Fine (Gaelic)

Fine [ 'f'in'e ] ( Irish , welsh cenedl ) is the Gaelic name for the family. The word fine is related to the Old High German wini ("friend").

Structures of fine

The fine was a family-related group that varied greatly in size. The gel-fine were all relatives of a common grandfather; the íar-fine was the group that shared a great-great-grandfather. The most important grouping was the derb-fine ( derb , “real”, “legal”; Kymrisch gwely ), which derived their descent from a common great-grandfather, i.e. the four-generation family. In certain circumstances it was jointly liable for the crimes or debts of individual members.

This derb-fine owned common land ( fintiu ), which could only be passed on within this family. When a beneficiary died, that land was given by the family to another member. The purpose of this rule was to prevent an accumulation of property in the hands of a single person. In the absence of a man entitled to inheritance, the daughter of the last landowner, called ban-chomarba ("wife-heir"), could inherit. Only the introduction of the English law of inheritance during the conquest of Ireland ended this system.

The head of a fine bore the title agae fine , cenn fine or conn fine . The agae fine achieved his position on the basis of his wealth, his reputation and other advantages, he represented the fine in relation to the company.

A kind of hereditary kingship could be derived from the stipulation that the successor to a king ( rí ) was always chosen from his fine ( Latin stirps regia , "royal camp"). However, there was no linear succession, so that in principle every male relative had this right. The fine tried to prevent possible disputes at the death of the king by arranging a succession during the king's lifetime.

The exact equivalent of derb-fine is the Indian four-generation clan sapiṇḍa . From this the Indo-European origin and thus the old age of this system can be read off.

See also

• Fine Gael
• Celtic women (section: Inheritance law)

literature

(All page references concern the entire article text)

• Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 , p. 994 f.
• Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 , p. 127.
• Wolfgang Meid : The Celts. Reclams Universal Library , Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-15-017053-3 , p. 105.
• David Rankin: Celts and the Classic World , Croom Helm Ltd. 1987, Paperback 1996 by Routledge, London / New York, ISBN 0-415-15090-6 , pp. 32, 130.