I. ANGLO-SAXON CUSTOM AS APPLIED TO NORMANS 321
I. THE ‘DE INSTITUTIS LUNDONIE’--OF CNUT (?) 337
II. FRAGMENT ‘OF “GRITH” AND OF “MUND”’ 344
III. THE ‘FRITH’ BETWEEN ETHELRED II. AND OLAF TRYGGVASON, A.D. 993 349
_ANGLO-SAXON CUSTOM FROM THE VIKING OR NORTHMEN’S POINT OF VIEW._
I. THE COMPACT BETWEEN KING ALFRED AND GUTHRUM, A.D. 886 351
II. THE COURSE OF PROCEDURE IN PAYMENT OF WERGELD 356
III. FRAGMENTS OF MERCIAN AND NORTH PEOPLE’S LAW 360
II. THE DIALOGUE OF EGBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, A.D. 732-766. ECCLESIASTICAL OATHS AND WERGELDS 377
IV. THE POSITION OF STRANGERS IN BLOOD UNDER KING INE’S LAWS--THE SIX-HYNDEMAN 396
V. THE TWELVE-HYNDE AND TWY-HYNDE MEN AND THEIR HYNDENS OF OATH-HELPERS 406
VI. THE GESITHCUND AND CEORLISC CLASSES IN THEIR CONNECTION WITH LAND 417
VII. COMPARISON OF WESSEX AND MERCIAN WERGELDS WITH THOSE OF CONTINENTAL TRIBES 436
I. DISTINCTION FROM ANGLO-SAXON LAWS, A.D. 596-696 440
II. THE SCÆTTS AND SCILLINGS OF THE KENTISH LAWS 443
IV. THE LAWS OF HLOTHÆRE AND EADRIC, A.D. 685-6 467
V. THE LAWS OF KING WIHTRÆD, A.D. 690-696 476
VI. THE DIVISION OF CLASSES UNDER KENTISH CUSTOM 481
VII. THE AMOUNT OF THE KENTISH WERGELDS 487
_THE CURRENCY IN WHICH WERGELDS WERE RECKONED AND PAID._
I. CONNECTION BETWEEN THE WERGELD OF 100 HEAD OF CATTLE AND THE MINA OF 100 GOLD STATERS.
[Sidenote: The currencies in which wergelds were paid.]
The inquiry pursued in this volume partakes so much of the character of a study of the wergelds of the various tribes of North-western Europe that it becomes necessary as briefly as possible to call attention at the outset to the currencies in which they were reckoned and paid.
The Cymric galanas or death fine was reckoned in cows, and the cows were equated with silver.
The Irish ‘eric’ of the Brehon laws was stated in _cumhals_ or female slaves, and lesser payments in cows and heifers, and these were all equated with silver.
The Anglo-Saxon wergelds were stated, with perhaps one exception, in silver scillings.
The wergelds of the Scandinavian tribes were generally stated in their laws in silver marks, ores, and ortugs, with the equivalent in gold at a ratio of 1:8, and also in cows.
Those of the Continental German tribes were generally stated in gold solidi, but the statements were sometimes supplemented by clauses describing the value of the animals, whether oxen or cows, in which the payments were, in practice, still evidently made, at the date of the laws.