Ætt 1 · Pos. 8
Name
Inherited land: the home and farm that pass down through a family.
Meaning
The English poem holds home dearer than anything, as long as a person can live there rightly and prosper under their own roof. Inherited land was more than property. It could not be sold out of the family without the kin agreeing, and Norwegian law let a family prove its claim by tracing its kin back to the mound and the heathen time. The dead lay in mounds on the farm and stayed kin: remembered, given gifts, asked for help, with elves and dísir watching over the land.
English Rune Poem
Home is very dear
to every man,
if there he may,
in what is right and fitting,
enjoy in his house
prosperity most often.
