ABSTRACT
In the power game in Iceland during the period c. 1050–1250, the generosity of chieftains was crucial for their economical foundation. The chieftains’ generosity was based on their fortunes, and only the families who managed to establish and maintain a solid economic base survived the power struggles of the Free State period. The four most important sources of income were the assembly attendance dues, payments for conducting lawsuits, revenues from the chieftains’ own farms, and local ecclesiastical institutions and loot. It was the chieftains’ residence and the farms they controlled that were the most crucial elements in their economic bases. During the period in question, there was a clear tendency toward an increase in the size of residential farms, which can be traced from the farms valued at about 30 hundreds in the tenth and eleventh centuries, to farms valued at about 50 hundreds in the twelfth century, and 80–120 hundreds in the thirteenth century. The chieftains also, at the end of the twelfth century, began to manage two or more farms simultaneously. This form of management quickly escalated, and in the thirteenth century, this was done by almost all the chieftains.
