Wordie: Wergild: Comments

Comment by chained_bear, about 1 year ago

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 11:45:21 +0000

Wow. I guess that's where enthrall comes from! Isn't that nifty!

Comment by trivet, about 1 year ago

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 11:42:19 +0000

Thralls were a Viking thing, somewhere between a serf and a slave, I think. There were a bunch of funky rules about thralls that I have very fuzzy recollections about. Maybe they had to wear neck rings? I think they were either captured on raids or people who were destitute enough to put themselves up for thralldom. I'm sure there is info out there...

Comment by chained_bear, about 1 year ago

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 11:28:07 +0000

Interesting notes! I didn't know it could be spelled wergild--only saw it as weregild--but it stands to reason. Thanks for posting the usage! WTF is a thrall anyway?

Comment by trivet, about 1 year ago

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 11:04:33 +0000

blood money

From wikipedia:
"Wergild was a reparational payment usually demanded of a person guilty of homicide or other wrongful death, although it could also be demanded in other cases of serious crime. The payment of weregild was an important legal mechanism in early northern European societies, such as those of the Vikings, and Anglo-Saxons; the other common form of legal reparation at this time was blood revenge. The payment was typically made to the family or to the clan. The word means "man price". If these payments were not made, or refused by the offended party, a blood feud would ensue.

The size of the weregild in cases of murder was largely conditional upon the social rank of the victim. Thralls and slaves technically commanded no weregild, but it was commonplace to make a nominal payment in the case of a thrall and the value of the slave in such a case."