Friedelehe

Friedelehe is the term for a postulated form of Germanic marriage said to have existed during the Early Middle Ages. This concept was introduced into mediaeval historiography during the 1920s by Herbert Meyer. Whether such a marriage form actually existed remains controversial.

The term Friedelehe means approximately "lover marriage". The modern German word Friedel is derived from the Old High German friudil, which meant "lover", or "sweetheart"; this is in turn derived from frijōn "to love". The OHG friudil was parallel to the Old Norse fridl, frilla, modern Danish and Norwegian frille "lover".

Friedel is compounded with the word Ehe "marriage", from OHG ēha or ēa "marriage", which in turn harks back to the form ēwa, meaning (approximately) cosmic or divine "law". An OHG form *friudilēha is itself apparently not attested, contributing to the controversy about the authenticity of the modern term.

According to Meyer, the characteristics or Friedelehe were:

According to Meyer, Friedelehe was declared illegitimate by the Church in the 9th Century. Nevertheless, vestiges of this form of marriage are said have persisted until modern times reflected in the form of the Morganatic marriage (also called left-hand marriage).

In addition to Friedelehe there are said to have existed in the Middle Ages the aforementioned Muntehe, Kebsehe (concubinage), Raubehe (abduction) and Entführungsehe (elopement),

According to recent research (among others that of Else Ebel, Karl Heidecker and Andrea Esmyol), indications have accumulated providing evidence to the effect that Friedelehe is a mere research artifact, a construct that arose from a faulty interpretation of the sources by Meyers. In particular Esmyol has refuted the basic assumptions of Meyer's definition in her dissertation Lover or Wife? Concubines in the Early Middle Ages.

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