Includes bibliographical references and index.

Acknowledgments; Spelling; Prologue; 1 Introduction: The Institutional Setting and the Ranks of Persons; 2 Making Sense of the Sources; 3 Some Aspects of the Economy: The Problem of Negotiating and Classifying Exchanges; 4 Householding Patterns; 5 The Bonds of Kinship; 6 Feud, Vengeance, and the Disputing Process; 7 Law and Legal Process; 8 Peacemaking and Arbitration; Concluding Observations; Abbreviations; Notes; Works Cited; Index.

Dubbed by the New York Times as "one of the most sought-after legal academics in the county," William Ian Miller presents the arcane worlds of the Old Norse studies in a way sure to attract the interest of a wide range of readers. Bloodtaking and Peacemaking delves beneath the chaos and brutality of the Norse world to discover a complex interplay of ordering and disordering impulses. Miller's unique and engaging readings of ancient Iceland's sagas and extensive legal code reconstruct and illuminate the society that produced them. People in the saga world negotiated a maze of violent.