Question Author
Also found this in the OED:
1586 [see EARIK]. 1596 SPENSER State Irel. Wks. (1862) 504/2 In the case of Murder..the malefactor shall give unto them [the friends], or to the child, or wife of him that is slain a recompence, which they call an Eriach. 1612 DAVIES Why Ireland, etc. (1747) 111 The killing of an Irishman was..punished..by a fine or pecuniary punishment which is called an Ericke. Ibid. (1787) 126 Your Sheriff..shall be welcome to me, but let me know his erick aforehand. a1849 J. C. MANGAN Poems (1859) 389 All the dead Heaped on the field..Were scarce an eric for his head. 1885 R. BAGWELL Irel. under Tudors I. 11 This blood-fine, called an eric, was an utter abomination to the English of the sixteenth century.