>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'. 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.
That's my point *IF brought before the courts*. I think that there is a lot that doesn't get anywhere near the courts because the families deal with the matter themselves. Laws with dire penalties have never stopped anything happening and what the law says often doesn't happen in practice. Certainly there will be acrimoneous cases brought before the courts (great story line to involve PCs in there) but probably more often some agreement will be reached before it gets that far and in some cases that will be a case of turning a blind eye. Remember Heortling lawspeakers are as expensive as RW lawyers and results even less certain - very good reasons not to take matters to court.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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