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the evolution of frankish written law 271
erable evidence of ordering. 49 This is achieved in three ways, in addition to
simple collocation. First, there are decrees which themselves act as virtual
titles: thus, c. 8, ‘The king’s mundbyrd [�protection] of fifty shillings’, provides
a basis for cc. 9–12. Secondly, the use of the definite article and of
personal pronouns is normally to refer from one dōm to another within
such a group. 50 Finally, groups of decrees may be marked by syntactical
variation, especially a change from the dominant conditional sentence to
another construction. 51 More elaborate ordering – of one group of decrees
with another – could be achieved by ellipsis. Thus, in a series of groups
depending on decrees which act as virtual titles (‘The king’s mundbyrd ...’;
‘the eorl’s mundbyrd . . .’, ‘the ceorl’s mundbyrd’), the middle one, specifying the
eorl’s mundbyrd, is omitted but can be automatically supplied by anyone who
appreciates the structure of the text. Æthelberht’s Law is exceptionally
terse but also both subtle and consistent. It is, therefore, unlikely that the
Gregorian missionaries, with their recently acquired knowledge of the language,
could be responsible for the way in which the text is organized. Later
Kentish legislation is more varied in syntax; also, individual decrees are
longer and more complex – a development which may plausibly be seen as
symptomatic of a shift from oral to written modes of expression.
iv. the evolution of frankish written law
The history of the Salic Law is long and complex and, for that very reason,
instructive. Indeed, it has recently become longer and more difficult
because of the convincing argument put forward by Grierson and
Blackburn that the monetary equivalence of forty denarii to one solidus
asserted throughout the main text, but not in most of the capitularies
added at the end, is only appropriate to the early fifth century. 52 This conclusion
creates an immediate difficulty for those who would ascribe the
main text in its original form to Clovis. The general, though not universal,
opinion has been that the earliest version, the A Recension, of the Pactus
Legis Salicae was compiled after the battle of Vouillé in 507, when Clovis
defeated and killed Alaric, king of the Visigoths, and probably before
Clovis’ own death in 511. 53
Apart from the coinage, there are three main considerations which must
form any judgement on the date of the Salic Law. First, the main text is part
49 An analysis is proposed by Wormald (1995) 971–2.
50 So hio and sio in c. 11; similarly, 16, 25, 46 etc.
51 The series of decrees in c. 1 are distinguished by being nominal sentences and by the instrumental
use of XIIgylde etc.; the pairs cc. 70–1 and 72–3 are marked by the combination of a conditional sentence
and a simple sentence, the latter with a prepositional phrase doing duty for the protasis of the
conditional.
52 Grierson and Blackburn (1986) 102–6. Capitulary V is the only one to share this equivalence.
53 Eckhard (1954) 206–7, following Brunner (1906, 1928) i.440.
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