Description
Book SynopsisThis volume offers the first comprehensive account of the monetary logic that guided the payment of wergild and blood money in early medieval conflict resolution. In the early middle ages, wergild played multiple roles: it was used to measure a person’s status, to prevent and end conflicts, and to negotiate between an individual and the agents of statehood. This collection of interlocking essays by historians, philologists and jurists represents a major contribution to the study of law and society in Western Europe during the early Middle Ages. Contributors are Lukas Bothe, Warren Brown, Stefan Esders, Wolfgang Haubrichs, Paul Hyams, Tom Lambert, Ralph W. Mathisen, Rob Meens, Han Nijdam, Lisi Oliver, Harald Siems, Karl Ubl, and Helle Vogt. See inside the book.
Trade Review'My dominant response to this collection was pleasure and gratitude: pleasure because the articles are without exception wonderful; gratitude because it is about time someone published a collection like this. For our understanding of medieval law has changed dramatically in the last two generations, yet when it comes to wergild, most of us still operate with assumptions that go back to the nineteenth century.' Geoffrey Koziol in The Medieval Review, 22.03.16. See the full review here.
Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments List of Figures and Tables Abbreviations Contributors 1 Wergild and the Monetary Logic of Early Medieval Conflict Resolution Stefan Esders 2 Observations Concerning the ‘Wergild System’: Explanatory Approaches, Effectiveness and Structural Deficits Harald Siems 3 Monetary Fines, Penalties and Compensations in Late Antiquity Ralph W. Mathisen 4 Wergeld: The Germanic Terminology of Compositio and Its Implementation in the Early Middle Ages Wolfgang Haubrichs 5 Wergild, Mund and Manbot in Early Anglo-Saxon Law Lisi Oliver 6 Compensation, Honour and Idealism in the Laws of Æthelberht Tom Lambert 7 Wergild and Honour: Using the Case of Frisia to Build a Model Han Nijdam 8 Triplice Weregeldum: Social and Functional Status in the Lex Ribuaria Lukas Bothe 9 Penance and Satisfaction: Conflict Settlement and Penitential Practices in the Frankish World in the Early Middle Ages Rob Meens 10 The Limits of Government: Wergilds and Legal Reforms under Charlemagne Karl Ubl 11 Wergild in the Carolingian Formula Collections Warren Brown 12 The Kin’s Collective Responsibility for the Payment of Man’s Compensation in Medieval Denmark Helle Vogt 13 Concluding Thoughts from England and the ‘Western Legal Tradition’ Paul Hyams Index
