>huts. To a first approximation, I'd say one longhouse per carl
>family. That carl family would have some associated thralls or
>cottars, but only the carl family would sleep in the longhouse
>itself.
I think this is wrong. While I don't have TR with me, there are two descriptions of steads -- one definitely describes a large communal situation with pretty much everyone living together in a central building. There is also the description (on page 18?) of a stead that has way too many buildings for this to be true. I personally favor the former -- I don't think the Heortlings are comfortable in small groups -- their urge is to gather together with kin. That's how they survived the Darkness, after all. Loners (Humakti, solitary Kolati, etc) are weird and unlucky people.
My impression of viking homes (the Icelandic versions are smaller than the Heortling steads, but it's a good model), is that the separation between people was not whether they were in the house but whether they had a little closet to sleep in or slept more openly on the floor.
I suspect there is some variation between clans and tribes on what's considered "normal." My impression of Esrolians and Tarshites is that they live in smaller buildings in villages (or village-like arrangements); perhaps Sartari with close ties to one group or the other see "everyone in one house" as old-fashioned while more conservative Heortlings see smaller houses as a breakdown in family values and a threat to the egalitarian ideals of the past, when even the tribal kings mucked out the cattle barn and plowed the fields.
Peter Larsen
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