The diffusion of the Cid cult: a survey and a little-known document

Whereas in eleventh- and twelfth-century western Europe Christianity had taken firm root, monarchy had developed and legislation by royal and ecclesiastical authorities was a normal practice, in Iceland culture remained, for a long period, practically uninfluenced by Roman and canon law. In the present article early Icelandic laws, representatives of this culture, will be described, their formulation and application investigated, and the developments among the establishment of a central authority at the end of the thirteenth century discussed.