Chapter 89: Initiation

''Weregild: Archaic term for a fine made as legal reparations for an unlawful death at the hands of an offending party to their victim's family or clan. The precise value of the payment was based on the legal and social standing of the victim, with no division set between murder and manslaughter. A freeman was generally used as the base payment amount, with 200 shillings being the value assigned in 8th century Anglo-Saxon law, and this amount then modified appropriately according to the local mores—for example, among the Alamanni, the weregeld for women was twice that of an equal-status man, while among the Saxons, it was half. An envoy from Charlemagne was worth three times his normal value if killed while in active service to the king, and a priest was worth an extra hundred shillings if he was killed during the reading of Mass—presumably, both of these circumstances occurred enough to warrant the variance in the legal codes.''

While these payments seem to be preposterous to a more modern outlook, it is important to note that, in their era, which lacked centralized law enforcement and more modern legal punishments, weregilds functioned as a system that allowed for deescalation of tensions, as opposed to the other option for restitution that was available: the victim's family going out and killing the killer, which would spark a cycle of revenge that would spiral into vendettas and feuds.

—From Aesir To Yggdrasil: A Norse Primer

Foreshadowing
Put spoilers here

Epigraph Tie-In

 * The epigraph explains what weregild is. The chapter shows the Berserkers being made to pay weregild for what they did to Glenfinnan.

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