>Alex Ferguson wrote
>Exactly my thinking.
With further research KoS seems to be in agreement with my earlier post on Celtic/Saxon placement of responsibility for weregild within a bloodline.
KoS p.250
"The clan is the "overfamily" of several bloodlines..."
and
"The clan is responsible for overseeing marriages within its bloodlines, justice among them and distributing the land commonly held by them all."
Similarly
KoS p.260
"There can be no crimes against one's own kin of the bloodline".
On a seperate issue KoS however suggests contradictarily that it is bloodlines and clans that are exogamous. Local prohibition probably varies as we are told that the triarchy method of tribe alliance through inter-marriage is now anachronistic (KoS p254). Additionally I find it hard to reconcile the clan owning all of the cattle on the tula, for cattle belonging to a bloodline would remain one of the main resources used in the payment of fines. KoS p251 says that they are the owners of herds but it does not state *all herds*, and suggests that reallocation of grazing is used to reward bloodlines in favour; this would imply that the bloodline had a use for that grazing. This would suggest that in addition Orlanthi bloodlines own cattle as personal property (though they maybe a cattle-loan from the clan to the bloodline). Perhaps the problem has only recently arisen with the growth of Celtic influences on our understanding of Orlanthi (although the 7 forms of marriage are directly celtic). Note that KoS suggests that most bloodlines are agnatic p250 so the patrilineal model for weregild distribution is probably most accurate here.
Ian Cooper
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