FRUMGILD — [Noun] In Anglo-Saxon law, the first payment made to the kindred of a slain person as part of the compensation for their murder. A learned borrowing from Old English frumġild, frumġyld ("a first payment or compensation"), from fruma ("first") + ġild, ġyld ("payment"). Unlike "wergild" (the full price of a life) or "manbot" (a lord's due for a vassal's death), frumgild is the first acknowledgment of loss—a ritual of atonement that begins with coin and ends with blood. It is the cold clink of metal in a silent hall, the trembling hands of a widow counting out her husband’s worth, the solemn promise that even grief has its ledger. The world has always known how to price a man; it is the living who must decide if the sum was fair.