Wergild, Compensation and Penance

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.

'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 reviewhere.

• Preface and AcknowledgmentsList of Figures and TablesAbbreviationsContributors1 Wergild and the Monetary Logic of Early Medieval Conflict ResolutionStefan Esders2 Observations Concerning the ‘Wergild System’: Explanatory Approaches, Effectiveness and Structural DeficitsHarald Siems3 Monetary Fines, Penalties and Compensations in Late AntiquityRalph W. Mathisen4 Wergeld: The Germanic Terminology of Compositio and Its Implementation in the Early Middle AgesWolfgang Haubrichs5 Wergild, Mund and Manbot in Early Anglo-Saxon LawLisi Oliver6 Compensation, Honour and Idealism in the Laws of ÆthelberhtTom Lambert7 Wergild and Honour: Using the Case of Frisia to Build a ModelHan Nijdam8 Triplice Weregeldum: Social and Functional Status in the Lex RibuariaLukas Bothe9 Penance and Satisfaction: Conflict Settlement and Penitential Practices in the Frankish World in the Early Middle AgesRob Meens10 The Limits of Government: Wergilds and Legal Reforms under CharlemagneKarl Ubl11 Wergild in the Carolingian Formula CollectionsWarren Brown12 The Kin’s Collective Responsibility for the Payment of Man’s Compensation in Medieval DenmarkHelle Vogt13 Concluding Thoughts from England and the ‘Western Legal Tradition’Paul HyamsIndex