Wergeld

"in early Germanic and Anglo-Saxon law, a price paid by a person who has killed another to the family of the person killed, to atone for the killing and avoid reprisals." Webster's New World College Dictionary

It sounds like "war-gold". It probably means war gold, or gold that prevents a war. As odd and despicable as it may seem that people forgave and forgot for a golden price, it seems that it is a contract developed to avoid wars. The concept of paying wergeld of the same family as paying war taxes or enforcing sanctions; the idea is to pay for an offense action. Does paying wergeld bring peace? Or, does the existence of wergeld justify murder as a financial transaction? What is the significance of wergeld?

In olden times of history, the concept was quite simple. Two men duel, one dies, the other pays wergeld to the other's family to avoid repercussions. End of story. Where things become complicated, where there is more scope for philosophy, is when the payment of wergeld is a transaction between two countries and the reprisal that has been avoided is war. If the wergeld paid was to avoid war, it should cripple the paying party so that they can't go to war anyway, or else the wergeld has accomplished nothing. But, this leaves the receiving party in a position to make war at an advantage. In true Machiavellian politics, after such an amount is paid, it would be the optimal time to start a war. I know Cesare Borgia, the Machiavelli's title prince, certainly would.

Is this where honour and fairness comes out to play? Is wergeld a guarantee of peace? Or, is it a gambit that can be accepted and, more importantly, declined? In acceptance, is the accepting party admitting that human life can be bought? If declined, is it a sufficient cause for war, for both parties? So, if a country is already poised for war, with soldiers at ready, and an offending country kills a man, is it not in their advantage to then refuse all forms of wergeld and go straight to war? Then, clearly, the concept of wergeld prompts war as well as it avoids war. So, after all's said and done, is this peace-implying way of dealing with a fallout just another way to present war?

I thought of wergeld after reading the news on Israel and Lebanon. I thought it would be a appropriate tie-in with this weary old world of weltschmerz.