Toni Sihvonen (order #92780) 62.142.248.1

Toni Sihvonen (order #92780) 6
A Saxon gives all loot to his lord, trusting the lord to
redistribute it among his followers according to their merits.
Wounded followers get at least as many healsfangs as
their wounds are worth. The cynn of a slain man gets at
least his wergild.
Love (Family) Obligations
All people descended from the same grandfather (i.e.,
first cousins) are “cynn” for both legal and Love (Family)
purposes. Some families also count second or third
cousins. While this is a large group, many families have
been broken up by migration, war, or the outlawing of
their shared ancestors.
Cynn Loyalty requires you to aid vendettas, act as athfultum
in legal cases, and help pay wergilds. Likewise, you
can expect your cynn to support you in court and to help
pay wergilds you incur. Cynn share wergild payments in
proportion to the degree of the relationship. Married
couples are supported by both the husband’s and wife’s
cynn; thus a marriage joins two cynns as much as two
individuals.
Lands, Taxes, and Boats
Saxons can gain land by conquest or inheritance.
Inherited land belongs to the cynn, is divided among living
cynnsmen, and returns to the cynn upon a cynnsman’s
death; it cannot be transferred out of the cynn except by
marriage. Men who do not inherit enough land to
become thegns may wish to improve waste land, earn
gift-land from a lord, or take land from the Britons. Any
Saxon who has wergild can legally own land. A nithing
owns nothing.
The basic unit of Saxon landholding is the hide: enough
land to support one ceorl and his family. This varies from
40 to 120 acres depending on the yield of the land. A
thegn needs five hides to support himself and his family:
if he owns more hides, he can use them to support his
heorthwerod. An ealdorman often owns twenty hides or
more.
A cyning owns much land directly, and collects feorrn
(“food revenue”) from the his subjects’ lands. Nominally,
each landed ceorl owes one night’s
hospitality to the cyning and his retinue every year, to be
paid in food to the gerefa if not in person to the visiting
lord. One homestead may be required to provide three
bushels of fish from the river, another to bring five barrels
of ale. The cyning may also demand fyrd-service or other
labor from his subjects, as noted under “Rank”. Persons
who shirk this duty must pay bord-bot. This demand usually
amounts to two months’ work or campaigning, or
less, to leave time for sowing and harvesting. In the very
militant Saxon cyningdoms before Badon, shirking military
duty is probably bootless. pypical Fines - Bordbot:
page 1291
Inherited boats are divided among heirs, just like land.
The eldest son controls the boat as its acting captain.
Younger brothers may serve as crew or may trade their
shares to the oldest brother. Ceorls and poor thegns may
be asked to crew a boat for their superiors. [Boat Prices:
page 1301
Women and Marriage
Saxon wives and daughters are jealously guarded by the
law, which doubles their wergild and lets fathers and husbands
kill men caught “in the act” with their female cynn.
Within the cynn, Saxon wives and daughters are well
respected and fairly independent.
A woman’s first husband is chosen by her parents or
ward, and is usually a political match as much as a love
match. A Saxon man pays his in-laws a brideprice, equal
to his father-in-law’s wergild, and the morning after the
wedding gives his bride the morning-gift, often equivalent
to a quarter of his own wergild in goods or land. This gift
is forever the property of the woman.
Divorce is easy in Saxon society. Either the man or the
woman may declare that a marriage is over. A woman is
entitled to a third, or even half, of the couple’s wealth,
and has undisputed ownership of her morning-gift and
the household furnishings. If the husband wishes to keep
the children of the marriage, then the woman gets the
children’s worth in addition to her share. In political marriages,
prenuptial arrangements cover the disposition of
the family wealth in case of divorce. Widows and
divorced women can choose their second husband for
themselves.
A woman may hold land in her own name and retain
control of it even if she marries. Widows and daughters
will inherit land if they are the sole heirs. After Badon,
many Saxon women take over the leadership of their
cynns and lands, leading to an increase in female magicians
and female fighting orders like Freija’s Women
(Pendragon page 143). However, a Cymric knight who
marries a Saxon widow after Badon is certain to claim the
land she controls as his own.