lawspeaker means an official in Scandinavia whose duties included memorizing laws as well as presiding over, and reciting the laws at, regional Things or the Althing. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
Why this word is great
LAWSPEAKER — [Noun] A medieval Scandinavian official whose primary duty was to memorize and orally recite the legal code before the assembly. From the English words 'law' (body of rules) and 'speaker' (one who speaks), formed by compounding; modelled partly on the Old Norse compound 'lǫgsǫgumaðr' (from 'lǫg', "laws", and 'sǫgumaðr', "speaker, reciter"). Unlike a "lawman," a general enforcer, or a "judge," a formal adjudicator, the lawspeaker was the law's living vessel: the measured voice across the frosty *thing* field, the one who could summon an entire codex from memory, the human keystone of a society built on spoken covenant. His breath made the law, and when he ceased, it ceased to exist.
noun
- An official in Scandinavia whose duties included memorizing laws as well as presiding over, and reciting the laws at, regional Things or the Althing.“In every legal district there is a lawspeaker, and he has the greatest power among the farmers, because whatever he decides to be the law stands.[…]But whenever there is a conflict in their laws, then the Uppsala laws prevail; and all the other lawspeakers have a lower rank than the one who functions for the Tíundaland.”