To be specific: into Anglo-Saxon law. Most of Europe uses Roman law these days.
Terra:
>>And Orlanthi Heortlings is those two different groups into one. IMHO.
>>And in RW Iceland, I know the Collapse of Republic was at the
>>Assassination
>>of Snorri, isn't it a proof of the history such system doesn't work long
>>well.....? (Of course, it is Fantasy.....but....)
>I don't think you can claim that the collapse of one of the last
>governments
>to use Viking law as an indication that the legal system was unworkable.
This sort of law survived - as a government - well into the 18th century in coastal Germany, and in the shape of the "Feme" justice (basically masked vigilantes in good standing inviting or abducting and dooming an offender that had slipped government justice) probably longer. Goethe describes a hard but fair Feme justice in his play "Goetz von Berlichingen", and was known to have researched the issue during his time as youthful rebel in Frankfurt - roughly at the time of the French Revolution turning into an autocracy.
>This is the legal system which was in use across most of Europe for
>centuries before the Roman conquest and remained in use in places like
>Iceland and Ireland until at least the 10th Century. As a legal system
>it died out because of the rise of empires (like Rome) and nation states
>which chose to use Roman law as the basis of their legal systems.
Effectively, it died out because the rural gentry and rich farmer class died out, which carried the system. In Denmark, for instance, the last "farmers' republic" of Dithmarschen in southwestern Schleswig-Holstein could even muster sufficient militia to fight of Danish elite forces in the 17th century, and in East Frisia only the voluntary annectation by Prussia ended the system.
These farmers' republics were based on the independent, arms-bearing rich farmer and his followers. Clans were not involved in Germanic territory, but bloodlines were, and fealty of landless or poor freemen to rich and influential ones.
The system is fairly strong, and includes a strong portion of "might makes right" compared to the idealized Roman system which carries sentiments like "in dubio pro reo". The catch about "might makes right" is that the popularity of one's opponent could outweigh the influence of the mighty.
>For a people like the Orlanthi without a centralised state or government
>it makes far more sense than modern criminal law. I would expect this
>difference to be a major source of friction between the Lunar empire
>and the Orlanthi.
I doubt that the Lunars would even perceive the friction. Codified justice would try and get hold of the moots. The Lunars would persecute the moots for invoking Orlanth, and if a case was brought before their justiciars, they would pronounce their judgement whether or not a moot has settled the issue. Likewise, the moots will settle the issue whether or not Lunar justice has pronounced a judgement.
This is how the Sicilian Mafia operated as a social force, this can be found in the activities of the Ku Klux Clan... Nobody said that the Orlanthi were nice guys, right?
Heortling (and Brehon) law is semi-codified, and has great loopholes ("violence is always an option").
Heortling law deals with privileges (including land use, milling rights). Regions under Germanic law tried to keep these issues part of the republic, too, but they had to counteract church influence and its codified, Roman law. The Lunar Doburdun charade is a Dara Happan attempt to undermine Heortling customs, whereas the Tarshites have found a way to use Heortling and Vingkotling customs - not necessarily combined with Seven Mothers provincial worship - as a structural overlay over their Alakoring clan system. A similar issue can be found among the Hendriki, and by extension in pre-conquest urban Sartar. The tragedy of the dissenters is that their structure makes them vulnerable to concerted action by those embracing the larger structure. To keep true to their old ways, they need to be lucky in battle, confined to geography which hinders larger structures, or they must emigrate to such places or continue their ways under a foreign overlordship (that's where masked moot sessions come into play).
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End of Glorantha Digest
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