Wergild, Compensation and Penance

The Monetary Logic of Early Medieval Conflict Resolution
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-90-04-31510-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 31, 328 Seiten, Format (B × H): 162 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 624 g

Reihe: Medieval Law and Its Practice

This 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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Bothe, Lukas

Esders, Stefan

Nijdam, Han

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtsgeschichte, Recht der Antike

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface 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

Über Autor(innen)

Lukas Bothe is a research associate at Freie Universität, Berlin. His research focuses on the Lex Ribuaria and the functionality of monetary fines.

Stefan Esders is professor of late antique and early medieval history at Freie Universität, Berlin. His research interests include early medieval law and legislation, the impact of Roman law in the post-Roman era and medieval legal pluralism.

Han Nijdam is project leader for Old Frisian at the Fryske Akademy, Leeuwarden. He writes on medieval Frisian law and historical anthropology of medieval Frisia.