That’s pretty wild, I’ve not heard of it before. Especially interesting to read in wikipedia that there was a standard amount of compensation that was adjusted up and down based on the social status of the victim. And that wergild for women varied from half that of a man to double.
I’ve always thought it was interesting-sort of like today’s punitive damages-probably saved a lot of legal fees, too...
Speaking of wergild, I just saw an article about someone rich in Finland getting a 60K traffic ticket-it says the fines there are not just based on offense but the persons financial status-sounds like they still use that Dark Age system...