Re: Odal

From: Jonas Schiött <jonas.schiott_at_...>
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 20:09:20 +0100


Bryan:

>[long list of dictionary definitions]

One of my Swedish dictionaries has the more succinct "Full ownership, often hereditary" (my translation)

>So, after all this, I forget exactly how the term was used in HW?

Communaly owned by the entire clan, in practice administrated and distributed to households by the clan leadership.

The point of the historical scandinavian term is that the family that has odal rights doesn't have to answer to any king, prince, jarl or other bigshot. (BTW, "odal" is also the origin of the more modern word "adel", which means "noble". This probably has something to do with the historical process of nobles usurping the farmer's rights.)

This sense might apply in Glorantha if odal rights were something the clan had vis-a-vis the tribe or kingdom. Like the RW term, but applying to a much larger social unit. But in TR, it's rather used to describe the clan's rights versus the clan members...



Jonas Schiött
Göteborg

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