ABSTRACT
The Danish medieval laws: the laws of Scania, Zealand and Jutland contains translations of the four most important medieval Danish laws written in the vernacular. These provincial laws were first written down in the first half of the thirteenth century and were in force until 1683, when they were replaced by a national law. The laws, preserved in over 100 separate manuscripts, are the first extended texts in Danish and represent a first attempt to create a Danish legal language. If a man secretly begets a child with a woman to whom he is not lawfully married, then it cannot be called a legitimate child, even if he afterwards gets her lawfully. If a man sells land to two men, then he whom he wishes to entitle shall have it, unless the other has received it in lawful possession; then he can bring proof.
