Weregild facts for kids

Weregild (pronounced WEAR-gild) was an old rule in some legal systems. It meant that a person's life had a set money value. If someone was killed or hurt by another, this money would be paid as a fine or as payment to the victim's family. It was a way to make up for the harm done.

What Was Weregild?

Weregild was a specific amount of money set for each person, based on their social rank. This amount was used as a fine or payment if someone was murdered, disabled, or seriously injured. The person who caused the harm had to pay this money to the victim's family.

For example, the Frankish Salic Code, an old set of laws, included weregild payments.

Weregild was a very important legal tool in early Germanic societies. It was an alternative to "blood revenge," where families would fight each other to get even. By paying weregild, families could avoid long and violent feuds. The payment usually went to the victim's family or clan. If the person who caused the harm couldn't pay, their own family or clan was expected to help.

In those times, there wasn't a difference between murder (killing on purpose) and manslaughter (killing by accident). These differences only appeared much later, around the 12th century, when Roman law became more common.

Over time, weregild payments slowly stopped. This happened as Christianity spread, starting around the 9th century. By the 12th century, weregild was almost completely replaced by capital punishment (the death penalty) in places like the Holy Roman Empire.

Here's a table from an old law called Norðleoda Laga, showing how much different people were worth:

What Does "Weregild" Mean?

The word weregild comes from two old words:

• Were, which meant "man."
• Geld, which meant "payment" or "fee."

So, weregild literally means "man-payment." The word geld is still used in some modern languages like Dutch, German, and Afrikaans, where it means "money." In Danish and Norwegian, gæld or gjeld means "debt."

Other cultures had similar ideas, often called "blood money." Some examples include:

• ericfine in Ireland
• galanas in Wales
• veriraha in Finland
• vira in Russia
• główszczyzna in Poland

Even today, a similar tradition called diyya is part of the legal systems in countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and Pakistan.

How Much Was Weregild?

The amount of weregild depended a lot on the victim's social rank. There was usually a basic fee for a "free man," and this amount would be multiplied based on how important the person was and what happened. For women, the weregild compared to men of the same rank could be different; for example, among the Saxons, it was half that of men.

Around the 4th to 6th centuries, the standard weregild for a free man seemed to be 200 solidi (an old coin). This amount was later seen as the basic fee for the death of a churl (a free farmer) in Anglo-Saxon and European laws.

In the 8th century, a law called the Lex Alamannorum set the weregild for a duke or archbishop at three times the basic value (600 shillings). If a low-ranking priest was killed, the fine was 300 shillings, but it went up to 400 if he was attacked while leading a church service.

During the time of Charlemagne, his special messengers (called missi dominici) were worth three times the normal weregild if they were killed while on a mission for the king.

In 9th-century Mercian law (an old English kingdom), a regular free man (churl) was worth 200 shillings. A nobleman was worth 1,200 shillings. This difference was so well known that two centuries later, a law from King Cnut simply talked about "all his people - the twelve-hundreders and the two-hundreders." The law even set a weregild for a king at 30,000 thrymsas. Half of this (15,000) went to the royal family for the man, and the other half (15,000) went to the people for the loss of their king. An archbishop or nobleman was also valued at 15,000 thrymsas.

For Welshmen, the weregild was 120 shillings if they owned land and paid taxes to the king. If they only had a little land and couldn't pay taxes, their weregild was 80 shillings. If they were free but had no land, it was 70 shillings.

Thralls (servants) and slaves didn't legally have a weregild because they were considered property. However, a small payment was often made for a thrall, and the value of a slave would be paid to their owner if they were killed. This wasn't truly weregild, but more like paying for lost or damaged property.

Weregild in Stories

Weregild appears in many old and new stories, showing how important this idea was.

Old Stories

• In Iceland's Egil's Saga, there's a famous story about a disagreement over the weregild for a slave.
• In the Völsunga saga, three gods (Odin, Loki, and Hœnir) are made to pay weregild for killing a character named Otr. Otr looked like an otter and was killed by Loki. The gods had to fill Otr's skin with gold and cover it with red gold as payment.
• In the Story of Grettir the Strong, a character named Thorgeir offers weregild to settle a killing.
• The famous Old English poem Beowulf mentions weregild several times. The monster Grendel refuses to pay for the people he kills. Later, King Hroðgar tells how he helped Beowulf's father, Ecgþeow, pay weregild after he killed a man from another tribe. Hroðgar used his family connections to help end the feud.

Modern Stories

• In J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, the character Isildur says he took the One Ring as weregild for his father and brother, who died in battle. The book also mentions a large weregild of gold sent by a leader of Gondor to the King of Rohan after his twin sons died in battle.
• In Jim Butcher's Skin Game (part of The Dresden Files series), the main character Harry Dresden offers a box of diamonds as weregild to a crime boss. This payment is for an employee who was killed, and Dresden says it should go to the employee's family to end the conflict.
• In Rick Riordan's novel The Hammer of Thor, an elf named Hearthstone has to pay a weregild for his brother Andiron's death. Hearthstone was distracted when a monster killed his brother. Because Hearthstone was deaf, he didn't notice until it was too late. His father made him pay the weregild by earning gold to cover a rug made from the monster's skin.

See also

Sources

• Byock, Jesse L. (1990) Saga of the Volsungs. University of California Press. ISBN: 0140447385.
• Rabin, Andrew, The Political Writings of Archbishop Wulfstan of York (Manchester, 2015).