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Appendix B: Agriculture and Forestry
- bolstaþer (OSw) , bólstaðr (ON) n.
- Village or farmstead in a village or the area around the dwelling on a farm. Also used of farming land delineated by boundary markers as being part of a specific village. As a place-name element it is found in Iceland, Shetland, Orkney, The Hebrides, Norway, Södermanland, Uppland, Åland and the very south of Finland.by ok bolstaþer (OSw) is an alliterative expression for a village and the related farmland, which might be translated alternatively as 'village and environs'.
- Refs: CV s.v. bólstaðr; Gammeltoft 2001, 15; KLNM s.v. bolstadh; ONP s.v. bólstaðr; Schlyter s.v. bolstaþer; Zoega's.v. bólstaðr.
- byr, by (OSw) , býr , bær (ON) n.
- This word has several different but associated meanings: 1) the farm and its buildings, i.e. the farmstead, 2) 'village' (comprising a number of farmsteads forming a community) or habitation in general and 3) 'town' (as opposed to the countryside). The first two meanings are the most common.-by/bær has been a very productive place-name suffix for a long time in all the Nordic countries as well as in the Nordic areas in Britain.Used in the expression by ok bolstaþer or the compound byabolstaþer to mean 'village and the related farmland'.
- Refs: CV s.v. bær; KLNM, s.v.v. landsby, stad; Miller 1990, 115; Schlyter s.v. byr.
- garþer (OSw) , garth (ODan) , garþr (OGu) , garðr (ON) n.
- The main meanings of garþer are 'fence, barrier' and 'enclosed land', but garþer also may refer to the houses themselves and/or to the open space enclosed by those houses. In some areas in Sweden and Norway a garþer was regarded as an economic unit corresponding to the Danish bol. In the Norwegian GuL it was then referred to as bær, also including resources such as woodland, fishing waters etc. The concepts expressed by garþer also correspond to bær (see byr) and jörð (see jorþ) in Icelandic laws, but in Iceland the word garðr later came to refer to a high-status dwelling.The layout of a garþer, referring to the different farm-buildings, varied greatly both regionally and over time. VgL and UL (e.g. YVgL Kkb 2, Tb 30; ÄVgL Tb 5; UL Kkb 2) mention some of the various types of buildings to be found on a garþer.Garþer meaning 'fence' is quite common as the maintenance of fencing was an obligation connected to the holding of land of a particular kind, the period for the maintenance of the fencing, and who was legally responsible for the fencing. Neglect of this obligation carried legal penalties.Garþer is also found in compounds referring to a small enclosed area, i.e. some kind of garden: kalgarþer (OSw,kailyard), yrtagarþer (OSw, herb garden), apæld garth (ODan, apple or fruit garden), hvannagarðr (ON, angelica garden).
- Refs: Adams 1976 s.v. settlement; CV s.v. garðr; Helle 2001, 106–16; Hellquist [1948] 1964, s.v. gård; KLNM, s.v. gård; Pelijeff 1967, passim; Schlyter s.v. garþer.
- tompt , toft (OSw) , toft (ODan) , tóft , tópt (ON) n.
- Tompt (OSw) and toft (ODan) refer to the enclosed area immediately surrounding the farm buildings (curtilage, plot), the size and use of which varied considerably throughout the North.Tompt is mentioned in all Swedish laws, it was enclosed, and the ownership of a tompt entitled to certain legal rights and obligations. It was the responsibility of the person to whom each plot was allocated to keep fencing around it in good order. In UL and VmL the word is occasionally used as a synonym for burtomt in the sense of 'curtilage', that is the land immediately surrounding a dwelling that was subject of special protection.The often quoted wording Tompt ær teghs/akærs moþir; 'the tompt is the mother of the strip fields/ cultivated fields' (SdmL; DL; UL; VmL) has been taken as a proof that not only the arrangement of the individual strips in the gærþi (see gærþi) but also their size was determined by the situation and size of the tompt in the village when solskipt was carried through (see solskipt under Land-division systems below). VgL states that ownership of a tompt and fields and meadows of a certain size entitled one to part in the common resources (ÄVgL Jb 7; YVgL Jb 19). According to YVgL the size of a legal tompt was 20x10 alnar (YVgL Jb 18). In ÖgL and UL it was stated that the size of all ownership: field, meadow, fencing, forests and fishing was to be related to the size of the tompt (ÖgL Bb 2; UL Jb 4, Blb 2). Fencing between neighbouring plots was regulated (ÖgL Bb 13) as well as the fines for destroying the fencing around the tompt (ÖgL Bb 23). In UL it is described in detail how to divide a village legally whether it is a new or an old village, how to calculate the size of each individual tompt and how to arrange the roads, the buildings and fencing (UL Blb 1–2).
