In clause 164 under the heading of ‘A madman’s manslaying’ is the following:[179]
Nu hever maðr óðz mannz víg vigit, vigr sunr faður, æða faðer sun, æða bróðer bróðor, æða systkin eitthvert, æða vigr barn móðor sína, æða móðer barn sitt, þá firi-vigr hann arve þeim er hann átti at taca. Scal sá þann arf taca er nestr er þá, oc helldr scal konongr hava en hann. En hann være í lande, oc gange til skrifta, oc have sitt allt.
Now if a man has done the slaying of a madman, if a son slays his father, or a father his son, or a brother his brother or any of his sisters and brothers, or a child slays its mother or a mother her child, then he forfeits the inheritance he ought to take. The one next to him in kin takes that inheritance, and the King shall have it rather than he. But he shall stay in the land and be shriven and keep all that is his.
No wergeld within the family.
In the Gulathing law the kindred within which there is no wergeld is thus the actual family, and it is in full accord with the instance in Beowulf in which the old father is represented as having to put up with the presence of a son by whose arrow another of his sons had been slain, such a crime being one which under tribal custom could not be avenged.
Turning now to the amount of the wergeld of the Gulathing law and the Frostathing law, it must again be remarked that there are in these laws varying accounts of it.
The wergeld of the Frostathing law of later date awarded in marks of gold.
In the first place there are some avowedly of later date than others. Thus, in Frostathing VI. 1 the description of the wergeld is commenced as follows:—
Her hefr upp oc segir í frá því er flestum er myrkt oc þyrftu þó marger at vita, fyrir því at vandræði vaxa manna á millum en þeir þverra er bæði höfðu til vit oc góðan vilja, hvesso scipta scylldi ákveðnum bótum ef þær ero dœmdar, fyrer því at þat er nú meiri siðr at ánemna bœtr, hvesso margar mercr gulls uppi sculu vera epter þann er af var tecinn, oc velldr þat at marger vito eigi hvat laga bót er, er þó at vissi, þá vilia nú fáer því una. En Frostoþings bóc scipter lagabót hveriom epter sínum burð oc metorði, en ecki hinum bótum er þeir ofsa eða vansa er í dómum sitia oc sáttmál gera.