In the old days, there were harsh punishments for breaking the law, yes downright cruel and barbaric they could be seen with our modern eyes.
For stealing a piece of cheese, you could be put in the gallows and forever branded as an outcast in society. I don’t know what you would get for stealing a cheese today, maybe we would have become concerned about the person’s mental health and sent him to the emergency room? We certainly wouldn’t have cut off his head.
If we go back a long way, it was blood revenge that applied, also in the laws, but around 1250 blood revenge was replaced by the death penalty for major offences. We had the death penalty in Norway until 1902, but it has not been used since 1876, if we disregard a short and barbaric period right after the Second World War.
The last death penalty in Lofoten and Vesterålen was given to an Ole Sivertsen from Moland in Valberg who was beheaded in Kabelvåg in the 1860s. He must have poisoned his wife.
The executioner had the brutal job of torturing and taking the lives of those who were condemned. It could be a well-paid job, not least because the condemned would like to be whipped, branded, beheaded and buried. It could be a nice sum all in all.
Rates for the sharpener’s work in the 18th century:
- For a head cut off with a sword, 10 riksdaler
- For a head cut off with an axe, 8 riksdaler
- For a hand or fingers cut off, 4 riksdaler
- Get your arms/legs broken, 14 riksdaler
- For burying a body, 3 riksdaler
- For each pinch of glowing rods, 2 riksdaler
- For a brand, 4 riksdaler For whipping, 5 riksdaler
- To burn a body, 10 riksdaler
I wonder why it was cheaper to lose one’s head with an ax than with a sword. Maybe it was harder to cut it off with the sword? No, in those days it was nicer to lose one’s head with a sword, so that it was reserved for the rich and distinguished. That’s why it cost a little more.
For intercourse before marriage, given that one married afterwards, one was often fined. The gaping stick stood in the square or by the church and was used for minor criminal acts.
It was not abolished until 1848. Flogging or whipping was also widely used, especially for theft and fornication. The victim was tied to a stake, and received 27 lashes on their bare back, and if he or she was extra unlucky, they were also branded, just to make sure they would never forget their sins.
Fortunately, in 1815, branding and flogging came to an end. For more serious crimes, people were sent to penal servitude, often for life.
One could and was expelled, many from the south were sent to Finnmark, Lofoten and perhaps also to Vesterålen. One would think it was a blessing to be sent to such paradises, but in the old days it must have been a terrible punishment.
