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What does the term 'wergild' mean in Beowulf?

The term wergild in Beowulf literally translates as 'man payment' or 'man compensation' but is usually translated simply as 'man price'. The concept of wergild was a legal principle under Anglo-Saxon law. Under the principle of wergild, a homicide could be compensated by giving money or valuable property to the family of the victim. This same legal principle was found throughout the Germanic world at that time, and it is a very important concept...

The term wergild in Beowulf literally translates as 'man payment' or 'man compensation' but is usually translated simply as 'man price'. The concept of wergild was a legal principle under Anglo-Saxon law. Under the principle of wergild, a homicide could be compensated by giving money or valuable property to the family of the victim. This same legal principle was found throughout the Germanic world at that time, and it is a very important concept in several Icelandic sagas.


It is worth noting that the Germanic societies that employed the use of wergild often distinguished between two types of homicides: (1) a homicide that was part of a dispute or feud and was carried out openly and (2) murder, which was a homicide that was hidden and/or was committed outside the more acceptable context of a dispute or feud (e.g., in commission of another crime, such as theft). Wergild usually would be payable in both instances, but with respect to the open and more acceptable homicide, wergild alone might be sufficient compensation for the homicide (although a short period of banishment might also be included), and any revenge homicide would be seen as a separate action. With respect to murder, however, outlawry (and sometimes death) would also be part of the sentence, and a properly conducted revenge homicide against the outlawed murderer might not be subject to payment of wergild to the murderer’s family.

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