I have very definately seen the word used in english in multiple locations. The only one that I can clearly bring to mind was in a history text, discussing the trouble that the high percentage of odal lands medieval Aquitaine (I think, somewhere in southwestern france for sure) caused the efforts to develop strong government. In all places where I have seen reference, it was used to mean lands that were owned by the individual or family, without any obligations to the state (i.e. no "if you don't pay these taxes/do this service we can take the land away from you"). Governments don't seem to like Odal lands for some reason :)
I was honestly surprised to find that odal is not in my handy webster's, so I went web searching. After seveal "no such word found" type responses, www.dict.org finally came up with the following:
>From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) :
Odal \O"dal\, n. [Cf. Icel. [=e]?al, Dan. odel allodial, Sw.
odal.] (Law)
Among the early and medieval Teutonic peoples, esp.
Scandinavians, the heritable land held by the various odalmen
constituting a family or kindred of freeborn tribesmen; also,
the ownership of such land. The odal was subject only to
certain rights of the family or kindred in restricting the
freedom of transfer or sale and giving certain rights of
redemption in case of change of ownership by inheritance,
etc., and perhaps to other rights of the kindred or the
tribe. Survivals of the early odal estates and tenure exist
in Orkney and Shetland, where it is usually called by the
variant form udal.
(udal isn't in my webster's either)
Following up on udal, I found that my mental definition of odal actually better matches the somewhat related term "alloidial" (also not in my websters). Again from www.dict.org:
Allodial \Al*lo"di*al\, a. [LL. allodialis, fr. allodium: cf. F.
allodial. See Allodium.] (Law)
Pertaining to allodium; freehold; free of rent or service;
held independent of a lord paramount; -- opposed to feudal;
as, allodial lands; allodial system. --Blackstone.
Allodium \Al*lo"di*um\, n. [LL. allodium, alodium, alodis,
alaudis, of Ger. origin; cf. OHG. al all, and ?t (AS. e[=a]d)
possession, property. It means, therefore, entirely one's
property.] (Law)
Freehold estate; land which is the absolute property of the
owner; real estate held in absolute independence, without
being subject to any rent, service, or acknowledgment to a
superior. It is thus opposed to feud. --Blackstone.
--Bouvier.
So, in english Odal does have connotations of being free from rent or service, but it also has meanings of not being controlled by family obligations, and not freely available to sell or assign by any one member of the family.
So, after all this, I forget exactly how the term was used in HW?
-Bryan
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