Topic summary
Wergild
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Weregild.
Origins
Wergild first appears in the European historical record in 500 AD in the Lex Burgundionum, but the concept of paying blood-money is found widely in many pre-modern societies. Scholars debate if wergild was a traditional Germanic legal concept, or if it developed from a Roman predecessor. Christophe Gamby argued in 2013 that the entire institution was essentially derived from Roman law, whereas Harald Siems and Ralph Mathisen both rejected this concept in 2021, arguing that nothing comparable existed in Roman Law. However, Siems and Mathisen both argue that Roman law still influenced the definitions of crimes and possibly legal procedures in the "barbarian law codes" that first mention wergild.