For entertainment, minstrels sang ballads about heroes or Bible stories, harpers played, jesters joked, and tumblers threw and caught balls and knives. There was gambling, dice games, and chasing deer with hounds.
Fraternal guilds were established for mutual advantage and protection. A guild imposed fines for any injury of one member by another member. It assisted in paying any murder fine imposed on a member. It avenged the murder of a member and abided by the consequences. It buried its members and purchased masses for his soul.
Mercantile guilds in seaports carried out commercial speculations not possible by the capital of only one person.
There were some ale houses, probably part of certain dwellings.
It was usual for a dying man to confess his sins to a priest. For the sake of his soul, the priest often suggested the man give some of his chattel to the church, the poor, or other pious uses. By the 700s, the words of a dying man giving chattel for the sake of his soul were expected to be carried out. Later is the "post obit gift" by which a man gives land to the church, with the king's consent, but enjoys the land during his lifetime by stating in writing "I give certain land after my death" in a special "book". The church takes possession of the land after his death. He may make a conditional such gift, leaving the land to his wife for her life with a rent paid to the church and the church taking possession of the land on her death. These two procedures coalesce into one written will used in the 800s, 900s, and 1000s. This will also includes distributions to family and kinsmen and perhaps to creditors. If the will is made by the very great people: kings, queens, king's sons, bishops, earldormen, and king's thegns, it requires the king's consent, which may be bought by a large heriot. And a bishop usually sets his cross to the will, denouncing any who infringe it to the torments of hell. The dead man's parish church is paid a mortuary when he is buried.
The Law
The special authority of the king and his peace gradually superseded the customary jurisdiction of the local courts as to preservation of the peace and punishment of offenses. All criminal offenses became breaches of the king's peace and were deemed acts of personal disobedience and made an offender the king's enemy. This notion developed from the special sanctity of the king's house and his special protection of his attendants and servants. An offender made fines to the king for breach of his peace and fines and forfeitures to him from court decisions in criminal and civil cases. Offenses especially dealt with in various parts of the Anglo-Saxon laws were treason, homicide, wounding, assault, and theft. Treason to one's lord, especially to the king, was punishable by death. Compassing or imagining the king's death was treason.
King Alfred collected regulations from various church synods and commanded that many of them which English forefathers had observed to be written out - those which appealed to him; and many of those that did not appeal to him he rejected, with the consent of his Witan or commanded them to be observed in a different way. "These are the regulations which the Almighty God himself spoke to Moses and ordered him to observe and subsequently the only-born son of the Lord, our God, that is the Savior Christ confirmed …": 1. Do not love other strange gods before me. 2. Do not speak My name idly, for you will not be guiltless with Me if you idly speak My name. 3. Remember to hallow the rest-day. Work for yourselves six days, and on the seventh day rest yourselves. For in six days, God the Father made the heavens and the earth, the seas and all creatures that are in them, and rested himself on the seventh day, and therefore God has sanctified it. 4. Honour your father and your mother that God gave you so that you may be the longer living on earth. 5. Do not kill. 6. Do not lie in sexual union secretly. 7. Do not steal. 8. Do not speak false evidence. 9. Do not wish for your neighbour's property unrightfully. 10. Do not make yourselves golden or silver gods. 11. If anyone buy a Christian slave, let him serve for six years and on the seventh let him be free without payment. With such clothes as he entered into service, let him leave with. If he has a wife of his own providing, let her leave with him. If the master provided him with a wife, both she and her children shall belong to the master. If the slave then says `I do not want to leave my master or my wife or my child or my property', let his master bring him to the door of the Temple and perforate his ear with an awl as a sign that he shall ever afterwards be a slave. 12. Though someone sell his daughter into slavery do not let her be a slave entirely as are other maid servants. He has not the right to sell her abroad among foreign people. But if he who bought her does not care for her, let her be free among a foreign people. But if he i.e. the purchaser allows his son to cohabit with her, give her the morning gift and ensure that she has clothing and that she has the value of her maidenhood, that is the dowry - let him give her that. If he does none of those things for her, then she shall be free. 13. The person who slays another deliberately shall suffer death. He that has killed another in self defense or involuntarily or unintentionally, as God delivered him i.e. the victim into his hands and providing he i.e. the killer did not set a trap for him - in that case let him be worthy of his life, and of settling by customary compensation, if he should seek asylum. If however anyone deliberately and intentionally kills his neighbour treacherously, pluck him from my altar so that he should suffer death. 14. He that attacks his father or his mother shall suffer death. 15. He that abducts a freeman and sell him, and it is proved so that he cannot absolve himself, let him suffer death. He that curses his father or his mother, let him suffer death. 16. If someone attacks his neighbour with a stone or with his fist, but he i.e. the victim can still get about with the aid of a staff, let him i.e. the aggressor provide him with a doctor and do his i.e. the victim's work for him for as long as he i.e. the victim cannot himself. 17. He that attacks his own non-free servant or his maidservant, and they are not dead as a result of the attack but live two or three days, he i.e. the aggressor shall not be so entirely guilty, because it was his own property he damaged. But if the slave be dead the same day, then the guilt rests on him i.e. the aggressor. 18. If anyone in the course of a dispute injure a pregnant woman, let him make compensation for the hurt as judges decide in his case. If she be dead, let him give life for life. 19. If anyone put out another's eye, let him give his own for it. Tooth for tooth. Hand for hand. Foot for foot. Burn for burn. Wound for wound. Bruise for bruise. 20. If anyone strike the eye of his slave or maidservant out and so makes them one-eyed, let him free them for that. If he strike out a tooth, let him do the same. 21. If an ox gore a man or woman so that they are dead, it it be stoned to death and do not let the flesh be eaten. The owner shall not be liable if the ox was butting two days before that or even three and the owner did not know of it. But if he knew of it and would not shut it i.e. the animal in, and then it killed a man or woman, let it be stoned to death and let the master be killed or made to pay as the Witan consider proper. If it gore a son or daughter, let the same penalty apply. But if it gore a slave or serving-woman, let the owner give 30 shillings of silver and let the ox be stoned to death. 22. If anyone dig a well or open up a closed one and does not close it up again, let him pay for whatever cattle fall in; but let him have the dead animal for his own use. 23. If an ox wound another man's ox so it is dead, let them sell the live ox and share the proceeds, and also the flesh of the dead ox. But if the owner knew the ox was butting and would not restrain it, let him hand over the other i.e. live ox for it but let him have all the flesh of the dead ox for his own use. 24. If anyone steal another man's ox and kill or sell it, let him give two oxen in restitution. And four sheep for one stolen. If he i.e. the thief does not have anything to give in restitution, let him be sold himself to raise the money. 25. If a thief break into a man's house by night and is killed there, he i.e. the house-owner shall not be guilty of manslaughter. But if he i.e. the house-owner does this after sunrise, he is guilty of manslaughter, and shall himself perish, unless he acted in self-defence. If there is found in the possession of the living thief things he had already stolen, let him make restitution for it two-fold. 26. If anyone damage another man's vineyard or his crops or any part of his estate, let him pay compensation according to how it is assessed. 27. If a fire is lit in order to burn rubbish, let him who started the fire pay compensation for any consequent damage. 28. If anyone entrusts any possession to his friend and the friend appropriates it for himself, let him i.e. the friend clear himself and prove that he committed no fraud in the matter. If it was livestock, and he says that raiders took it, or it perished of itself, and if he has proof, he need not pay up. But if he has no proof, and the original owner does not believe him, let him make an oath to clear himself. 29. If anyone seduce an uncommitted woman and sleeps with her, let him pay for her and take her then as his wife. But if the woman's father is unwilling to let her go, then let the seducer hand over money in proportion to her dowry. 30. The women who are accustomed to harbour enchanters and wizards and witches - do not allow them to live. 31. And he that has intercourse with animals shall suffer death. 32. And he that sacrifices to idols, rather than to God alone, let him suffer death. 33. Do not harass visitors from abroad and foreigners, for you were formerly strangers on the land of the Egyptians. 34. Do not harm widows and step-children, neither do them any injury. If you do otherwise, they will call upon Me and I will listen to them, and then I will slay you with my sword and I will ensure that your wives shall be widows and your children orphans. 35. If you hand over money as a loan to your comrade who wishes to live with you, do not coerce him like an underling and do not oppress him with the interest. 36. If someone has only a single garment to cover and clothe himself with and he hands it over as a pledge, let it be returned before the sun sets. If you do not do so then he will call unto Me, and I will listen to him because I am very clement. 37. Do not reproach you Lord, nor curse the lord of the people. 38. Your tithe i.e. tenth-part of profit and your first-fruits of moving animals and growing crops, offer to God. 39. All the flesh that wild animals leave, do not eat it but give it to the dogs. 40. Do not bother to give credence to the word of a false man, and do not approve his opinions; do not repeat any of his assertions. 41. Do not join in the false judgment and evil aspirations of the many nor join in their rumours and outcry, against your own conscience, at the incitement of some ignorant person. Do not support them. 42. If the stray cattle of another man come into your possession, though it be the property of your enemy, let him know about it. 43. Judge equably, do not lay down one rule for the rich, another for the poor; do not decide one way for a friend, another for a foe. 44. Always shun falsehood. 45. Never slay a righteous and innocent man. 46. Never accept bribes, for they very often blind the minds of wise men and pervert their words. 47. Do not behave unkindly to foreigners and visitors from abroad; do not harass them with unjust acts. 48. Never swear an oath by heathen gods, nor in any circumstances call upon them. Alfred also issued a set of laws to cover the whole country that he derived from laws of various regional kings in England as follows: "1. First we insist that there is particular need that each person shall keep his oath and his pledge carefully. If anyone be compelled to give either of these wrongly, either to support treachery to his lord or to provide any unlawful aid, then it is better to forswear than to fulfil. But if he pledge himself to that which it is right for him to fulfil and fails, let him submissively hand over his weapons and his possessions to his friends to keep, and stay forty days in prison in a property of the king. Let him undergo there whatever the bishop prescribes as penance, and let his kinsmen feed him if he himself has no food. If he has no kin or has no food, let the king's officer feed him. If one has to compel him to this i.e. to surrender, and otherwise he is unwilling to co-operate - if they have to bind him he shall forfeit his weapons and his possessions. If he is slain while resisting, let him lie uncompensated. If he makes an escape before the time is up, and he is recaptured, let him stay forty days in prison as he would have previously. But if he gets away, let him be banished and excommunicated from all the churches of Christ. Further, if someone has provided surety for him, let him compensate for the breach of surety as custom require him, and atone for the breach of pledge as his confessor imposes in his case. 2. If anyone seek out as sanctuary for any offence any of the monastic houses to which the king's revenue applies, or any other exempt community that is worthy of respect he shall have a period of three days of immunity, unless he wants to negotiate before that. If someone harms him during that period, either by assault or by fettering him,, or by a penetrating wound, let the aggressor pay compensation for each of such attacks according to proper practice, both with wergeld and with a fine, and 120 shillings to that community, as compensation for breach of sanctuary, and let his own possessions be forfeit. 3. If anyone violate the king's surety, let him pay compensation for the original charge as customary law direct, and for the violation of surety with five pounds of the purer pennies. In the case of breach of an archbishop's surety or protection, let him compensate with three pounds. For violation of the surety or protection of another bishop or official [earldorman], let him make compensation with two pounds. 4. If anyone plot against the king's life, either directly or by harbouring outlaws or indirectly through the agency of his men, let him be liable with his life and with all that he owns. If he desire to prove himself loyal, let him do that by paying a king's wergeld. Similar protection we ordain for all ranks, both common and noble [earl]: whoever plots against his master's life shall be liable with his life and with all that he owns - or let him show his loyalty by paying his master's wergeld. 5. Also we appoint to every church that a bishop has consecrated this right of sanctuary: that if a party to a feud run or ride to the church, then no one may drag him forth for seven days. If however anyone does that, then let him be liable at the rate of breach of a king's protection and at the rate of breach of church sanctuary - more if he take more from the site. [And the sanctuary seeker shall be safe] if he can survive hunger, and unless he himself try to fight his way out. If the community have greater need of their church, let them keep him in another building, and let that not have the more doors than the church itself; Let the church official ensure that no one give the sanctuary-seeker food during that period. If he himself is willing to hand over his weapons to his foes, let them keep him for 30 days and inform his kin about him. Also it shall count as sanctuary if some man seek out a church about any offence that had not previously been revealed, and there confess himself in God's name - let the penalty be half remitted. He that steal on Sunday or at Yule or at Easter or on Holy Thursday or on the Rogation days - for each of those we intend that there should be a double-penalty, as during Lent. 6. If anyone steal something in a church, let him pay a plain compensation and the fine such as they consider appropriate to the plain compensation, and let them strike the hand off with which he did it i.e. the deed. If he wishes to redeem his hand, and they consent to that, let him pay in proportion to his wergeld. 7. If anyone fights in the king's hall or draw his weapon, and he is seized, let the penalty be at the king's judgement, either death or life, as he is willing to grant him. If he escapes and is captured later, let him pay in proportion to his wergeld, and atone for the offence with wergeld and fine, as he may deserve by his act. 8. If anyone abducts a nun of a nunnery without the king's or the bishop's leave, let him pay 120 shillings, half to the king, half to the bishop and the church patron who had charge of the nun. If she lives longer than he that abducted her, let her not have any of his estate. If she bears a child, let that not have any more of the estate than the mother. If anyone slay her child let him pay the king the maternal kindred's share; to the paternal kin let him pay their share. 9. If anyone slay a woman with child, while the child still be within her, let him pay full compensation for the woman and half compensation for the child according to the wergeld of the father's kin. Let the fine payable to the king always be 60 shillings, until the corresponding simple compensation rises to 30 shillings. When the simple compensation rises to that level, then let the fine be 120 shillings. Formerly there was a defined fine for a gold-thief, and a horse-thief and a bee-thief and many special fines greater than others. Now all are alike except for an illegal slayer and that is 120 shillings. 10. If a man has intercourse with the wife of a 1200 shilling wergeld man, let him pay in compensation 120 shillings to the husband. For a 600 shilling wergeld man i.e. husband, let him pay in compensation 100 shillings. For a common man [ceorl] i.e. husband, let him make compensation of 40 shillings. 11. If someone grabs the breast of a common woman, let him compensate with five shillings. If he throws her to the ground but does not have sexual intercourse with her, let him compensate with 60 shillings. If he has sexual intercourse with her let him compensate with sixty shillings. If some other man had previously lain with her, then let the compensation be half that. If someone accuse her of complicity, let her clear herself with an oath guaranteed by sixty hides of land, or forfeit half the compensation. If this happens to a nobly born woman, let the compensation increase in proportion to the wergeld. 12. If someone burns or cuts down another person's trees without permission, let him pay over 5 shillings for each substantial tree, and thereafter, no matter how many there are, five pence for each tree, and thirty shillings as a fine. 13. In the course of their joint work felling trees, if someone is killed by accident, let the tree involved be given to his kin, and let them remove it off the property within 30 days; otherwise let him possess it that owns the forest. 14. If someone is born dumb or deaf, so that he can neither deny or confess his sins, let the father make compensation for his misdeeds. 15. If someone fights or draws his weapon in the presence of an archbishop, let him make compensation with 150 shillings. If this occurs before another bishop or royal official [earldorman] let him make compensation with 100 shillings. 16. If someone steals a cow or mare and drives off a foal or calf, let him pay over one shilling as well as paying compensation for the adult animals according to their value. 17. If anyone entrust a child into the keeping of others, and he i.e. the offspring die while in that guardianship, let him that did the fostering prove his innocence of any crime if anyone accuse him of it. 18. If anyone grabs at a nun's clothing or breast with sexual intent, unless with her consent, let him pay double the rate of compensation we previously arranged for a lay-person. If she commit adultery and she is a betrothed woman, if she is a commoner, let 60 shillings be paid in compensation to the guarantor, and let that be in livestock or cattle, but let no one give any human as part of it. If she be of 600 shilling wergeld, let 100 shillings be paid in compensation to the guarantor. If she be of 1200 shilling wergeld, let compensation of 120 shillings be paid to the guarantor. 19. If anyone lends his weapon to another so that he may kill with it, they may combine, if they are willing, in the matter of paying the wergeld. If they are unwilling to co-operate, let him that proffered the weapon pay a third part of the wergeld and a third part of the fine. If he i.e. the loaner of the weapon prefer to clear himself and assert that he knew of no evil-intent in making the loan, he may do so. 20. If someone entrust cattle to another man's monk, without the approval of the patron if that monk, and it gets lost, let he that originally owned it suffer the loss. 21. If a priest slay another man, let all that he i.e. the priest brought into the monastic community be turned over to the possession of the victim's representatives, and let the bishop unfrock him; then he shall be removed from the monastery, unless the civil patron interceded for him. 22. If someone wishes in the local assembly to declare a claim for debt to the king's officer, and then wishes to cancel it, let him impute i.e. transfer it to a truer source if he can. If he cannot, let him forfeit the single value. 23. If a dog rends or bites someone, for the first misdeed let the owner hand over 6 shillings, if he is still giving it food. For as second occurrence, let him give 12 shillings, and for a third 30 shillings. If, upon any of these misdeeds, the dog escapes, nonetheless the penalty proceeds. If the dog commit more misdeeds and he i.e. the owner still keeps him, let him pay compensation at the level of a full wergeld as well as wound-compensation according to what he i.e. the dog has done. 24. If an ox wounds someone, let him i.e. the owner hand the animal over or come forward with some solution. 25. If someone forces a commoner's slave-woman to sexual intercourse, let him compensate the owner with 5 shillings and pay 60 shillings fine. If a male slave compel a female slave to sexual intercourse, let him atone with his testicles. 26. If someone force an underage woman into sexual intercourse, let the compensation be as that of an adult person. 27. If someone without kin on his father's side gets into a fight and kills someone, if he has maternal relatives, let them pay a third part of the wergeld; and a third part his guild-brethren; for a third part unpaid let him flee. If he has no maternal relatives, let the guild-brethren pay a half; for a half unpaid let him flee. 28. If someone kill a man so circumstanced and if he has no kinfolk, let them pay half the wergeld to the king, half to his guild-brethren. 29. If anyone in a group kills a 200 shilling wergeld man who is guiltless, let him that acknowledges the blow pay over wergeld and fine, and let every man who was of the party hand over 30 shillings in token of his complicity. 30. If it is a case of a 600 shilling wergeld man, let each of them pay 60 shillings as a token of their complicity, and let him that struck the fatal blow pay wergeld and fine. 31. If he that is killed is a 1200 shilling wergeld man, let each of them pay 120 shillings, and let the one who struck the fatal blow pay wergeld and fine. If a group commit this sort of killing, and later deny responsibility on oath, let them all be accused, and let them pay over the wergeld as a group, and together pay one fine such as corresponds to the wergeld. 32. If someone commits slander and it is proved against him, let him make atonement with no lighter penalty than having is tongue cut out. It i.e. the tongue must not be redeemed for any lesser value than would be reckoned in proportion to the wergeld. 33. If someone reproach another with breach of church-witnessed pledge and wishes to accuse him of not fulfilling any of those pledges that he gave him, let the accuser make his preliminary oath in four churches, and the other i.e. the accused, if he wishes to assert his good faith - let him do that in twelve churches. 34. Also it is laid down for traders that they should produce before the king's officer at the local assembly those people that they are taking inland with them, and let it be established how many of them there are. And let them take only such men as they can afterward be accountable for at the local assembly. An if they have need of more men along with them on their journey, let it always be declared, as often as is necessary, to the king's officer before the assembly. 35. If someone restrains a free man who is innocent, let him pay compensation of ten shillings. If he flogs him, compensation of twenty shillings. If he put him to torture compensation of thirty shillings. If as a humiliation he shave his head like a homolan, let him pay compensation of ten shillings. If he shaves him i.e. his head like a priest's, without binding him let him pay compensation of thirty shillings. If he shaves off his beard, let him pay compensation of twenty shillings. If he ties him up and then shaves his head like a priest's, let him pay compensation of sixty shillings. 36. It is established that if someone has a spear over his shoulder and someone else impales himself upon it, he i.e. the spear-carrier shall pay the wergeld without any fine. If he is impaled from in front, let him i.e. the spear-carrier pay the wergeld. If someone accuses him i.e. the spear-carrier of deliberately doing it, let him assert his innocence at a rate corresponding to the fine, and by that finish with the fine. And this applies if the point is above the rest of the shaft; if they are both level, point and shaft, let it count as no risk. 37. If someone wants to seek a new lord, transferring from one district to another district, let him do it with the knowledge of the chief officer to whom he was originally responsible in his shire. If he does it without his i.e. the officer's knowledge, let him who harbours him as his follower pay over 120 shillings as a fine. But let him divide it, paying the king half in the shire where the man was originally answerable, and half in that he has moved to. If he i.e. the man who moves had done anything wrong where he came from, let him who receives him as his follower pay the compensation and a fine of 120 shillings to the king. 38. If someone starts a fight in front of the king's officer at an assembly, let him pay compensation of wergeld and a fine, as it is customary; and as a priority a fine of 120 shillings to the officer [earldorman] concerned. If he disturb the assembly by drawing a weapon, let him pay 120 shillings to the officer by way of fine. If something of this sort occurs before the king's officer's deputy or a royal priest, let him pay 30 shillings by way of fine. 39. If someone starts a fight on the floor of a free man's house, let him pay compensation of six shillings to the freeman. If he draws his weapon but does not fight, let the compensation be half that. If either of these offences takes place in the house of a 600 shilling wergeld man, let the rate rise to triple the compensation due the freeman. In the case of a 1200 shilling wergeld man, a rate twice that of the compensation of the 600 shilling wergeld man. 40. For breaking into a royal residence the penalty shall be 120 shillings. Into an archbishop's, ninety shillings. Into another bishop's or a royal officer's, 60 shillings. Into a 1200 shilling werwgeld man's, thirty shillings. Into a 600 shilling wergeld man's fifteen shillings. For breaking into a freeman's property the penalty shall be five shillings. If something of this kind takes place while the levy [fyrd] is on duty elsewhere, or during Lent, let it be a double compensation. If someone sets aside holy custom publicly in Lent without an exemption, let him pay a compensation of 120 shillings. 41. The man who has charter land [bocland] which his kin left him, is not allowed, we enact, to part with it outside his kin-group, if there is written evidence or spoken witness that it was forbidden to be done by those people who originally acquired it or by those who passed it to him. Let him i.e. the one who opposes the alienation process declare any such stipulation in the presence of the king and the bishop, with his own kin attending. 42. Also we command that the man who knows his enemy is quiescent at home should not start a fight before he has asked him for justice. If he has the strength to surround his enemy and besiege him, let him contain him for 7 days within and not attack him if he i.e. the enemy is willing to abide within. After seven days if he is willing to surrender and hand over his weapons, let him i.e. the avenger keep him unharmed for thirty days and inform his kinsmen and his friends about him. But if he i.e. the enemy flee to a church, let the matter be resolved according to the privilege of the church, as we detailed above. But if he i.e. the avenger does not have the resources to besiege him i.e. the enemy, let him ride to the royal officer and ask him for help. If he i.e. the officer is unwilling to assist, let him ride and ask the king, before he mounts an attack. Further, if someone happen upon his enemy and did not know beforehand that he was quiescent at home, if he i.e. the enemy is willing to hand over his weapons, let him be held for thirty days and inform his friends about him; if he is not willing to hand over his weapons then he i.e. the avenger may attack him. If he i.e. the enemy is willing to surrender and hand over his weapons and yet someone still attacks him, let the aggressor pay over wergeld and wound compensation, according to what he has done, and pay a fine, and lose his kin-status. We also declare someone may fight in support of his lord without blame, if anyone has attacked the lord; so too the lord may fight in support of his follower. In the same way, someone may fight on behalf of his blood relative if someone attack him wrongfully, but not take the side of a kinsman against his lord - that we do not permit. Someone may fight blamelessly if he discovers another with his lawful wife behind closed doors or under the one cover, or with his legitimate daughter, or with his legitimate sister or with his mother if she was given lawfully to his father. 43. To all free people let these following days be granted as holidays but not to slaves and servile workers; twelve days at Christmas and the day that Christ overcame the Devil, and St. Gregory's commemoration day, and seven days before Easter and seven after, and one day at the celebration of St. Peter and St. Paul and the full week in harvest before St. Mary's Mass, and one day for the celebration of All Hallows. The four Wednesdays in the Ember weeks shall be granted to all slaves to sell to anyone that pleases them to anything either that any man will give them in God's name or what they in any spare time can manage." 44.-77. The compensations for wounds is as follows: head if both bones of the head be pierced 30s., head if the outer bone only be pierced 15s.; an inch long wound in the area of the hair 1s., an inch long wound in the front of the hair 2s.; striking off the other ear 30s., if the hearing be affected so that he cannot hear 60s.; putting out an eye 60s. 6 1/3 d., if the eye stay in the head but he can see nothing with it 1/3 of the compensation be remitted; striking off a nose 60s.; striking a front tooth 8s., a back tooth 4s., a canine tooth 15s.; severing cheeks 15s., breaking a chin bone 12s.; perforating a windpipe 12s.; removing a tongue the same compensatin for any eye; wounding in the shoulder so that the muscle fluid flows out 30s.; shattering the arm above the elbow 15s.; shattering both arm bones 30s.; striking off the thumb 30s., if the nail is struck off 5s.; striking off the forefinger 15s., for the nail 4s.; striking off the middle finger 12s., for the nail 2s.; striking off the ring finger 17s., for the nail 4s.; striking off the little finger 9s., for the nail 1s.; wounding in the belly 30s., if the wound go through the body 20s. for each opening; perforating the thigh or hip 30s., if it be disabled 30s.; piercing the leg below the knee 12s., if he is disabled below the knee 30s.; striking off the great toe 20s., the second toe 15s., the middle toe 9s., the fourth toe 6s., the little toe 5s.; wounding in the testicles so that he cannot bear children 80s.; cutting off the arm below the elbow with the hand cut off 80s., wounding before the hair-line and below the sleeve and below the knee twice the value; permanently damaging the loins 60s., it they are stabbed 15s., if they are pierced through 30s.; wounding in the shoulder if the victim be alive 80s.; maiming a hand outwardly, providing it can be treated effectively 20s., if half the hand be lost 40s.; breaking a rib without breaking the skin 10s., if the skin be broken and the bone be extruded 15s.; cutting away an eye hand or foot 66s.6 1/3 d.; cutting off the leg at the knee 80s.; breaking a shoulder 20s.; hacking into a shoulder so that the bone extrudes 15s.; severing the tendon of the foot and if it can be treated so that will be sound again 12s., but if he is lame on account of the wound and he cannot be cured 30s.; severing the lesser tendon 6s.; severing the muscles up by the neck and damage them so severely that he has no control over them and however lives on thus maimed 100s., unless the Witan appoint him a juster and greater sum.
Judicial Procedure
Cases were held at monthly meetings of the hundred court. The king or one of his reeves, conducted the trial by compurgation, which was an appeal to the supernatural.