Re: Re: Axes

From: donald_at_...
Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2005 01:51:25 GMT

In message <177dc5fd05020315186f650c2b_at_...> John Machin writes:
>
>On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 19:55:23 +0000, Dr Stuart Mousir-Harrison
><loosmoos_at_...> wrote:
>> Well, I'd say the best possible example would be Harmast - and a serious
>> role model.
>
>How 'fixed' are Heortling classes? In more peaceful times are
>stickpickers encouraged to improve their status or are those who try
>(and succeed) parvenus? Carls, for all the rhetoric, don't have as
>many thanes as the warriors do and they might be jealous of their
>status, such as it is.

AIUI thanes are also carls, they are just the most respected/wealthiest. I would regard the classes as pretty fluid, based as they are on ownership of a plough and ox team and the allocation of land by the clan. So even an exceptional stickpicker would be very lucky to reach the rank of carl or thane. On the other hand becoming a cotter would be fairly common and his sons might well become carls. Part of the difficulty is that fathers tend to teach their sons the skills needed so generally a cotter wouldn't have the skills to handle an ox team or plough so the clan wouldn't allocate land to him.

>"Noone can make you do anything" seems a bit more restrictive than "Be
>all you can be", is all.

Yes, the latter is a modern RW concept.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/