I'm going to speculate a bit and ask some questions to go with it. If you happen to know of a good reference point for all of these questions feel free just to point me in the right direction and ignore all this.
This first question is small fields or big ones? A full carl is supposed to have a yoke of oxen. This implies that each carl ploughs his own field. In turn, this would suggest fairly small fields. On the other hand, since it seems food is treated fairly communally within a stead, and several hearths (hence probably multiple carls) will be in a typical stead, it would seem more efficient to have bigger, shared fields (where there is room for them, of course). We could compromise by saying that each carl nominally has a yoke of oxen, but what is really important is the stead's total number of oxen, and in reality there might be a bit of flexibility in who owns which cattle-beasts.
If you agree on large fields, then how are they shaped? Well, when ploughing you want to turn as little as possible, so you want long fields. Also, much of the heortling land probably has fairly rocky soil, and when you are hauling rocks off to the side of the field you probably appreciate it if the side of the field isn't so far away. These would both suggest that, all else being equal, fields will tend to be long but fairly narrow. This would also conveniently fit into narrow valleys.
Obviously some locations will only fit small fields, and others will only fit squarish or even odder shaped fields. In these case you can figure out the fields from the local geography, however.
All those rocks will tend, over time, to build up to a bit of a mound. If you want to be efficient you can even use them to partially enclose your field. Also, when I've seen old farms in windy parts of the world, there was a strong tendency to hedgerows around the fields to protect the crops from the brunt of the wind. So I'd imagine that where there are large amounts of fields, the fields would tend to be enclosed by hedgerows of some sort, and at the foot of the hedgerow you'd often have a small rise comprised of accumulated rocks. Where fields are more isolated you would often have surrounding bush anyways, but would still get that rise of rocks. In fact, you can probably sometimes identify old fields that are long overgrown by the remains of these rocks accumulations. And if you are re-clearing them, naturally you'd follow the same plan, so you don't have to move the rocks.
Sometimes you'll have fields and pasture in the same area. Most pastures will be up in the less fertile areas, but you need some pasture near steads, and sometimes you'll have land suitable for plough alongside land that is too shallow or too wet or something. So you need a fence. Heortlings don't have chain link or steel wire, or course. The two most common styles of fence I've seen on old homestead around here are roots and zig-zag. Roots are basically the top piece of the root structure of the trees that were pulled out of the field, laid on their side. The outreaching roots overlap, and actually make a pretty effective fence (and you have to do something with them anyway). But, they'll rot eventually, and not every field will be cleared from the sort of tree with suitable stumps. So zigzag fences around here were made from split cedar rails, with alternate lengths at right-angles to each other, piled typically half a dozen rails high or so. This works well if you have lots of cedar (which is fairly easy to fell, is very straight, can be easily split, and is resistant to rot and insects so lasts a long time). Is there much cedar in Sartar? Anyone have other fence ideas? Do they actually gather up enough rocks to make low stone walls? Use a line of stakes driven in the ground (and probably woven through with bark strips or some such). Or would they just grow robust hedgerows between field and pasture.
I'd appreciate thoughts or references that anyone might have.
Thanks;
Bryan
Powered by hypermail