Eorling Mead Hall Planning/Discussion Thread

[Folwren]

Jenny, you're probably right with what you're saying about what happened here in America. I only used that as an example (having what Formy just said in mind). But we're not discussing America.

Farmer B is a claimjumper.

EDIT: and who cares if A let his land lie fallow? It's his decision. Perhaps he hadn't the hands to work it himself, but was planning to send the field as his daughter's dowry when she wed. Perhaps the land had been poorly stewarded and overworked by a previous owner, and needed to lie fallow for more time. Perhaps the man wished to put cattle on it, but was saving his money to purchase the livestock. The Rohirrim are not serfs, are they?

Well, see, these problems do have to be addressed. I don't know if the land was poorly stewarded, or if he was keeping it for later, or what. We can decide that if we want. If he didn't have enough hands to work it himself, then that means he didn't have the ability to keep it, and if he wasn't doing anything with it and if he couldn't do anything with it, but his neighbor had the ability to work it and plant it, then technically, they both should have talked it over and brought it to Eodwine before it came to what it is.

I have not considered all the different possibilities of A. I merely wrote the problem down, and I mostly did it from B's point of view. What happened here is not an unlikely occurance, you know.

If A does end up having a good reason for letting the land lie unused, then perhaps there is no guilt on his side.

If A knew that B was planting his land but he didn't say anything, there is some guilt there.

Because B has planted outside his claim, he's in fault, too. But is it enough to loose all of his work and all of his crops?

Consider this:

If B is allowed to keep what he planted (that's what they're arguing over - not who's land it is, really), A looses nothing, because he wasn't doing anything with his land anyway - UNLESS A was intending to plant a later crop, in which case, he would have been working the ground around the same time B was.

The reason they brought this to court was because A wants to take B's work and crop after all the really hard work is done and B is putting up a fight. A think it's his right because it's his land, B think's it's his right because it's his work.

Back to what Jenny said:

Perhaps he hadn't the hands to work it himself, but was planning to send the field as his daughter's dowry when she wed.

If that's the case, it might be easily resolved. Farmer B is not asking Eodwine to give him the land. He's asking him not to let Farmer A take away his crop. Here's the case as I put it:

One man (A) claimed that his neighbor (B) had planted an entire crop of oats on one of A's outlying fields. Because it was land granted to A, A should now own the crop growing on it. The other man (B) interjected - the field had lain fallow for two years, the owner (A) wasn’t using it as it should be used, A didn’t do the work, if A wanted the field for A's own use, A should have been out there breaking the ground instead of leaving it for his neighbor (B) to do.

Now, if A ups and says 'I can't work it myself, but I want to keep it until my daughter get's married' Eodwine can grant that to him, but say - 'Until then, B can use it for crops, so long as he lets it rest as often as it needs to' or whatever.

If you want to ad fines or whatever to it, Elempi, you can. I have no clue about anything like that.

-- Folwren