How much does a life cost?
I appeal to the collective knowledge of the flist.
Today, while teaching Beowulf, I pointed out the bit that always amuses me about Grendel, where they say that not only is he a horrible monster and eats our warriors but he doesn't even have the decency to pay weregild!
A hand popped up, and one student asked the very sensible question - what would weregild consist of? In other words, what was the going rate for a warrior's life in those days? I had to confess that I didn't have the foggiest but would endeavour to find out. If necessary, I'll do some research (or at least try Googling it), but I figured that one of my esteemed flist might just already know, so... any takers?
Today, while teaching Beowulf, I pointed out the bit that always amuses me about Grendel, where they say that not only is he a horrible monster and eats our warriors but he doesn't even have the decency to pay weregild!
A hand popped up, and one student asked the very sensible question - what would weregild consist of? In other words, what was the going rate for a warrior's life in those days? I had to confess that I didn't have the foggiest but would endeavour to find out. If necessary, I'll do some research (or at least try Googling it), but I figured that one of my esteemed flist might just already know, so... any takers?
