5101-Ivinia, The Viking Lands/culture/settlements

Clanhold
Roughly 85% of Ivinia’s population live in thousands of small rural clanholds, although some are near fortified settlements. Most clanholds are not fortified unless very isolated or close to kingdom’s boundaries.

A typical clanhold has one longhouse held by an extended family (15–30 persons). The longhouse is surrounded by arable fields and pasture, roughly 10–15 acres per person, less where fishing is a major activity. The land is usually owned by the clan family, who pay tribute (usually in the form of cropshare or freework) to the greatclan valhakar. Serfdom, common on Hârn and elsewhere, is not found in Ivinia, although clanholds may contain thralls.

Arable land is customarily organized as one-third inner fields, cultivated every year with judicious use of manure and crop rotation, and two-thirds outer fields, half of which are cultivated, half left fallow for one year as pasture. The fields are usually without fences or hedges and are divided into strips for different crops. Barley, oats, rye, beans, and peas are common; the Ivinian climate does not allow much wheat to be grown. Choice land is used for fruit orchards, vegetable gardens, or lush meadowland, often at the direction of the valhakar, who may demand such produce as tribute.

Rural Ivinians are semi-pastoral and keep only enough animals to be self sufficient and to work the land. Pasture land is generally fallow arable land in outer fields. Grazing livestock helps to keep the weeds down and manure the resting soil. A small tract of good pasture land may be enclosed and reserved as meadowland where hay is harvested. What pasture there is will be used to feed goats, horses, oxen, pigs, and sheep. Goats and cows are numerous in Ivinia, providing milk, hides, and meat. Oxen are kept mainly as plow animals and are slaughtered for meat and hides when too old to work. Horses are rare and pigs are bred only for food.

Thran
As the clan grows, additional buildings are built and a perimeter fence, palisade, or earthworks may be built. As workshops, barns, and additional longhouses are added, the site evolves into a fortified community called a thran. A typical thran has 8–16 longhouses and outbuildings but the extent of the structures and the land being worked will be determined by the size of the clan. The nature and extent of the fortifications vary. Circular and octagonal ramparts are most common but other patterns exist. There are various arrangements of the longhouses within but most form a regular pattern. In some ways, the thran is a walled village, with the residents linked by blood and functioning as a single economic unit.

Valthran
If the political and economic conditions are suitable, the thran may evolve into a vathran (great thran). The distinction between thran and vathran is often vague. The status may be derived from great size or population, additional ramparts, the development of towers on the ramparts, or the construction of some kind of keep. Most vathrans are the clanhold of a valhakar of a major great clan. A vathran sometimes has the appearance of a foreign castle but since the population dwells within the rampart, a large thran bears greater resemblance to a small walled town.

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