TRIBAL CUSTOM
IN ANGLO-SAXON LAW
BEING AN ESSAY SUPPLEMENTAL TO
(1) ‘THE ENGLISH VILLAGE COMMUNITY’
(2) ‘THE TRIBAL SYSTEM IN WALES’
BY
FREDERIC SEEBOHM, LL.D., F.S.A.
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1902
[All rights reserved]
To the two former Essays, on ‘The English VillageCommunity’ and ‘The Tribal System in Wales,’ is nowat last added in this volume a third on ‘Tribal Customin Anglo-Saxon Law.’
In the first Essay an attempt was made to approachthe early Anglo-Saxon evidence from the point of viewof the Manorial system, and mainly by tracing back itsconnection with the open field system of agriculture—theshell, so to speak, in which it had all along apparentlylived.
The object of this third Essay in the trilogy is toapproach the Anglo-Saxon laws from the point of viewof tribal custom.
As a preliminary to this attempt, a detailed study ofCymric tribal custom was made in the intermediateEssay in the belief that the knowledge so gained mightbe used as a clue to the understanding of survivals oftribal custom in the laws of the tribes most nearly alliedto the invaders of Britain, and lastly in the Anglo-Saxonlaws themselves.
The interval which has elapsed between the publicationof the three Essays has made it necessary to make[vi]each of them, to some extent, independent and completein itself.
It thus becomes necessary in this volume briefly torepeat, as well as further to develop, what was learnedof Cymric tribal custom in the previous volume, especiallyas regards the ‘gwely,’ or family unit of tribalsociety, and as regards the methods of payment of thegalanas, or death-fine for homicide in lieu of the blood-feudbetween kindreds.
The death-fine or wergeld of the Continental tribesforms so important a test of the position of classes intribal society that it became necessary to ascertain atthe outset what were the currencies in which the wergeldswere stated and paid. A brief explanation ofthese will be found in the first chapter.
Then follows the summary of the Cymric evidence.And as some of the points connected with the paymentof wergelds can only be rightly understood when regardedfrom the point of view of the blood-feud forwhich the wergeld was a substitute, the Cymric evidenceis followed by a brief examination of the rules of thefeud incidentally revealed in ‘Beowulf.’
A chapter on Irish or Goidelic tribal custom completesthe preliminary evidence.
The inquiry into the tribal custom of the Continentaltribes as revealed in their laws is proceeded with inthe following order:—
First the Burgundian and Wisigothic laws are brieflyexamined, as showing most clearly the disintegration oftribal custom caused by early contact with Roman andChristian influences.
Next are examined the traces of tribal custom in thelaws of the Salic and Ripuarian Franks and of the tribesconquered by the Merovingian Kings. Separate considerationis then given to the laws of the tribes conqueredby Charlemagne.
The earliest Norse and Scanian laws next claim afull share o