Note 839 — Chapter VI · OLD ENGLISH WIFE-PURCHASE YIELDS TO FREE MARRIAGE

Beweddunge is the Anglo-Saxon term, and it is so used in the old English formulary of the tenth century: Schmid, Gesetze, Anhang, VI, 390. It means the act of "contracting" or "pledging," associated with the verb beweddian, "to contract": Schmid, 535, 536. It has the same origin as the modern "wed," "wedding," etc. On the beweddung see Siegel, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte, 450 ff.