þiængsgæld (OSw) thæghngjald (ODan) þegngildi (ON) þingsgæld (OSw) þiægnsgæld (OSw) noun

A ‘subject payment’ ; a fine paid to the king when one of his subjects was killed. The fine appears in several provincial laws throughout the North. Þegngildi was set quite high at 12 marks (JyL II.13), 13 marks (Jó Mah 1) or 40 marks (VmL Mb 11). In Icelandic texts the term is occasionally abbreviated as þegn. The payment of the þegngildi was one part of the process of obtaining amnesty from the king in Norway (see landsvist).

{thæghn} money ODan JyL 2
compensation for a free man ONorw FrL Intr 2
thane’s compensation OSw DL Mb
OSw VmL Mb
thanegeld ONorw EidsL 28.2
tribute for a subject OIce Js Mah 2, 29
wergild for a subject OIce Jó Þfb 5 Mah 1, 4 Fml 17 Refs:

CV s.v. þegngildi; F s.v. þegngildi; Jørgensen 2014; KLNM s.v. þegngildi, straff; NGL V s.v. þegngildi