The Laws of the Salian Franks

A book that needs to be on every coffee table, and classroom. European societies truly had their early start amongst these first written laws, and an interesting one at that. Very little is known of the early cultures of the Germanic tribes with the exception of the accounts by several Roman historians,and satire writers, however, these early laws are unbelievably captivating in their raw context. The lack of roman influence in these laws, and the amount of attention given to the most insignificant of details (but significant at the time) is absolutely amusing. Their are for instance two pages of laws devoted to stealing a pig, laws on cutting a persons hand, laws on cutting a young boy or girls long hair, laws for using magical potions, laws for calling someone a witch and not being able to prove it, laws on stealing bees, laws for blocking a road, laws for killing a woman young and old, laws for lying, laws for cutting ones genitals...yes it just gets very interesting. For example their were large fees attached to laws related to insults such as calling someone a rabbit, or cow dung. Penalties extended to wounds and injuries and penalties varied if one had cut 2 fingers, three fingers, the index fingers, the bow finger for shooting with an arrow, for cutting a tongue, ears, nose, and so on and on. The laws included medical fees, and fees reduced if the fingers for instance were found, or if the finger was not completely severed but still hanging. There were even laws for hiring a hit man who did not kill as promised. A few more interesting points to mention here is that laws pertaining to women in particular is even more fascinating in that women were never considered to be a property of their husband nor did they have legal rights to any inheritance from their husband. A woman was given property by her parents, and inheritance by close kins. In fact women were not even responsible for paying a husbands debt, since marriage did not obligate a couple to each other. Basically, a man and a woman were both obligated to serve their own children, Parental families, and a large extended family to the sixth degree both after marriage and after death. A man never was entitled to owning his wife's property, and his wife had no rights in owning any of his properties. All the inheritance by law went to children, and the specifics of the laws extended to as far as nieces,nephews,uncles,and so on. The web of family relations is tightly enforced in these legalities to an extend unseen today. In all, I highly suggest buying this book even if you have no interest in laws. The shear scale of these early regulations will likely be of interest to anyone subjected to today's rules and regulations.