Folcwine of Rohan, after the death of his twin sons, Folcred and Fastred, in battle in Ithilien. In Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novel Skin Game, Harry Dresden offers John Marcone a cashbox of diamonds as weregild for an employee murdered by Deirdre. Dresden says "That's for your dead employee's family. Take care of them with it. And leave my people out of it. It ends here." In Rick Riordan's novel The Hammer of Thor, Hearthstone, an elf, must pay a wergild for his brother Andiron's death when they were children. Hearthstone, the older brother, was distracted and playing with rocks when a Brunnmigi emerged from a well and killed Andiron. Since Hearthstone was deaf, he didn't notice until it was too late. Hearthstone was forced by their father to skin the large beast by himself, which was turned into a rug and placed on the floor of his room. To pay his wergild, he had to cover every single hair with gold earned from his father, generally by doing chores. Every meal and any free time, among other things, cost Hearthstone earned gold. This task wasn't accomplished until years later, and his father, Alderman, was reluctant to consider the debt paid, but finally conceded that Hearthstone was released from the debt. See also Anglo-Saxon law Beot Blood feud Blood law Blood libel Blood money Danegeld Diyya Éraic Feud Galanas Germanic law Główszczyzna Kanun Leges inter Brettos et Scottos Leibzoll Lex Frisionum Religious minority Sklavenkasse Tallage Tribalism Value of life Wrongful death References Sources Byock, Jesse L. (1990) Saga of the Volsungs. University of California Press. . Rabin, Andrew, The Political Writings of Archbishop Wulfstan of York (Manchester, 2015). Early Germanic law 6th century in law 11th century in law Slavery in England Compensation for victims of crime