Celtic Law : A Short Summary

offenseS

Additionally to the mentioned legal rights and obligations there were a number of actions considered as legal offenses.

offenseS AGAINST THE PERSON

KILLING

The most serious offense against another person is to kill it. However, in difference to many other legal systems, killing was not punished by making the offender subject to the same fate as his victim, but the law allowed the killer to atone for his crime by payment.

As it seems, this payment was made up of two basic types of fine and had usually to be paid to the victim’s kin.

The first type of fine is the fixed penalty for homicide, which amounts to 7 cumals for every freeman, irrespective of rank. It is generally called “éraic” (in later Old Irish replaced by “cró”). This goes to the victim’s derbfine, apart from the enforcer’s third (trian tobaig) which may be deduced if it is necessary for payment to be enforced by a lord or other person of power. (KELLY 1988, 126)

The second kind of fine is based on the honour-price (“lóg n-enech”) of the victim’s kin. Every member of the victim’s kin get’s a certain fraction of his honour-price, starting with his full honour price if it is a very close relative of him (i.e. father, mother, sons, daughters, brothers & sisters), half of it if one step away (Paternal unclématernal aunt), down to one seventh for the killing of fosterbrother or fosterfather. It is clear from that that killing could be extremely expensive if the victim was of high rank.

If for whatever reason the payment isn’t made, the victim’s kin can hold the killer captive and do anything with him that’s to their liking, from selling him into slavery to putting him to death. If the killer escapes and his kin doesn’t pay the fines, the victim’s kin is obliged to carry out a blood-feud to exact vengeance (diígal) on behalf of the victim. If the victim was a lord of any kind, his base-clients must join the vengeance-party.

FINGAL (Kin-slaying)

It is clear from the above that in case of kinslaying the above system of atonement by payment doesn’t work (as the kin would have to compensate itself). Additionally, it can’t be avenged by other members of the kin as they then would commit fingal themselves if they put the killer to death.

So the usual punishment for this act is that the offender is thrown out of the kin (banishment) and thereby loses all legal rights. He more or less becomes a non-person.

SECRET KILLING

Secret killing is basically the same offense as simple killing, but in this case the murderer either conceals the body, leaves it in the wilderness or fails to acknowledge his crime. As in most early societies, this is considered as a more serious crime than normal slaying, and therefore, if found guilty, the offender has to pay twice the normal amount for killing.

LAWFUL KILLING

Irish laws recognise some forms of killings that do not entail a penalty, and therefore have to be considered “legal” killings. This ranges from killing in a battle, to killing a thief while caught in the act of stealing, to killing an unransomed captive (cimbid) who may be killed by the individual or kin he wronged. It is also allowed to kill in self-defense (although that’s a somewhat complex matter).

INJURY

For injuries there also has to be paid compensation, varying according to how severe the injury was and if there remain any lasting blemishes. If a person is not fully recovered after nine days, a physician judges if the person will ever recover at all. If not, the offender has to pay the severe penalty for “crólige báis” (blood-lying of death), more than the usual penalty for killing. However, this fee frees him of any further obligations, may the victim now die or recover.

SICK-MAINTENANCE

If the victim is not fully recovered after the nine days, but the physician believes that he will recover, the offender must take him on “folog n-othrusa” (sick-maintenance, often referred to simply as “othrus”). This entails bringing the injured person to the house of a third party and nursing him at the culprit’s expense until he is cured. Sick-maintenance is considered a formal contract and therefore has to be bound with pledges and sureties.

Additionally, a lot of provisions are made as to what is required for sick-maintenance, from how many persons the victim may take with him as his retinue, if he is allowed to, on up to how much food he and his retinue have to get while being on sick-maintenance.

However, even in the time of the writing of the law texts, this practice was about to be replaced by payment instead of sick-maintenance, as this practice doubtlessly was cumbersome for all involved parties.

LAWFUL INJURY

Under certain circumstances, injuries are also not illegal and no penalty has to be paid for such injuries. Included in this list are bloodshed by a competent physician during authorized surgery, or by children during a game (as long as no foul play is involved), by opponents in a duel and so on.

RAPE

Irish Law discernes two kinds of rape (“forcor” and “sleth”), even though for both the same penalties apply. Forcor hereby refers to forible rape, while sleth covers all kinds of situations where a woman is subjected to intercourse without her consent.

Whatever the kind of rape it was, the rapist must pay the honour-price of the victim’s superior (usually father, husband, son or guardian), and the full éraic if the victim was a girl in marriageable age, a chief wife or a nun that has not renounced the veil, half that for any other kind of woman. If the victim becomes pregnant as a result of the rape, the rapist is fully responsible for rearing the child.

However, there are some cases where rape incurs no penalty, whatever kind it may be. In most cases this applies where the woman raped was promiscuous or adulterous, such as prostitutes or a married woman that agrees to meet another man. However, if the woman conceals the rape, there is also no penalty for it. If the rape happens in a town or settlement, the woman is obliged to call for help, but not so if the assault is made in the wilderness.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Her full honour-price must be paid to a woman kissed against her will. If her dress is raised, she also has to be compensated (even though we do not know how, as this is not stated). An assailant has to pay ten ounces of silver for touching a woman or putting his hand inside her girdle and seven cumals and three ounces for putting his hand under her dress to defile her.

SATIRE

For satirizing a person (“áerad” – to strike, or “rindad” – to cut) the penalty was the payment of the victim’s full honour-price. This included a wide range of verbal assaults, like mocking a person’s appearance, coining a nickname which sticks, or composing or repeating a satire. Even mocking a person’s defect by gesture may make a person guilty of satire. Also if a person is satirized after death, the full honour-price, as if he were still alive, is paid to his kin.

However, a satire may be legal, and was used as a legal instrument, as it was one of the pressures, especially against peoples of high rank, to obey the law. If a person, especially kings and nobles, tolerates a satire, he loses his honour-price. As such, if the satire was illegal he had to extract compensation from the offender, if not he had to give a pledge that he would pay whichever fines he owed.

In case of satire the satire could also be publicly retracted by composing a praise-poem. Such an act would cancel the original satire.

REFUSAL OF HOSPITALITY

Hospitality was considered as a duty of every freeman. Thus, to refuse somebody food and shelter where it is due makes the offender guilty of the offense of “esáin” (lit. driving away, also termed “etech”, refusal) and requires a compensation appropriate to the injured party’s rank. The only exceptions to this practice are the ranks of fer midboth and ócaire, which, due to their lacking of property, had only to provide hospitality to their lord as set in their clientship contract.

On the other hand, in some cases, hospitality has to be refused. A known criminal must not be fed or protected.

If a person indirectly causes another to refuse hospitality (for instance if not returning borrowed food in due time), he must himself pay the honour-price of the embarrassed host.

VIOLATION OF PROTECTION

One of the important principles of Irish Law was the right of a freeman to give legal protection (“snádud”, also “turtugud”) for a certain period of time to another person of equal or lower rank. To kill or injure a person under protection is to commit the crime of “díguin” (violation of protection), for which the offender has to pay the protector’s honour-price additionally to any other fines payable due to his deed.

Additionally, any freeman was also felt to exercise permanent protection over his own house and its environs, known as “maigen dígona”. This usually covered the area he had fenced as his courtyard. If a person was killed or injured inside this area, this action made the culprit guilty of díguin against the householder. However, it is illegal to give protection to various categories of absconder, e.g. a runaway wife or slave, a fugitive killer, an absconder from his kindred etc. (KELLY 1988, 141).