Laws of the Northumbrians, mid-10th century
Norðleoda Laga (‘Laws of the Northumbrians’), mid-tenth-century1.
Transcription
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Be wergylde.
Cynges wergild is inne mid Englum on folcriht
xxx þusend þrymsa, Xv þusend ðrymsa byð
þæs weres, ⁊ xv þusend þæs cynedomes. Se wer
gebyreð þam magum, ⁊ seo cynebot þam leodum. Æ þelinges wergyld is xv þusend þrymsa. Bisceo-
pes, ⁊ ealdermannes viii þusend þrymsa. Hol-
des ⁊ hehgerefan iiii þusend þrymsa. Mæsse-
þegenes, ⁊ woruld-þegenes, ii þusend þrymsa. Ceorles wergyld is cc ⁊ vi ⁊ Lx þrymsa, þæt þæt bið
twa hund scillinga be Myrcna lage. 7 gif Wilisc
man geþeo þæt he hæbbe hywisc landes, ⁊ mage
cynges gafel forð bringan, þonne byð his wer-
gyld cc xx scillinga. 7 gif he ne geþeo butan to
healfre hide, þonne sy his wergyld Lxxx scillinga. 7 gif he ænig land næbbe, ⁊ þeh freoh sy, forgylde
man hine mid Lxx scillinga. 7 gif ceorlisc man ge-
þeo þæt he hæbbe v hida landes to cynges utware,
⁊ man hine ofslea, forgylde man hine mid ii
þusend þrymsa. 7 þeh he geþeo þæt he hæbbe helm
⁊ byrnan, ⁊ goldfæted sweord, gif he æ land
nafaþ, he byþ ceorl swa þeah. 7 gif his sunu ⁊ his suna
sunu þæt geþeoð, þæt hy swa micel landes
habbað, syððan byþ se ofspring gesiðcundes
cynnes, be twam ðusendum þrymsa. 7 gif hig
þæt nabbað ne to þam geþeon ne magan, gylde man
cyrlisce.2
Translation
Concerning Wergild
Among the English,3 the king’s wergild is, according to folk-right,4 30 thousand thrymsa:5 15 thousand thrymsa the man’s, 15 thousand the kingdom’s. The wer[gild] belongs to the family, and the ‘king-bot’ to the people.6
An atheling’s wergild is 15 thousand thrymsa.7
A bishop’s and an ealdorman’s, 8 thousand thrymsa.8
A hold’s and a high-reeve’s, 4 thousand thrymsa.9
A priestly thegn’s and a worldly thegn’s, 2 thousand thrymsa.10
A ceorl’s wergild is 266 thrymsa, which is two hundred shillings according to the law of the Mercians.11
And if a Welshman thrives so that he has a hide of land, and can bring forth the king’s tribute, then his wergild is 220 shillings.12 But if he thrives only as far as half a hide, then is wergeld is 80 shillings. And if he does not have any land, but he is nevertheless free, one must compensate him with 70 shillings.
And if someone of ceorlish rank prospers so that he has five hides of land, as king’s warland,13 and someone kills him, that one should compensate him with 2 thousand thrymsa.14 However, though he may prosper to the extent that he has a helmet and a byrnie and a gold-hilted sword, if he does not hold such land, he is a ceorl. And if his son and his son’s son prosper so that they hold much land, thereafter the offspring will become gesith-born kin with [a wergild] of two thousand thrymsa.15 And if they do not have that nor are able to prosper, one should compensate according to the rank of ceorl.
Footnotes
1 The text may have been amended by Wulfstan, archbishop of York (r. 1002–23), but the original can be dated to no later than the mid-tenth century due to its mention of a Northumbrian king, the last of whom, Eric Haraldsson (Eric Bloodaxe), was defeated in 954.
2 The scribe has bracketed off ‘cyrlice’ below the final ruled line rather than place it overleaf.
3 The wergild (‘man-payment’) was the monetary value put on the life of a free person within Anglo-Saxon compensation laws.
4 Or ‘Angles’.
5 Or ‘law of the people’. Patrick Wormald offers ‘customary law’: The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, vol. 1 (Blackwell, 1999), p. 392.
6 ‘Thrymsa [trymes]. A[nglo-]S[axon] gold or silver coin minted from c. 630, at first copying Roman style, then after c. 660 adopting distinctive AS decoration. Though initially issued in gold, by c. 650 the thrymsa was being alloyed with silver; by 675 it was a wholly silver coin. In c. 1000 the thrymsa was equal in value to 3d [i.e. three pennies].’ A Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases, ed. Christopher Corèdon with Ann Williams (D. S. Brewer, 2005).
7 In texts discussing wergilds, Old English wer (‘man’) is often synonymous with wergild. In this particular passage, the sense is that half of the entire wergild is for the ‘man’, i.e. the king, and is given to the king’s family as his personal wergild. The other half is for the kingdom, and as the ‘king-bot’ (or ‘king-compensation’) it essentially compensates the king’s people, for whom the king acted as protector.
8 Or ‘prince’. An atheling (or ‘ætheling’) was a member of the royal family, either the heir to or considered worthy of the throne.
9 An ealdorman was the highest ranked nobleman in Anglo-Saxon society. We should note the equivalency of status given a bishop; this may have been one of archbishop Wulfstan’s amendments.
10 A hold was a title introduced by the Danish rulers of Northumbria, and is the Scandinavian equivalent to the highreeve.
11 A thegn (‘thane’) was essentially an aristocratic servant of a lord, or a king, and held a position in Anglo-Saxon society above ordinary freemen, i.e. ceorls, but below ealdormen. In this passage, a mass-priest is attributed the same status as a regular thegn. As with the attribution for bishop and ealdorman, this may represent archbishop Wulfstan’s involvement in amending the original text.
12 A ceorl was the lowest-ranked freeman in Anglo-Saxon society.
13 Old English ‘wilisc man’: ‘foreign person’, i.e. not English. Wilisc, from which ‘Welsh’ is derived, is often used in texts to describe Britons who were integrated into Anglo-Saxon society after the Germanic tribes invaded Britain and became the dominant force in most of what we now call England. It is particularly used with reference to the unfree or slaves. Here it appears to be used for individual Britons who have acquired a degree of autonomy, though we should note that their wergild does not equate with that of an English ceorl.
14 The king’s ‘warland’ (cyninges utwaru) was rateable land for which public services and/or taxation were owed. See Rosamond Faith, The English Peasantry and the Growth of Lordship (Leicester University Press, 1997), p. 90.
15 This shows that a prosperous ceorl could climb to a status equivalent to a thegn.
16 Essentially, a gesith-born man held the status of a thegn, as he was the son of a gesitha, a follower or retainer of the king. So, we are seeing, here, the potential for families from the rank of ceorl to climb the social ladder.
