Wergeld: Price of Life

Although the wergeld initially served as a buffer in a violence prone Anglo-Saxon culture, it eventually was used to determine social standing and establish the power of the king. Anglo-Saxon England began as a heroic society that valued honor and kin above all. This society maintained a high potential towards internal strife that threatened to destabilize it. The wergeld developed in this hostile culture as a social convention that offered an alternative to the violence. Once written into Royal Law, the power of the wergeld to stabilize the society solidified. It also developed an alternate purpose: supporting and expanding the power of the king. In Anglo-Saxon England widely accepted social systems and traditional concepts could function in place of official authority to determine matters that would later require legal intervention :. rights of inheritance, marriage, land ownership, and settlement of disputes. Quarrels could arise for any number of reasons including but not limited to, manslaughter, property disagreements, and insults to honor. When these conflicts of interest occurred, instead of seeking outside authorities, it was expected that family would intercede and seek retribution or restitution on their kindreds behalf. Richard Fletcher reports that feuding was “governed by accepted social convention.” and “recognized by outsiders as a regular form of relationship.”1 This kind of intercession could easily provoke already delicate situations into violence. While the feuding may have been accepted, and even encouraged in certain situations, the Anglo-Saxons knew their society would not be able to function if every conflict came to a violent end. The wergeld established an alternative to claiming blood vengeance. The guilty individual or his family could make restitution in the form of monetary compensation. The historian Wallace-Hadrill points out “. . . the reality of the bloodier alternative was the sanction that made composition possible