Kinship in Anglo-Saxon England
- 1 December 1974
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Anglo-Saxon England
- Vol. 3, 197-209
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0263675100000685
Abstract
There is a great text in the Welsh laws that tells us that a man who killed another, and who wished to make proper amends, paid one-ninth of his victim's blood-price to the offended kindred. His mother and father paid another ninth, and his brothers and sisters a further ninth again. The remaining two-thirds was to be found by the kindred to the seventh degree – some recensions say the ninth – and two-thirds of that in turn was to come from the paternal kin, one-third from the maternal. The blood-feud group in other words was ego-centred, differed from individual to individual, and was elaborate in structure. Descendants of the great-grandparents of great-grandparents on both sides would be involved.Keywords
This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- KINSHIP, STATUS AND THE ORIGINS OF THE HIDEPast & Present, 1972
- EARLY MEDIEVAL SOCIAL GROUPINGS: THE TERMINOLOGY OF KINSHIPPast & Present, 1969
- THE GERMAN ARISTOCRACY FROM THE NINTH TO THE EARLY TWELFTH CENTURY A HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL SKETCHPast & Present, 1968
- La noblesse au Moyen Age dans l'ancienne « Francie »Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 1962