Sorry if this has posted twice. 'Hughsa' also has the gloss 'tänka,'
and I liberally interpreted it in the context to mean 'remembered.'
Also, 'huxæt oc gørt' is literally 'thought and made,' so if Lumber
"thought" the laws, he would have been the person who learned them
from oral traditions and then composed them (as it says here, the laws
are named after their creator). Plus Old Icelandic 'huga' ("to think
out") and 'hugsa' ("to think upon") is intimately connected with the
noun 'hugr,' and I still associate the idea of 'hugr' meaning "mind"
(and the process of the mind, memory) with the phrase 'koma í hug.'
It's perfectly normal in Modern Swedish to use 'koma ihåg' for
"remember." But of course this is besides the point.

The only other option for 'hughsa' in this phrase is "he is said to
have thought out (i.e. "arranged by memory") and composed much of our
law." The funny thing is that the phrase you picked out is one in the
introduction, and of course I spent a lot less time focusing
onintroducing the text, since I expected only two people to read it
(my professor and a friend of mine).

Anyone who has read through anything past the Old Norwegian text in
Gordon will see that there is a bit from the Older West-Gautish Laws
(though in the Old Swedish title, if you can call it one, isn't in the
plural, neither is the modern title "Västgötalagen"; 'lagh' hasn't
been neuter in Swedish for a while). About 1/5th of my translation is
in the section in Gordon, and to be completely honest, the most
interesting part is all in Gordon; the rest is a bit too "legal" for
anyone's tastes, though I recommend reading the line about the
punishments for insults, since the insults can be on the comical side.
"I said that you were fucked by a man...the penalty is three
ortugs...I said that you rode loose-haired on the farm-gates in the
form of a troll, etc."
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~pete2581/Complete%20Project%20(Word%202003).pdf

There needs to be more research into Old Swedish, Gutnish, Danish,
Finnish-Swedish, and Norwegian. Almost every Icelandic text has been
read and translated, analyzed to high hell, and given a limited
picture of medieval Scandinavia (despite its unparalleled amount
literary activity, which I'm very thankful for). Gutasaga, among
others, is a great read, and the strange diphthongs ("aina" pronounced
/aj/ or /ai/ [same as German 'eine']) are probably the last direct
remnant of the Gothic language in Scandinavia.

I once heard a story about how the Icelanders had it so tough under
Danish rule that they used manuscripts to stuff their boots during
winter. In Sweden, they reused priceless manuscripts to line the
covers of newly printed Christian Bibles after the invention of the
printing press; but I suppose this isn't a religious forum.