Museum hosts international Norwegian law exhibition

Shetland Museum and Archives is staging an international exhibition on historic Norwegian law until 18th November.

Hosted in collaboration with the Norwegian Code of 1274 Project at the University of Bergen, and the Norwegian Children’s Museum at Stavanger, the exhibition in Da Gadderie at the museum is entitled Miserabiles Personae and deals with King Magnus Lawmender’s new law of the land of 1274.

The exhibition shows in particular how the law affected children and the poor. It comprises film and audio, models of people and reproductions of documents from the period.

The exhibition will be opened on Thursday at 2.30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend with free admission.

Archivist Brian Smith said: “We are delighted to welcome this exhibition after a long period of planning with our colleagues in Norway.

“I am certain that Shetlanders will be fascinated by the account of a legal system which held sway in the islands for 350 years.”

In connection with the exhibition there are two additional events on Thursday: a seminar about the 1274 law code, led by Professor Jørn Sunde of the University of Bergen, a leader of the 1274 Project, in Shetland Museum and Archives at 11am; and a lecture by Prof Sunde in the Tingwall Kirk at 7pm entitled The Four Daughters of God in the Law Code of 1274 and their role in local court practice. Both events are open to everyone, with free admission.

Prof Sunde gave the Shetland Museum and Archives Memorial Lecture in 2008.