Word of mouth is still an option; you may not regularly be popping over to the next tula, but you'll know someone that is, for one reason or another. Not ideal, but hey...
> Are you assuming that marriages generally take place
> between clans that share boundaries?
I think this is probably the most common case. Further afield than your own tribe is relatively uncommon, and there are several occasions per year than will bring "all" of a tribe together, and several more that will bring smaller groups together on cross-clan lines. I should also mention the possibility of "informal union" with someone from another bloodline of your own clan, which I think we last time we managed to semi-generally agree was not unknown, and not necessarily an affront to Man and God, but of course void where prohibitted by local custom. (i.e. if you're the Elmal clan, good luck with that.)
> It would make sense if there were various gatherings for
> ceremonies and the Heortling equivalent of Agricultural &
> Pastoral shows.
There are -- I think TR makes this explicit in the calendar, and it's hardly a huge stretch to extrapolate a few more such 'excuses', especially in Fire Season. (No, not even counting raiding!)
> (If the Sartarite "all" is 85%, is the Sartarite "most" 51%?)
Surely 42.51%...
> You bear a child to your husband's bloodline, and gain some
> measure of acceptance. At any stage your husband could decide
> to divorce you, and you'd be expected to return to your birth
> clan and leave your children behind.
As you later imply, this is very much dependent on the attitude of not just the husband, but of that of her marital clan at large, and the stead she lives in most particularly. The above could certainly happen, and I'm sure is the sort of thing that's ideal fodder for a Gothic Novel/Tragic Viking Saga sort of tale. A clan is unlikely to be able to often treat incoming wives completely arbitrarily though, since they have decent relations with their neighbours to worry about in general, and ensuring that the "supply" of spouses doesn't dry up, in particular. It'd be possible on the one extreme for the woman to have 'gone native' to the extent of remaining resident in that clan regardless of said divorce -- in 'the home clan' of my game I can think of numerous women with vastly more political clout than their husbands, who wouldn't dream of simply upping sticks in the (vastly unlikely...) event of being divorced. (Extreme case being I suppose our EtQ Ring member...) Or messy legal case ensues, with the outraged wife demanding copious compensation for her husband's numerous slights and offences. (I don't know that the 'location' of the children is necessarily beyond dispute, either, though surely their clan identity is. "I'm Going Home to Mother. Your dinner's in the dog (sic!), and your children are being Fostered.")
> Oh, there seems to have been some debate out there about which
> clan a married woman belongs to.
I think in theory, she always remains part of her "birth clan". In several practical senses this identity will change on marriage, or more often, progressively thereafter. e.g., which wyter she belongs to, which 'local magical customs' she practices, etc.
(Exactly the same holds for men in matrilocal marriages, of course.)
> Who gets her wergeld?
Whichever 'group' successfully sues for it. I say 'group' since I'd think this is more usually a stead than a clan, unless this is such a big deal that you could only settle it by getting your clan chief on board to make the suit for you. It's not impossible this could be her father's (m.m. mother's, in some cases) clan -- extreme instance, newly married woman dies at the hands of a member of her husband's clan. (Is wergeld in theory also payable for negligent causes of death, as well as outright homocide?)
Cheers,
Alex.
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