From: Ian Cooper (coops@dial.pipex.com)
Date: Sat 01 Jul 2000 - 18:33:27 EEST
Alex Ferguson wrote
>> > I've always assumed that among the Orlanthi (both Ralian and
>>
>>I think at least _de jure_, it's the entire clan.
David Dunham wrote
>I disagree. If this were the case, then no killing within a clan
>Orlanthi society, justice must work at the clan level.
Looking at the Celtic position on weregeld or cro (my source is "Cattle
Lords and Clansmen" by Nerys Patterson) wergild was paid by the fine or
"seventeen men" - that is kin out to the extent of 5th cousin horizontally
and grandfather vertically in an agnatic (reckoned through males only) kin
group. The closest kin (the gelfhine or "the five men" that is kin out to
1st cousin) were first called upon to pay the wergeld, but if this would
have reduced them to poverty the obligation passed further out. Of course
the other alternative available to the kin was to hand over the offender in
slavery in place of the weregeld, which would have been an important check
on members of the fine bankrupting the rest of the group. Weregeld payments
were received by the kin of he deceased in the following fashion: father and
son (half), Father's brother and son (i.e. your cousins) a quarter. The
remaining quarter divided into three parts and distributed to these in
outside the gelfhine.
Note that this was compensated for by the fact that inheritance of personal
property. if a gelfhine died out then the property was not distributed
amongst immediate kin, but the fine as a whole.
The distribution of weregeld by this method forced the kin to act as
watchmen over each other's activities.
My Anglo-Saxon sources are not as good. One of my best is D Whitelock "The
beginnings of English Society" which states that "homicide [was] the affair
of the kindred". Anglo-Saxon society was bilateral (recognised kinship as
being through male and female lines) and the responsibility for weregeld
payment fell two-thirds on patrilineal kin and one third on matrilineal kin,
and was received in similiar proportion.
Legally of course, someone had to be proved guilty before compensation was
exacted, but remember that in both Celtic and Germanic societies murder a
crime for which one could be killed without your slayer having to pay
weregeld (along with theft and other capital crimes), so there was an
incentive to own up (rape however was not a capital crime in all the law
codes of Germanic/Celtic peoples).
Within a kindred group I infer (don't have a source to hand for this) that
criminal matters of one against the other were settled internally by the kin
themselves, who could come up with whatever punishment was appropriate. One
of the ultimate sanctions was of course outlawry which was the refusal to
pay wergild for you, allowing you to be killed or enslaved by others with
impunity.
Hope this helps,
Ian
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