Kevin Stroud Talks the History of English
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The Domus of an Anglo-Saxon King
The laws of Ethelbert of Kent are considered the first document to be composed in the English language. It's based on a Germanic concept of what was called the War Guild, which meant man payment. If there was a conflict between two people, for example, if one person killed another person, the dispute could be resolved by having that person's family make a payment to the victim's family. And so this is how the original Anglo-Saxon Old English legal code is written.
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