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A.
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Anglo-Saxon kinship terminology: faedera=fbr fadhu=fs,
eam=mbr, modrige=ms; suhterga=nephew or 1st cousin
bson or fbson--bilateral terminology but preference for the patriline,
shown in the term suhtergefaederan, the relationship with one’s
father’s brother and one’s cousins on one’s father’s side and nephew. There
is no equivalent term for kin on one’s mother’s side. Emphasis heavy on
blood kin. An Anglo-Saxon rarely if ever referred to his/her parent’s
siblings by the terms used for ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle.’ Terminology for affines
is poor. A preference for the patrinline may, once again, be noted in the
fact that tacor, means
brother-in-law, in the sense of husband’s brother, but aðum is used generically for
wife’s brother, sister’s husband, and son-in-law.
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B.
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The evidence of the laws is
one of decline of the kindred. It’s a theme which can be
exaggerated—they’re small to start off with and the documents show that the
blood feud was still alive at the end of the period, and it may not have
been that powerful an institution even in the time of Aethelberht. Also
note that there’s not much, if anything, about lordship in Abt.
Abt 30—we’ve seen this
before—individual responsibility (p. II–29)
If a person should kill
someone, let him pay [with] his own money or unblemished property,
whichever.
Abt 24—
24. If a person kills
someone, let him pay an ordinary person-price, 100 shillings.
24.1. If a
person kills someone, let him pay 20 shillings at the open grave, and let
him pay the entire person[-price] in 40 nights.
24.2. If the
killer departs from the land, let his kinsmen pay a half person[-price]
Alf 42—surrounding the house
and demanding justice (p. II–47)
42. We also command that any
one knowing his enemy to be at home shall not fight him before demanding justice of him [in
court]. If [the accuser] has
strength to surround and besiege his enemy inside [the latter’s house], let
him be held there seven nights and not attacked so long as he will remain
inside. Then after seven nights, if
the [besieged enemy] will surrender and give up his weapons, let him be
kept unharmed for thirty nights while news of him is sent to his kinsmen
and friends. ... If, however, [the
accuser] lacks the strength to besiege his enemy, he shall ride to the
alderman and ask him for aid; if the latter refuses him aid, he shall ride
to the king before beginning a fight. ... We declare
furthermore that one may fight
for his lord without incurring blood-feud [that’s an interpretation, the
A-S is orwige, meaning without
liability], if the lord has been attacked.
So also the lord may fight
for his man. In the same way one may fight for his
blood-relative, should the latter be unjustly attacked, except against his
own lord—that we do not permit. …
2 Aethelstan 2—everyone must
have a lord (p. II–47)
2. And with regard to
lordless men from whom no justice is to be obtained, we have ordained that
their kindred be commanded to settle them in homes where they will be
subject to folkright, and to find
them lords in the popular court (folcgemote). And if, by the day set, the kindred will
not or cannot do so, he shall thenceforth be an outlaw, to be treated as a
thief by any one who meets him. ...
Edmund 2.1—further isolating
the individual (p. II–47)
2.1. Henceforth, if any man slays another, [we
order] that he by himself shall incur the blood-feud [that’s right on: faedhe], unless he, with the help of
his friends, buys it off by paying the full wergeld [of the slain man]
within twelve months, no matter of what rank the latter may be. If, however, his kinsmen abandon him,
refusing to pay anything in his behalf, then it is my will that the whole
kindred, with the sole exception of the actual slayer, be free of the
blood-feud [unfah] so long as
they give him neither food nor protection.
If, on the other hand, one of his kinsmen later gives him such
assistance, the former shall forfeit to the king all that he has, and he
shall incur the blood-feud [faedhe]
[along with the slayer] because the latter has already been disowned by the
kindred. And if any one of the other
kindred takes vengeance on any men besides the true slayer, he shall incur
the enmity of the king and all of the king’s friends, and he shall forfeit
all that he has.
Notice the predominance of
if … then, even in 10th century laws.
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C.
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The relationship of the king to the laws:
“I then, King Alfred, have collected these [dooms]
and ordered [them] to be written down—[that is to say,] many of those which
our predecessors observed and which were also pleasing to me. And those
which were not pleasing to me, by the advice of my witan, I have rejected, ordering them to be observed only as
amended. I have not ventured to put in writing much of my own, being what
might please those who shall come after us. So I have here collected the
dooms that seemed to me the most just, whether they were from the time of
Ine, my kinsman, from that of Offa, king of the Mercians, or from that of
Aethelberht, the first of the English to receive baptism; the rest I have
discarded. I, then, Alfred, king to the West Saxons,
have shown these [dooms] to all my witan, who have declared it is
the will of all that they be observed. . . .
precedent, witan,
deeming dooms—not truly legislative—is there a notion of constitution?
Perhaps there is a beginning of one.
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