In Old English heroic poetry, this refers to the relationship between kinsmen. If one of his kinsmen had been slain, a man had the special duty of either killing the slayer or exacting from him the payment of wergild ("manprice"): each rank of society was evaluated at a definite price, which had to be paid to the dead man's kinsmen by the killer who wished to avoid their vengeance-even if the killing had been accidental.
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