Concerning arsonists and murders, probably 10th century
Thought to be the earliest of the anonymous Old English law codes,1 this text concerns the judicial process for those accused of arson or murder,2 and it relates some of the particulars of trial by ordeal.3
It is this brief law that enables us to understand that a ‘threefold’ ordeal of iron, referred to elsewhere in the Old English laws (see, for example, Æthelstan’s Grately Code), involved increasing threefold the weight of the iron bar, to be carried by the accused, from one to three pounds. In another anonymous law, known as Ordal,4 we learn that the iron bar was heated upon coals and was carried by the accused for a measurement of nine of his, or her, feet.
This text is also important for showing that the crimes of arson and murder required greater support of one’s oath – the declaration of one’s innocence – if the accused were to escape the ordeal. The deepening of one’s oath threefold meant the accused had to find three times the usual number of people to publicly stand as ‘oath-supporters’.
Transcription
31v (select folio number to open facsimile)
We cwædon be þam blaserum, cxxi5
⁊ be þam morþslyhtum, þæt man dypte þone
aþ be þryfealdum, ⁊ myclade þæt ordalysen
þæt hit gewege þry pund, ⁊ eode se man sylf
to þe man tuge, ⁊ hæbbe se teond cyre, swa wæter-
ordal, swa ysenordal, swa hwæþer him leofra
sy. Gif he ðone að forþbringan ne mæg, ⁊
he þonne ful sy, stande on þæra yldesta man-
na dome, hweþer he lif age þe nage, þe to ðære
byrig hyran.
Translation
We declared concerning arsonists and concerning murders that one should deepen the oath threefold,6 and one should enlarge the ordeal-iron so that it should weigh three pounds, and the person who is the one accused should walk themself;7 and the accuser should have the choice, whether the water-ordeal or the iron-ordeal,8 whatever is pleasing to him.
If he [the accused] is unable to bring forth the oath,9 and he then be guilty [after the ordeal], it should stand on the judgement of the most senior men that belong to the borough court whether he keeps his life or not.
Bibliography
Wormald, Patrick. The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century (Blackwell, 1999).
Website
Early English Laws, Early English Laws: Home
Footnotes
1 See the introductory comments on the Early English Laws website.
2 Wormald, p. 367, gives ‘underhand killings’.
3 Many thanks to Elise Fleming for kindly proofreading the introduction, translation and notes.
4 Ordal follows this text just a few lines after it finishes, there being the fragmentary text known as Forfang in between the two.
5 The number (121) indicates that this short law is integrated into the law code of King Ine of Wessex (reigned 688-726), which itself is appended to the laws of Alfred the Great (reigned in Wessex 871-899).
6 That is, the accused person must find three times the usual number of people to act as supporters of his oath of denial.
7 OE man signifies a person of either sex. There was to be no representative serving as substitute; the accused person themself had to hold the heated iron and walk the length of the ordeal.
8 It is unclear whether the ‘water-ordeal’ here refers to the so-called ‘hot water’ ordeal (plunging one’s hand or arm into boiling water), described in Ordal, or the so-called ‘cold water’ ordeal (being plunged into a body of water to a certain depth), outlined in Æthelstan’s Grately Code.
9 That is, he is unable to assemble the increased number of oath-supporters.
