on Oslo could not have been particularly serious. Eirik is the only one of "Hallvard Gråtopp's followers" whom we know by name who was judged and who was obviously poor.
Sebjørn Niklisson was already able to settle with those two men who shared the Castellany at Akershus the day after Eirik did. Sebjørn may have been his brother but that is rather uncertain. It does not appear that Sebjørn was a poor man at any rate. He asked Squire Haftore Niklisson, Lagmann Herlaug Mattisson, Hallvard Hallesson and Håkon Hoskollsson, who was also a lagmann in Oslo for a while, to affix their seals to the letter together with him. Sebjørn had, together with the common people in Aker and Bærum, refused to pay taxes to Akershus and was later with Hallvard Gråtopp when he wanted to "injure and destroy Oslo and those who lived there".
This is the only time that it is mentioned that Hallvard Gråtopp wanted to go against Oslo. The town was then located below Eikeberg far east at the innermost part of the Oslo fjord. From there it was nearly an hour's trip on foot westward to the Akershus Fortress out on the Akers promontory because the road went up around the Aker Church.
Gudmund Helgesson of Holt in Ullensaker was, we know, a nobleman and one of the most prominent men of Amund Sigurdsson Bolt's group in the revolt of 1436. Like Sebjørn Niklisson, he himself appears as the writer of the letter in which he promises "bot and betring". His letter is 16 December 1439 as follows:
Gudmund gave the biggest fine of all who had followed Hallvard Gråtopp. Nevertheless Edvard Bull says about Gudmund in the Ullensaker district history book, volume I, page 90, that "as the well regarded man that he was, he escaped fairly inexpensively from the situation".
Holt is one of the biggest and best estates in Ullensaker. In Catholic times, a church was also located on the estate. The site of this church can still be seen. The estate is adjacent to the Sørum Parish where Drottsete Sigurd Jonsson had his residential estate Sudreim which now is the Sørum estate in Sørum. The old stone church stands there and is the main church in the Sørum community today. Gudmund Helgesson lived in the community nearest to the Drottsete. Here we may suspect a disparity. We do not know anything about Gudmund's family either before or after the revolts which occurred from 1436 through 1438.
We shall later look at the size of the fines and attempt to learn more about what they tell about the participants in the revolt.
4. Districts in Telemark We Know Participated
There have been several misunderstandings in regard to the geographical designations which are
used in documents about the revolt on Hallvard Gråtopp. Here we will extrapolate from that
which we on the whole know about these administrative divisions, both ecclesiastical and
temporal, and try to discover from which districts in Telemark the participants came and how
the revolt began.
In Upper Telemark we know that people from these three Districts of Kviteseid, Seljord and Hjartdal participated in the revolt. One man from each of these Districts later had to admit to having joined Hallvard Gråtopp. It may be a fluke that only one document from each of these Districts has survived until the present but that it not likely. It is enough of a fluke that those three were the foremost men in each District. It rather appears that one leading man in each of these Districts had to pay fines or in some other way make up for "rebelling with Hallvard Gråtopp" while the common people were spared. These three are hardly listed because of a fluke. They were each probably leaders during the revolt from their own District.
In the 1400s, these three districts were large. Vrådal, Nissedal and Treungen belonged to Kviteseid; Brunkeberg, Flatdal and Åmotsdal belonged to Seljord; and Sauland, Gransherad, Lisleherad, and Tuddal belonged to Hjartdal. In all, there were thirteen ecclesiastical parishes but Lisleherad had probably already been transferred to Heddal by then.
Except for these three parishes in Upper Telemark which are nearest to the Lower Telemark Districts, other districts in Upper Telemark are not mentioned in the documents in connection with the revolt of Hallvard Gråtopp. People from these other districts may nevertheless have participated as individuals but hardly very many of them nor did any of them gather as a group around a leader of their own.
Upper Telemark is usually called "the historical Telemark" because it was only this province which in ancient times was called Telemark. Lower Telemark had the name of Grenland. Telemark, that is Upper Telemark, in ancient times belonged to the legal assembly held annually at Gulen while Grenland belonged to the Eidsiva legal assembly and later to Borg. Those two provinces belonged to two different diocese, Hamar and Oslo.
All of historical Telemark constituted one ecclesiastical deanery called the Telemark Deanery. It belonged to the Hamar Diocese. From the time that this Diocese was founded in 1152 until it was combined with the Oslo District after the Reformation in 1537, it was counted as having 27 bishops. After the Black Death in 1349/50, the Diocese was sometimes without a bishop for a few years, for example, in the 1380s and around 1420 and 1440. Sigurd was the Bishop around 1383 to 1418, Arnbjørn Sunnulvsson from 1420-1430 or 1431 and Peder Danske Boasen from 1433 to 1440. The last bishop in the Hamar Diocese was removed in 1537 and died in 1542.
After the Black Death, in many places one or several parishes were added to a main parish so that one priest presided over two or several old parishes. In Old Norse times, it was the rule that each church parish had its own priest.
The new arrangement resulted in two parishes being transferred from the Hamar Diocese to the
Oslo Diocese. This concerned Tørdal which was annexed to Drangedal and Lisleherad which
was annexed to Heddal. These two Districts were thus transferred from the Hamar Diocese to
the Oslo Diocese without a formal resolution. All the other districts which had belonged to the
Telemark Deanery in the Hamar Diocese continued to do so until the Reformation in 1537.
Lower Telemark - All of the Skien District (which was later called Lower Telemark) participated in the revolt, according to what the documents report. This is clear from them and especially from the letter from Dean Hjarrand Toraldsson of 23 March 1439. He begins by saying that this is addressed to all who live in Telemark as far as the Oslo Diocese extends. Some lines later, Sira Hjarrand says that Olav Bukk and his mother "for God's sake and because of honorable men's prayers had stipulated a small monetary fine for every man in Telemark, rich and poor, young and old, both the ones who stayed at home and the ones who participated with Gråtopp".
The second time, however, the Dean uses only the word Telemark and does not add "as far as the Oslo Diocese extends". It was not necessary to do so since it had just been mentioned.
Already by the 1300s it could be said about the districts in old Grenland that they were located in
Telemark and in the 1400s it was very customary to do so. For example, in 1419 -- DN IX 225--
Håkon Torsteinsson sold 20 øyresbol of land "on Strand in the Rygi parish, that is, Heddal in
Lindheim's Skipreide in Telemark" to a Hallvard Torgeirsson. In a letter from March on 1381 --
DN V 233 -- it says that jurors were at "Sauar in Grenland which is located in Telemark". About
an estate in Sauherad it is thus said that it was located in Telemark. In February of 1439, Hustru
Sigrid Niklisdaughter wrote a letter to the common people in the Gjerpen Skipreide, that is, the
Districts around Skien. On the outside of the letter is written: "Hustru Sigrid's letter to the
people of Telemark about the plundering they did at Brunla". People all the way down to the
ocean could thus at that time be called people of Telemark.
The Skipreida in Lower Telemark -- Sira Hjarrand says further in his letter of 23 March 1439: "The people in the Gjerpen Skipreide and in the Bamble Skipreide and likewise the Ulefoss Skipreide have promised to do the same which now is being demanded of you." From that we know which Districts in Lower Telemark supported Hallvard Gråtopp. It was, in fact, all of them. In the letter, Sira Hjarrand turns with his "you" to the common people in the Upper Skipreide in Lower Telemark, that is, to the Lindheim Skipreide, the districts of Heddal, Sauherad, Nes and Bø. He likens this Skipreide to the other three.
It has been claimed by Henneseid in 1988 and by others that Sira Hjarrand turns to the common people of Upper Telemark, that is, that which is called "the historical Telemark". SiraHjarrand's letter gives no basis for such a contention. Hjarrand mentions the three other Skipreida and with his "you" he can hardly mean anything other than the fourth Skipreide in Lower Telemark. If it were as Henneseid claims, the people in the Upper Skipreide were then not participants in the revolt at all because it is not probable that Sira Hjarrand would have claimed that the Upper Skipreide was a part of the historical Telemark. As a former priest in Sauherad, Sira Hjarrand was well acquainted with that area.
Among the three Lower Skipreida, the Ulefoss Skipreide included the Districts of Holla, Solum, Lunde and probably Drangedal. Drangedal with the annexed Tørdal later belonged to the Bamble Bailiff's District and it is possible that Drangedal originally belonged to the Bamble Skipreide. The Bamble Skipreide had otherwise included the Sannidal and Bamble Districts. Eidanger and Gjerpen, together with Slemdal, that is, Siljan, belonged to the Gjerpen Skipreide.
A skipreide originally was an area which was expected to support a fleet of conscripted warships, that is, to supply a ship when there was a war or when a war was imminent. For a long time afterwards, the skipreide were maintained as districts for tax collection. The last we know about the mobilization of the fleet of warships was in 1429 but the arrangement for taxes continued until as late as 1836.
In those four Skipreida, which were the same as the Gjerpen Deanery in an ecclesiastical sense,
around 1400 there were 21 district churches in addition to a city church and a cloister church,
Skien and Gimsøy respectively. The skipreida divisions were temporal and involved only
districts along the coast as far up into the countryside as the salmon swam. There were no
skipreida in Upper Telemark.
The Telemark Deanery -- The deanery, that is, the dean's area of authority, was an ecclesiastical division. From ancient times there were two deaneries in the present day Telemark County. The Telemark Deanery in the Hamar Diocese included the whole "historical Telemark", that is, the Districts from and including Hjartdal, Seljord and Kviteseid and westward. In the 1400s, the Tørdal Parish in the Telemark Deanery was transferred to the Gjerpen Deanery as an annex to Drangedal. In the same way, Lisleherad was moved from Telemark to the Gjerpen Deanery.
Until the Reformation, there were no more changes in the boundaries of the deaneries and the diocese than the ones mentioned. It is not correct that the western Districts of Seljord, Kviteseid, Nissedal, Fyresdal and Mo belonged to the Oslo Diocese in the 1400s. The historians who contend this have no sources to support their assertion. The Bishop of Oslo would certainly make visitations to Upper Telemark but that is another matter. Bishop Gotskalk of Holar in Iceland made visitations for the Oslo Bishop in 1400-41 but parts of the Oslo Diocese were not under Holar because of that. It was not until the time of the Reformation that the Oslo and Hamar Diocese were combined.
Telemark was the most outlying Deanery in the Hamar Diocese. We also see several times that the dean or other priests acted on behalf of the bishop. The Oslo Bishop would also look after matters in Telemark when he was already on a visitation to the Gjerpen Deanery. For example, Bishop Eystein Aslaksson did so in 1395. He wrote a pastoral letter from Gimsøy to the common people in Kviteseid, Tørdal, Nissedal, Fyresdal, Skafså and Mo. Bishop Jens Jakobsson of Oslo confirmed this letter in 1426 when he was on a visitation to Eidanger. In the letter from 1395, Bishop Eystein reports that nine years earlier he was on a visitation in the Districts mentioned there.
The letter from Bishop Eystein in 1395 has caused some historians to contend that those six districts mentioned in West Telemark were transferred to the Oslo Diocese at the end of the 1300s. This was not the case at that time and neither was it the case in the 1430s. We can see that from Bishop Eystein's own survey of the churches in the Oslo Diocese around the year 1400 as well from other sources from the 1400s.
It does not say in the letter from Bishop Eystein in 1395 nor in other places that those six Districts were located in the Oslo Diocese. If they had been, then Bishop Eystein would have listed them in his records of that time. Under the year 1401, he listed, among other things, the main churches in the Gjerpen Deanery and they were Eidanger, Bamble, Sannidal, and Drangedal. Then under the heading of Telemark came the Bø Church "in Tørdal in Telemark" then the churches in Solum, Mælum, Lunde, Bø, Sauherad and Heddal. Only after Tørdal is "in Telemark" added in the text, but the heading which applies to all is Telemark. This is not the first time that the Districts in old Grenland were said to be located in Telemark -- RB 570-572. Earlier it was mentioned that in 1381 -- DN V 233 -- a letter was composed in a priest's home "on Sauar in Grenland which is located in Telemark".
This and the expression "in Rygi parish in Lindheim Skipreide in Telemark" in 1419 -- DN IX
244 -- actually show the opposite of that which some have contended. Instead of the Districts in
West Telemark belonging to the Oslo Diocese, the Districts in Grenland were considered to be
located in Telemark. The name Telemark took the place of the old name Grenland. We know
that this happened but when that development took place has not been previously researched.
No one says today that the Districts of Heddal, Sauherad, Bø, Lunde and Drangedal are located
in Grenland as it was called in the 1300s and the 1400s. That was the original nomenclature.
The Gjerpen Deanery -- Before the Reformation, the other Deanery in the present day Telemark was called the Gjerpen Deanery and included Lower Telemark with the Districts in the four Skipreida there. While the Telemark Deanery had the old provincial name, the Lower Deanery was named for the biggest district, namely Gjerpen, and was not named for the province which from ancient times had been called Grenland.
Gjerpen was an old ecclesiastical center and it was the Bishop at the Cathedral in Oslo who appointed the priest at Gjerpen and he was often the dean of the District. Other priests than the priest at Gjerpen could, however, also be the dean. We have seen that in 1397 it was the priest in Solum who was the dean. Sira Hjarrand is mentioned as the Dean in Gjerpen and a Canon in Oslo, that is, a priest at the Oslo Cathedral. He is not mentioned as priest at Gjerpen but probably was even though he was a canon in Oslo. A canon was a member of the chapter at a cathedral and he stayed alternately in the cathedral city and out in the country. The chapter was composed of the higher clergy at the cathedral and the parish priests at the larger churches in the diocese. The Gjerpen church was such a church, so it is reasonable that its priest could be both a canon and dean.
In the lists of the property of the churches and the priests in 1398 -- RB 4-42 -- Bishop Eystein lists the churches in the Gjerpen Deanery which were Heddal, Sauherad, Nes, Bø, Gåra in Bø, Lunde, Holla, Helgja, Fen, Romnes, Mælum, Mikkelsburg, Solum, Klyve, Mo and Ski in Bamble, Mo in Sannidal, Mo in Eidanger, Borgestad, the Gimsøy Cloister, Ballestad, Gjerpen, Skien and Slemdal, that is, Siljan. The land property of each of these churches and of the presteborda are listed. In the records for the Oslo Diocese, Bishop Eystein has included not one of the churches in the Districts which some claim were then located in the Oslo Diocese, that is, the churches in Kviteseid, Tørdal, Nissedal, Fyresdal, Skafså and Mo.
We notice that the Drangedal church is not included in the list of churches from 1398. The reason for this is not known. It is hardly possible that the property belonging to both that church and that prestebord has been overlooked. The reason it is omitted may be that the priest in Tørdal also served in Drangedal so that both parishes were included with the Hamar Diocese. At any rate, it was later reversed; Tørdal became an annex to Drangedal. In 1401 the Drangedal church is listed under the Gjerpen Deanery -- RB 571 -- while Tørdal is listed under the heading of Telemark together with the other churches in Grenland, that is, the upper portion of the Gjerpen Deanery.
Since Telemark was located a great distance from the seat of the Bishop in Hamar, the Bishop would, as mentioned, get others to perform tasks on his behalf. For instance, Parish Priest Hjarrand Toraldsson of Sauherad noted that he was in Hjartdal in January 1423 on behalf of Bishop Annbjørn of Hamar -- DN XI 127.
In 1575, almost 40 years after the Reformation, the districts in Upper Telemark are still listed in
the Bishop's records with the heading of the Hamar Diocese. The Telemark Deanery then
included the Districts of Hjartdal, Seljord, Lårdal, Vinje, Fyresdal, Kviteseid and Tinn, which all
had annexes. There was a total of 22 annexed parishes. When Bishop Jens Nilsson was on a
visitation in Telemark in 1595, he also counted Heddal "in the Tithing Territory" as part of the
Telemark Deanery as well as Hjartdal "in the Tax Land".
The Tax Land and The Tithing Territory -- Two designations, the Tax Land for Upper Telemark and the Tithing Territory for Lower Telemark, were used in the documents which had connection to the revolt of Hallvard Gråtopp. These are names which explain that in Lower Telemark the people gave a tithe to the Church but the people in Upper Telemark did not. There they gave a hide-tax instead; it was therefore called the Tax Land.
Bishop Jens of Oslo turns in his letter of 3 March 1439 -- see below -- to "the priests in the
Gjerpen Deanery both in the Tithing Territory and in the Tax Land". The Bishop was Danish so
it was perhaps unclear to him whether the Tax Land belonged to the Gjerpen Deanery or not but,
on the other hand, perhaps he or his helpers really knew that Tørdal and Lisleherad in the Tax
Land had been transferred to the Gjerpen Deanery. We have also seen that three parishes with
13 churches in the Tax Land must have been regarded as followers of Hallvard Gråtopp in the
revolt. In the Tithing Territory, all of the districts were regarded as supporters of Hallvard
Gråtopp.
The Bishop and The Priests in The Gjerpen Deanery -- In that letter, the Bishop gave a reason for the churches' participation in the struggle between the rebels and Olav Bukk. The rebels had looted and taken property from the churches and not only from Olav's estate. This was "absolutely forbidden and deserves excommunication", says the Bishop. He has already written to the priests about this the previous year but "they paid no attention to the letter and no fines had been paid".
The priests had not bothered about the first letter from their Danish Bishop. Now he takes a stronger stand and says that they will lose their positions if they hold masses for the people of their parish or bury in the churchyard those who participated by inciting "to do those wrongs which were mentioned previously". The Bishop asks them all to come to terms with Olav Bukk as soon as possible, because otherwise they would be greatly injured. Finally, he asks all the "parish pastors in the Gjerpen Deanery and commands...that each of you read this letter in your churches as soon as there is an opportunity and remind the people of your parish about this matter as best you can".
All the priests were ordered to write on the back of the letter information about when and where
it was read but only two of them did that, the priest at Bamble and the priest at Eidanger.
According to the letter of 25 February 1439 from Hustru Sigrid Galle, it appears that the whole
Gjerpen Skipreide had already made an agreement with Olav Bukk and his mother. If so, the
priests there must have read the letter. Only one priest there, however, had written on the letter,
namely the priest from Eidanger.
Grenland is not used as a geographical designation in the documents about the revolt in 1438. It may nevertheless be appropriate to say something about this name. We find it as early as in the Ynglinga Saga which Tjodolv from Kvine composed in the 800s in honor of Ragnvald Hedenhøg who was the nephew of Harald the Fairhaired and king of that southern part of the Vestfold kingdom. In the poem it is said about Olav Gierstadalv:
Vestmarr was the land which reached from Grenmarr, the Langsund's fjord, southward but probably originally was only the name of the outer and southernmost part of Grenland. Grenmarr means the ocean of the grenar, that is, the people in Grenland.
From the middle of the 1100s , we again encounter Grenland as a separate district since the Province had for a long time been considered a part of the Vestfold kingdom of the Ynglinga Kings.
It thus appears that the outer districts were called Vestmarr but that area must have been named for Vestfold. In everyday speech, the old name of Grenland must have been used for them at that time also as it is today when it is the name of the district around Skien and Porsgrunn. In documents of the 1300s and 1400s that area had another name, Hofund. About the upper districts in the Gjerpen Deanery it is said, on the other hand, that they were located in Grenland.
That the name Grenland did not appear in writing for the districts around Skien was rather
because Gjerpen early became an ecclesiastical center and a deanery and therefore got its name
from that and not from the old provincial name of Grenland.
The Skien District -- In his long letter of 27 April 1439 -- see below -- Olav Bukk turns to "all those who live in the Skien District". He thus includes all in the people of the current Telemark because Numedal in today's Buskerud County also belonged to the Skien District. We have only one indication from the sources that people from Numedal may have participated in the revolt. It probably involved single persons only and not a more organized group such as in Telemark "as far as the Oslo Diocese extends".
5. Revolt or Riot?
Olav Bukk once used the expression revolt -- "vpres" as he wrote -- about the events of 1438.
Otherwise as word like revolt was not used. Those who were "in the band who followed
Hallvard Gråtopp" or "among Hallvard Gråtopp's followers" were the terms used.
The Great Disturbance -- In his letter of 27 April 1439, Olav Bukk wrote, among other things,
From this we cannot determine anything about the form which the rebellion of 1438 had. Was it
organized as an armed revolt or was it a matter of a demonstration in which many uncontrollable
people participated? In Olav Bukk's letter, he told more about the leaders of the rebellion.
The Rebellion of Amund Sigurdsson --
According to what Olav Bukk says, Amund Sigurdsson led a rebellion but it is uncertain whether
he meant the same about what Hallvard Gråtopp did. Olav Bukk evidently would rather classify
Hallvard Gråtopp and his followers as robbers. They "robbed both churches and...the King's
common people". No mention is made that they killed anyone either on the trip toward Oslo and
Akershus nor in the city itself nor at the Fortress. In the letter of 10 August 1438, Sebjørn
Niklisson says that he was in the band of "the King's enemy and traitor, Hallvard Gråtopp, who
intended to injure and destroy the city of Oslo and those who lived there".
Hallvard Gråtopp Intended To Go To Oslo -- According to this, Hallvard intended to go to Oslo which at that time was located far to the east below Eikaberg but, he may never have reached that far. Several factors point in that direction, not only the expression "intended". The Akershus Fortress and Castle were located in the Akers promontory a good deal farther west of where Oslo was then located. Hallvard must have been stopped there either after negotiations or he and his band may have been chased into flight. The only thing that seems certain is that they did not kill anyone on their expedition from Telemark to Akershus.
On the 13th of June 1438, Olav Bukk was in Marstrand and it must have been during that time that Hallvard and his men reached the manor on Brunla, the home of Olav Bukk. Perhaps he had received information about it and may have been at Akershus when Hallvard approached the Fortress. At any rate, Olav was present there as Castellan early in August of that year. He and his professional military men had probably pursued Hallvard and his men. It appears that Olav Bukk even made an expedition of retribution into Lower Telemark.
In the letter of 3 March 1439, Bishop Jens of Oslo ordered the priests in the Gjerpen Deanery not
to hold masses for the men of their parishes before they had come to terms with Olav Bukk. The
priests in this Deanery also did not have the Bishop's permission to make space in the
churchyard for "the corpses of those who had participated and supported the men who had acted
as terribly as has earlier been described".
Three Of The Skipreida Gave Up Immediately -- According to this, the people in three of the four Skipreida in Lower Telemark yielded. Only in the Lindheim Skipreide would they not give up and agree to the fines which Olav Bukk demanded. It was in this situation that Dean Hjarrand Toraldsson sent the letter of 23 March 1439. He calls the revolt in 1438 "that riot which they carelessly participated in together with Hallvard Gråtopp last year....which, all because of you, caused the death of many men and also great loss of money..."
From both of these letters it appears that there were some among the adherents of Hallvard
Gråtopp who had fallen. If any had fallen on the other side, we would certainly have heard
about that clearly and specifically in the letters which survive. Sira Hjarrand laid the blame for
the other men's loss of life and money on the people in the Lindheim Skipreide because it was
they who had initiated the revolt, says he. It does not appear according to this that there was any
killing in this Skipreide. The reason may have been that Olav Bukk had not yet inflicted himself
upon them but had advanced with his men into the other Skipreida at least in the Gjerpen
Skipreide. It was probably because of this that they had surrendered and cooperated with Olav's
terms. He must have been very angry after having seen the conditions at Brunla when he came
home. The people in the Lower Districts of the Gjerpen Deanery had felt his anger.
Only The Lindheim Skipreide Would Not Surrender - Those were not empty words which SiraHjarrand sent to the people in the Lindheim Skipreide when he urgently asked them to agree to the demands. If they did not, Olav Bukk would ravage them all so they would remember it all of their days and he would not spare anyone, even children and women.
It must have been that letter from the Dean which made the common people in the Lindheim
Skipreide bow before the demands of Olav Bukk. On the 27th of April in 1439, he could write to
the people in all of the Skien District and summon them to the National Council Meeting in Oslo
at the time of St. John's Day. There all could freely present their complaints.
Hallvard Gråtopp, The Successor to Amund Bolt -- The authorities looked at the revolt of Hallvard Gråtopp and his band of men as direct successors to the revolt of Amund Sigurdsson Bolt, but considered the former to be less serious. It may therefore be a question of judgment if one should call the uprising of Hallvard Gråtopp a revolt or only a riot, that is, a less threatening situation than a revolt. Olav Bukk nevertheless took Hallvard Gråtopp and his men very seriously but the bases for this may have been completely personal. There is no doubt that the rebels attacked the manor on Brunla particularly hard. Both his mother and Olav suffered from that. They felt very strongly that they had not deserved such treatment. Hustru Sigrid specifically says this and Olav demonstrates it in both words and actions.
The understanding of the danger in the situation was also measured by Olav Bukk's invitation to the National Council meeting in Oslo. This meeting evidently never materialized. The reason may have been that he was ill or actually dead in the summer of 1439 because we do not hear of him again. His sister Katarina immediately emerges as the only heir at Brunla and around 1442 she was married to a man from Holstein by the name of Hartvig Krummedike.
Even as a foreigner, Hartvig Krummedike obtained the most important position in the nation, Castellan at Akershus. Olav Bukk at least had a Norwegian mother and was furthermore born and raised in Norway.
6. Fines Levied for The Revolt
In ancient times, fines were levied on persons who in one way or another had done damage or injury to others. These fines were given to the victims of the wrong that had been done. The King therefore did not receive any of the fines. He did, however, receive "tegn og fredkjøp" when he or someone on his behalf had participated in the establishment of an agreement in which the person had said he was willing to pay a fine, for example, in a homicide case. (Tegn, which is Old Norse was "Þegn", is actually an abbreviation of "Þegngildi", and is a fine paid to the king for a homicide of a free subject. Fredkjøp, in Old Norse "fridkaup", is a fine with which an outlaw or one who can be judged to be an outlaw buys peace for himself. To explain these words, we must use the word "fine" but also mention that one of them had that other meaning in Old Norse.)
According to the written rules of behavior at the King's court, men of the King's bodyguard could
judge each other without the King receiving a "tegn og fredkjøp", that is, they could even judge
cases of homicide without the King's bailiff being present. The decision is such cases would
nevertheless be thrown to a law court if one of the persons was not satisfied with the first
decision -- see V.1.2. below
The Fines After the Revolt in 1438 were of two kinds, those levied collectively and those which individuals were sentenced to pay. In all of Lower Telemark each man should give Olav Bukk and his mother one cow because of the harm they had suffered on Brunla. This was the fine which was established after negotiations and mediation between the two sides. Here Dean Hjarrand Toraldsson played a decisive role. Olav Bukk was insistent upon his demand for a cow from each man. It is possible that his demand was originally greater than that.
The demand for a cow or the price of a cow from each man was harsh but still not an enormous price. For example, the ancient payment to the priest for a funeral was exactly that, a cow.
The individual persons about whom we know who lived outside of Lower Telemark and who
had to make payments were treated as individuals. Eirik Niklisson was an exception because he
escaped paying a fine by promising not to participate in such action again. The basis of this
decision was that he was poor and not that he was blameless.
The Hardest Hit was Gudmund Helgesson of Holt in Ullensaker. We do not know whether this was because he was the man closest to Hallvard Gråtopp or because he had advanced so vigorously against Sigurd Jonsson and his manor in Sørum. At any rate, Sigurd Jonsson received a total fine which consisted of the Kauserud estate in Ullensaker plus 20 mark in money, 6 pounds of malt and 5 cattle. In all, this may have been worth around 12 merk gold.
Orm Sigurdsson's fine was established at four merk gold plus a feather quilt and five lengths of
cloth. If we count only those four merk gold, that should equal somewhat less than an estate like
Kauserud.
The Next Largest Fine was given by Torgjuls of Lahell, a total of 60 mark in money; he supplied that by selling one markebol of Åros in Røyken. This amounts to 7 ½ merk gold, an unusually high price for a part of an estate. One markebol was only one fourth or one fifth of the whole of Vestre Åros.
It appears that the buyer who was a Town Official and later a Lagmann, Herlaug Mattisson, gave
that much to help Torgjuls. Herlaug was from Gjerpen and evidently lived on the Holm estate
there. His father negotiated with Hustru Sigrid Niklisdaughter on behalf of the common people
in the Gjerpen Skipreide. Everything indicates that Herlaug had done Torgjuls an act of
friendship. In fact, Torgjuls attempted to obtain even more for that part of Åros because a day
later he sold the same part to Harald Gardsson but that sale had to be reversed.
The Fine For Each Man in Lower Telemark -- Hjarrand Toraldsson calls the fine of one cow for each man in Lower Telemark "a small money-fine". The fine could also be paid with three cow hides or two marten furs or two lynx furs. This was demanded from each man "rich or poor, young or old, both the men who remained at home and the men who were with Gråtopp".
"Each man" may have meant each bonde, that is, every man who owned an estate, whether it was big or little. If we take the words as they stand and consider that the meaning is every last adult man, the bonde himself, the hired man and the sons, then it would probably not be a small fine, especially on those estates where there were many adult men from retired men down to the grandsons. We will look at this issue again later.
With an average of nearly seventy bønder in every main parish with an annex, we arrive at a
count of around 620 to 630 bønder in the Gjerpen Deanery. (This count may be appropriate
because a count shows about 620 estates in use around 1440.) Considering only this number
would mean that 620 cows were forfeited. If adult sons and others were included, the total
would be around 2,000 cows. Since Sira Hjarrand speaks of money-fines, it is the value of the
cows which was to be delivered to Skien before the 15 of August in 1439. People probably
brought money, hides and furs. Hides and furs were customary products for export.
Olav Bukk Got No Pleasure from these goods. He evidently died before the year was over.
See more about this in the chapter about him below. It could, however, have amounted to a
great deal of capital for Hartvig Krummedike from Holstein who around 1442 was married to
the sister of Olav, Katarina Markvardsdaughter Bukk. She was at that time the only heir on
Brunla. Lord Hartvig inherited with her the estate property which this family owned. He
increased it considerably and became the seventeenth richest land owner in the
Danish/Norwegian Kingdom, not counting his property in Denmark.
The Size of the Estates Mentioned -- We shall examine more closely the estates which are mentioned in connection with the fines which were levied after the revolt of Hallvard Gråtopp. This is best done by comparing some estate sales. One estate of two markebol in Eidsborg was sold in 1441 for four merk gold (actually 3 ½ merk gold plus 4 cows), while an estate of four markebol in Morgedal, that is, twice as large according to the nominal land value in 1443 was the same, that is, four merk gold. Prices varied greatly, but other factors than the size of the land value were involved when the prices were established. In 1446, four markebol of one estate in Brunkeberg sold for 20 ½ kyrlag, that is, upwards of 2 ½ merk gold. According to this, the prices for four markebol in an estate varied between well over 2 ½ and 8 merk gold.
An estate in the same area as Kauserud in Romerike had an old land value of six markebol and both of the estates were equally large in later times, with a land value of two skippund or 320 kilograms of heavy or good grain. Kauserud was therefore probably five or six markebol around 1440 and an average sale price would be set at 7 ½ merk gold. Twenty mark in money, six pounds, that is skippund, and five cattle all together may have equaled four to five merk gold, so that the entire fine which Gudmund Helgesson gave had a value of around twelve merk gold. This was nevertheless only half of that which the killer of Gunnar of Grave in Seljord had to give the relatives of Gunnar as a fine for the killing. It can thus not be said that even the biggest fines after the revolt were particularly large.
The worth of eight cows was one mark gold. Every man in Lower Telemark was thus levied a
fine of 1/8 mark gold. Even if we consider that every adult man had to pay a fine, it would
seldom have been over ½ mark gold for one estate. We must therefore say that Sira Hjarrand
Toraldsson was correct when he wrote that it was "a small money-fine". It was hardly because
of the size of the fine that it was more difficult to obtain fines from the people in the Lindheim
Skipreide than from those living in the other Skipreida in Lower Telemark.