> [I pointed out that being a carl/freeman has a wealth requirement;
> David Dunham seemed to disagree]
I was being picky in part because you conflated the two. Being a freeman does not have a wealth requirement -- even a stickpicker is a free Heortling. Being a carl, rather than a cottar, does.
> the wealth of a carl has to be of the same order of
> magnitude as a carl's wergild, otherwise the carl himself will be
> paying only a tiny fraction of the wergild, which is hardly likely to
> make wergild a personal deterrant or alternative to blood feud.
Greg's article in Enclosure 2 puts the wergild of a carl at 100 cows, which seems immense to me. This certainly suggests that a killer's bloodline or even clan is ultimately responsible for paying it -- and that larger group would act to keep reign on troublesome people.
(As I've said, I believe this value is too high for good playability. I believe it's closer to Frankish law than to Icelandic, FWIW.)
David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_...>
Glorantha/HW/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html>
Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
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