Note 838 — Chapter VI · OLD ENGLISH WIFE-PURCHASE YIELDS TO FREE MARRIAGE

Dargun, Mutterrecht und Raubehe, 111-25, critically examines these passages. The fact that a marriage effected by rape or abduction is often treated as valid, even when the purchase price is not paid, is especially urged as evidence of the survival of customary wife-capture. Thus in Æthelberht, 82, 83; Ælf., 8; Æthelred, VI, 26, 39: Schmid, Gesetze, 9, 75, 231, 301, a penalty is exacted in such cases, though the marriage appears to be valid. But is it not simpler to explain this on grounds still familiar to all? The suggestion of the text seems to be sustained by the materials collected by Weinhold, Deutsche Frauen, I, 308-15. Cf. Jeaffreson, Brides and Bridals, I, 12-31.