> Actually, adultery is **very** serious. :) Just a sec and I'll chuck on my
> lawspeaker cloak...
> On the most basic level, adultery is hearth-breaking. Andrin's Law (ST
> 162) states that:
> 'If a man lay with one not his wife, or a woman lay with one not her
> husband, or if one married lays with a thrall, or visits a body priestess
> without good cause, then three cows each occurrence.'
> That's 'each occurrence'.
In case of visiting a body priestess, 'each occurrence without good cause'.
Good cause, of course, is covered by mythic precedence. To wit, the husband protectors married by Ernalda during the time of Orlanth's Exile.
Aside: Who ruled then? Already Vingkot? Did Ernalda remain queen, and becoming her husband meant being chief god of the Orlanthi?
> Given that the weregild for *killing* a cottar is
> ten cows, you can see that if the adultery involves more a casual liaison,
> it gets very expensive indeed. A long term affair, if brought before the
> courts, can shame a bloodline and cripple it financially.
It takes a good cattle raider to make up for a winter's pleasures, then.
Out of interest: does anybody see the opportunity for the same three old cows being paid in reparation over and over again? (Just like the bag of silver in Njal's Saga which the recipient simply buries until his wife incites the next revenge killing, to be given back...)
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