This posting is an edited converstion between myself and Joerg Baumgartner regarding Orlanthi land and livestock ownership. One day, while discussing Volsaxiland and the Hendriki, Joerg wrote:
>(I have some problems to reconcile the idea of common odal possession of
>the land within a clan and the personal rights of ownership of the land
>under the plow, especially for traditionalists. Among fully fledged
>feudalist Aeolians the fief pertains not so much to the land but to the
>amount of service and responsibility due to holding the land. The clan
>"owns" the land as the heir if no direct heirs are present, or if the
>direct owner is dispossessed for some reason.)
Heortlending land ownership has been a problem for me as well. After reading Nerys Patterson's work on early medieval Ireland, "Cattle Lords & Clansmen", I have come to the conclusion that Heortlending farming is cooperative but not communal. The clan does legitimize possession of land by various bloodlines and individual families and resolves all intra-clan land disputes. The land is "owned" by the clan for the simple reason that the clan is the source of sovereignity. Land ownership is linked with the sovereignity rites of a clan chieftain. I assume that there is some land which is held in common, and is worked by all members of the clan - possibly this is Orlanth's share and goes to support the godi and the thanes.
The Heortlendings measure their land in "hides" - roughly the amount of land needed to feed a stead. Checking Sir Frank Stenton's "Anglosaxon England", Joerg's prime source for early feudalism developing from barbarian culture, one hide consisted of 40 (Wessex) to 120 (Cambridgeshire) acres of arable land. Another term, the sulung, refers to the amount of land plowable by a team of 8 oxen - which Greg used for the Report on the Heortlings in KoS. One sulung equates roughly two hides, and one hide is said to feed one family. From these numbers, one should classify a landholding thegn as a man who owns more than 8 hides - enough to hire out the land to cottars, too much for a single stead to manage, and enough to provide for two personal retainers as full ceorls.
The hide-sulung system is used by the Heortlendings to record land
possession. Most clans farm roughly 100-300 hides of agricultural land.
Most clans have some plough- land which is held in common, and is worked by all members of the clan - usually this is Orlanth's share and goes to support the godi and the thanes.
How much ploughland is held in common varies from clan to clan. A temple should have land assigned to it, which is worked by the initiates as part of their cult service. The size of the land will depend on the importance of the temple, of the godi and by the number of people it is supposed to support. This could range from around 5 hides for each of the two shrine/temples maintained by a small clans, to 20 or more for more important sites. Really important temples might have even more.
Assuming that the Varmandi clan have about 200 hides of land, I would guess that Hoskuldkirk (the temple of Sveirtig the Bald) has around 15 (maybe 20) hides of land assigned to it. Again using the Colymar tribe as a reference, I believe that the House of the Earth Mother in Ernaldori land has around 25-50 hides assigned to it.
In most traditionalist clans, the clan godi are likely the chieftains or closest advisors as well, and hold the temple land by lineage. Furthermore their bloodline would also have other lands associated with them. Being a godi-chieftain tends to make your family the richest in the clan by far.
Other Orlanthi have variations on this theme. The Hendriki traditionalists have temples without direct clan affiliations, and which might be landholders. The Aeolian churches or the combined holy places of clans with mixed religion will certainly be landholders as institutions, not personalized (even though their wizards and priests aren't celibate, and might build up clerical dynasties).
Pastoral land, as opposed to ploughable land, is communal. IMO it is in pastoral rites that the clan chieftain receives much of his clout. Most cattle are considered to be "loaned" by the clan to the various bloodlines. Most families do not "own" their cattle but instead "borrow" them from the clan. In exchange for the cattle, the families owe the clan (chieftain) various services. One of the principal duties of the Lhankor Mhy cult in the hill country is to keep track of the obligations families have to the clan. Some individuals do own their cattle outright - these families traditionally make up the leadership of a clan.
Lesser animals such as sheep and pigs are usually owned outright by a family - IMO many Orlanthi families who raise sheep practise transhumance from Winter to Summer. Wily family leaders may seek out a "cattle-loan" from their chieftain in exchange for service to the clan, and then trade the cattle for sheep at the clan market. Since one cattle is worth five to ten sheep, one can build up a sizable herd of sheep that way.
It is important to emphasize that the clan does not communally own the cattle but rather that most cattle are considered "loaned" from the clan. The clan chieftain (who is usually a godi and the probably the wealthiest leader in the clan) grants a family cattle from the "clan's" (read: his) herd, in exchange for services. Until that cattle loan is paid back to the clan (read the chieftain or his successors) that family will owe certain services to the clan. After several generations, almost every family in the clan will owe a variety of services to the clan, with the possible exception of the wealthiest families in the clan, who have never had to take a "cattle loan".
Stud rights are another source of patron-client relationship. A thegn will allow a supporter to use the thegn's bulls to breed his cows.
This also adds to the value of cattle and cattle raids. Warriors who seize cattle from other clans can build up their own network of dependents by "loaning" them cattle. A free man must "own" some livestock outright (usually the offspring of "loan" cattle). A young man who steals a cattle in a raid becomes a free adult. Many individuals never do manage to breed or steal more cattle than they own and they form the basis of the cottar class.
Why adopt such a complicated tradition? Well two reasons really. The first is that I want to provide a social impetus for the Heortlendings notorious cattle raids. The second is that many Northern European cultures (the Celts, the later Germans, the Anglo-Saxons and the Scandanavians) had complicated pastoral patronage systems and I think the Orlanthi should too. It is important to recognize that in its own way, Orlanthi society is as complicated as Peloria or Dara Happa - why else does the Lhankor Mhy cult exist amongst the largely illiterate Orlanthi hill-folk but to remember all of the convulutions of Orlanthi traditional law?
Yours truly,
Jeff Richard
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End of Glorantha Digest V1 #164
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