tamingthemuse | (no subject)

Well, despite the Great LJ Outtage of 06, we have completed another week. I'll have the voting up in a sec, but it's prompt time right now. Hopefully you guys will get a kick out of this one.

WERGILD or WERGELD

Um, I'm guessing no one knows this one... not unless we have some Viking scholars in the group.
http://www.bartleby.com/61/41/W0094100.html

In Anglo-Saxon and Germanic law, a price set upon a person's life on the basis of rank and paid as compensation by the family of a slayer to the kindred or lord of a slain person to free the culprit of further punishment or obligation and to prevent a blood feud.

http://members.tripod.com/~mr_sedivy/engrise6.html

The chief mark distinguishing the ranks of the thane, churl, and thrall was "wergeld." This was a man's "life-price" - the number of oxen or the sum of money that had to be paid to his relatives by anyone who killed him. Wergelds were fixed according to rank. In the laws of King Ine of Wessex (688 - 726), a nobleman's life-price was six times that of a churl. Fear of the victim's family helped to prevent crime. (Today it's prison, police, etc.) Back then you could take revenge on the person responsible or claim compensation based on the wergeld.

http://www.safarix.com/0132236923/ch01lev1sec4

Lex salica was the fine paid for homicide, and it varied according to the rank, sex, and age of the murdered person. In general, lex salica refers to a payment for death or injury. Wergeld, which means "man-money," orginally referred to the death of an individual and the individual's supposed value to his or her family. It later referred to personal injury as well.