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Knife, Beer and Honour. Criminality and Society in Norway in the Sixteenth and Seveteenth Centuries

Criminals and crime have existed as long as society, for it is society that defines crime and also gradually assumes responsibility for criminals receiving their punishment. Today violence and criminality are considered preeminent social problems.

In several European countries, such as England, France, and Sweden, attention was paid early on to past criminality, principally in order to understand the connection between crime and the development of society. In the 1980s and 90s Norwegian historians also paid greater attention to this field of research. Today violence, breaking the law, and criminality appear as independent research subjects within written Norwegian history.

Knife, Beer, and Honour was the first Norwegian work to comprehensively address criminality in late Norwegian history (1536-1620). How much and what type of criminality are we talking about? Was criminality on the rise, or did it recede in these years? What was the geographic distribution between different districts and between rural and urban areas? What is the relationship between criminality and social conditions in general, and between breaking the law and criminality? How does the Norwegian criminal pattern during those years compare with research findings from other countries? These are some of the questions the author addresses.

The book treats the origins of this field of historical study emphasising English, German, Swedish, Finnish, and Norwegian historiography and provides, among other things, an introduction to available Norwegian sources from the period in question. Knife, Beer, and Honour is fascinating reading and addresses a broad public interested in history.

Contents: Preface/I. For Your Life - Prelude/II. Criminality in Late History: A Field of Research is Born. The Historian and Crime/England and the New History of Crime/Theory and Perception/English Criminal Patterns/Germany: Tradition Prevails/Swedish and Finnish Crime Research/Norway: From Steen to Næss/Some Principal Points of Vie A Summary/Criminality in Norway in Late History. Criminality and Breaking the Law, Some Definitions/On the Source Material/Tampering With the Law - Fines for the King/Overview and Numbers/Carnal Desire/Increasing Criminality?/IV. A Criminal Society? Cases of Murder in the Sixteenth Century/Extent and Geographic Distribution/Knife, Beer and Honour. Some Thoughts on Violence in Late History/V. Thou Shall Not Steal/VI. The State’s Interests and the Will of the Farmer/VII. Mentality and Crime. Distinctive Norwegian Characteristics/Power and Mentality/Notes/Literature and Sources

About the Author: Jørn Sandnes is professor of history at the University of Trondheim (NTNU)

Publisher: Universitetsforlaget AS 1990
ISBN: 82-00-21027-8
129 pp, paperback