Wergild
Wergild
A payment of reparation for a death. It was part of a warrior code. There is money to be paid for loss of life to the family of the victim.
Example: King Hrothgar pays the Geats a wergild (also spelled weregild and wergeld) for Grendel's murder of one of their party.
"And compensation,
a price in gold, was settled for the Geat
Grendel had cruelly killed earlier--
as he would have killed more, had not mindful God
and one man's daring prevented that doom."
-Beowulf (Seamus Heaney translation)