Orlanthi Marriage

From: Saravan Peacock <saravan_at_perth.DIALix.oz.au>
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 1996 21:20:11 +0800


I wonder if anyone has any opinions on this...

We know something about the status of marriage and children in Orlanthi culture, but what are the demographics of marriage in that culture? How many people get married (on the whole) and when do they do it? How long after marriage are the first children born? How common is divorce and do divorcees get remarried?

I remeber doing some study on medieval marriage patterns at uni, but ideas were pretty vague on pre-literate cultures like the Germans, Vikings and Celts (who may have had writing but only in a very limited form). Of course there is wide scope for variation according to local circumstances and traditions, but does anyone have any ideas? I thought that a large number would probably marry soon after adulthood, so around the age of 20. Economics would be an imperative (as always) but I think there seems to be more of an acceptance of romantic love (though not the chivalrous type). Certainly viking sagas are full of feuds over badly chosen partners, jealousy, and general wife-stealing. Many married couples of carl status probably stay with their parents unless there is compelling economic or social reason to establish a new stead (like the new family really hating their in-laws...) As for houscarls, many are probably unmarried, or else they are in short term love-marriages with women around the hall. If they married a woman of status they might move away to set up their own stead.

As there is less pressure on unmarried women than in medieval europe, there is probably more freedom to pick and choose marriage matches, tending to suggest a higher average age for marriage among women. So maybe twenties for both sexes. Also there would be a larger number of unmarried people (or people in shorter term marriages such as year-marriages, and bed-marriages) at all ages. Probably though, most do marry at some stage (maybe 80% +/-).

The vikings were particularly mobile and travelled by sea regularly, even (or especially) after they were married. This would probably apply much less to the land-locked Orlanthi. Though travel away from home was apparently a large feature of pre-Church domination of Germany. The Church eventually moved strongly into the marriage arena across Christian Europe and enforced some pretty powerful restrictions. One change was the establishment of reciprocal responsibilities which bound men more tightly to the home and women more tightly to the men. What did the Celts do?

Pax

Saravan.


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