How did mund govern the lives of children and married women in Germanic families?

In the context of tribal Germanic society, mund functioned as a system of legal guardianship or protection exercised by the head of a household over his dependents.12

For children and married women, this authority governed their legal status and daily lives in the following ways:

• Children: A boy remained under his father’s mund until he reached physical maturity, at which point he was emancipated.2
• Married Women: A girl remained under her father’s mund until she married, at which time she passed into the mund of her husband.2
• Marriage as a Transaction: Marriage often involved the sale of the bride to the groom for a price. This payment eventually evolved into a fund held by the husband for the wife’s benefit. While a husband could divorce his wife at will, he risked facing financial penalties for doing so.2

This structure defined the household as a core social unit, where the family head held authority over the person and property of those under his mund.12