Honour-price, rank by rank
Two law-texts set out what each rank’s honour was worth. In one of them the scale runs from a yearling heifer for a youth to fourteen cumals for a king over kings. The two do not agree with each other, and Kelly warns that neither can have matched real life closely. Here are their figures as they stand, each with the place we read it.
Two law-texts set out what each rank’s honour was worth. In one of them the scale runs from a yearling heifer for a youth to fourteen cumals for a king over kings. The two do not agree with each other, and Kelly warns that neither can have matched real life closely. Here are their figures as they stand, each with the place we read it.What an honour-price was
Scholars sayThe measure of a person’s standing in law was an honour-price, in Irish lóg n-enech, literally “the price of the face”. It had to be paid for any serious wrong done to that person. Kelly’s examples are murder, satire, serious injury, refusal of hospitality, theft and violation of the person’s protection. Wrongs not held to touch honour, such as animal trespass or minor damage to property, drew lesser fines.
Scholars sayIt also set the limit of what a person’s word could carry. No one could make a contract on his own, or go surety, for more than his honour-price, and his oath and his evidence counted only up to it. So the evidence of an ócaire counted up to three séts, and that of a bóaire up to five.
From the lawCríth Gablach says as much of each rank in turn. Of the small farmer, in MacNeill’s translation: “His honourprice is (the measure of value to which) he makes oath and which goes upon his bond and his guarantee and his hostage and his evidence.”
Scholars sayA killing was normally paid for in two ways, though Kelly says the sources are not always easy to reconcile. The body-fine was seven cumals for any freeman, whatever his rank. The other payment was reckoned on the honour-price of the dead person’s kin. Kelly’s example is that a man was paid in full, presumably his own honour-price, for the killing of his father or mother, and half for an uncle on his father’s side or an aunt on his mother’s.
Kelly, pp. 8 and 9, 126, 158, 169 and 203. MacNeill, §83.
Séts, cumals and cows
Scholars sayHonour-prices below a king’s are generally counted in séts, and a king’s in cumals. Sét seems to be the ordinary word for a treasure or a valuable, put to use as a unit. Cumal first meant a female slave, and came to be a unit of value.
Scholars sayThe lawyers who wrote notes on the old texts in later centuries generally reckoned one milch cow as one ounce of silver, two séts, or a third of a cumal. Kelly says the relative values are difficult to work out and must have fluctuated a good deal. Some of the old texts keep close to that rate: one implies seven séts to the cumal, and another forty séts to seven cumals. One gives a quite different figure, twenty séts to the cumal, though Kelly notes that the passage has been explained in another way. The sét moves against the cow as well. Críth Gablach in one place counts eight cows as ten séts, though Kelly notes that “cows” there may include younger cattle.
Scholars saySmall sums were named as cattle. A three-year-old heifer that has not yet calved, the samaisc, counted as half a milch cow. The later commentators put a two-year-old heifer, the colpthach, at a third of a milch cow. A yearling heifer, the dairt, was generally half a sét. The ages are the ones Kelly argues for. He notes that other scholars have taken each of these animals to be younger.
So the sums “in milch cows” on this page are a rough guide and no more. They use the later rate, as Kelly does when he puts a provincial king’s fourteen cumals at forty-two milch cows and an ócaire’s three séts at a cow and a half.
| The sum | In séts | In milch cows, or ounces of silver |
|---|---|---|
| A yearling heifer | ½ | ¼ |
| A sét | 1 | ½ |
| Five séts, a very common fine | 5 | 2½ |
| A cumal | 6 | 3 |
| Seven cumals, the body-fine for any freeman | 42 | 21 |
| Fourteen cumals | 84 | 42 |
Kelly, pp. 8, 10, 63, 112 to 116 and 126. MacNeill, §80, for the eight cows.
Críth Gablach: farmers, lords and kings
Scholars sayCríth Gablach deals with the lay grades: farmers, lords and kings. Breatnach dates it after 697, because it mentions the Law of Adomnán of that year, and before the second quarter of the 8th century. Kelly says about 700. It takes the ranks one at a time and says what each man owns, what company he keeps and what his honour is worth.
We read it in Eoin MacNeill’s translation of 1923. Thirteen of the sixteen figures below are also given by Kelly, who cites the text by D. A. Binchy’s edition of 1941. The other three rest on MacNeill alone, and their lines say so.
Scholars sayKelly warns against taking the detail too literally. He thinks the text’s list of the tools and fittings of a farmer’s house probably agrees quite closely with real life, since many of the things on it have been found by archaeologists. Its livestock he trusts less. Its figures for cattle may be roughly right, he says, but it gives each farmer equal numbers of cattle, pigs and sheep, and the bones found on sites of the 8th century are about four-fifths cattle.
Kelly, pp. 10, 111 and 133. Breatnach, pp. 241 to 244. MacNeill, §123, for the Law of Adomnán.
From the lawThe ranks, lowest first, as the text gives them.
One stroke is one milch cow at the later rate. A short stroke is part of one.
Farmers
fer midboth, a youth living on his father’s land, the lower grade
The name probably means “man of middle huts”. Binchy took the lower grade to be aged fourteen to seventeen. He can act as surety, oath-helper or witness, but only up to the value of that heifer.
a yearling heifer
about ¼ of a milch cow
Kelly, pp. 11 and 82. MacNeill, §§66 to 68.
fer midboth, the higher grade
On the same reading he is seventeen to twenty, the age of “beard-encirclement”. He can take a fief worth five séts from a lord.
a two-year-old heifer
about ⅓ of a milch cow
Kelly, p. 82. MacNeill, §§69 and 73.
ócaire, the small farmer
The name means “young freeman”. Seven cows and a bull, seven pigs, seven sheep, a horse, and a quarter share in a plough-team.
3 séts to be paid in cattle
about 1½ milch cows
Kelly, pp. 10 and 115. MacNeill, §§76 to 83.
A farmer whose stock is in tens
Ten cows, ten pigs and ten sheep. MacNeill translates his title as “vassal excelling vassals in husbandry”. The text says he may be one of four or five heirs to a bóaire’s land, so that none of them can easily be a bóaire.
4 séts
about 2 milch cows
MacNeill, §§84 to 86, for the figure, which Kelly does not give. Kelly, p. 111, for his stock.
bóaire febsa, the strong farmer
Bóaire means “cow-freeman”. Twelve cows, half a plough-team and a house twenty-seven feet across.
5 séts
about 2½ milch cows
Kelly, pp. 10, 110 and 203. MacNeill, §§87 and 88.
mruigfer, the “land-man”, the highest grade of bóaire
Twenty cows, two bulls, six oxen and a plough of his own. The text calls him “a man of three snouts”: a rooting hog’s, a bacon pig’s on its hook, and a plough’s.
6 séts
about 3 milch cows
Kelly, pp. 28, 100 and 111. MacNeill, §§89 and 90.
fer fothlai, the “man of withdrawal”
A bóaire with twice an ordinary bóaire’s wealth, who lends his surplus stock to clients of his own. He is withdrawing from the farmers’ rank, but only his grandson can be a full lord.
8 séts
about 4 milch cows
Kelly, pp. 12 and 28. MacNeill, §§93 and 94.
aire coisring, the head of a kin
Kelly translates the title “lord of obligation”. He speaks for his kinsmen and gives pledges on their behalf to the king, the Church and the craftsmen. Kelly thinks that last may here mean only the poets.
9 séts
about 4½ milch cows
Kelly, pp. 14 and 48, for the office. MacNeill, §§95 to 99, for the figure, which Kelly does not give.
Lords
aire déso, the “lord of vassalry”, the lowest grade of lord
Ten clients, five of them free and five base. Five horses, one with a silver bridle, and a house with eight bed-cubicles.
10 séts
about 5 milch cows
Kelly, pp. 27 and 28. MacNeill, §§106 to 108.
aire ard, the “high lord”
Twenty clients.
15 séts
about 7½ milch cows
Kelly, p. 28. MacNeill, §§110 and 111.
aire tuíseo, the “lord of precedence or leadership”
Twenty-seven clients, and twelve bridles, one of them of gold.
20 séts
about 10 milch cows
Kelly, p. 28. MacNeill, §112.
aire forgill, the “lord of superior testimony”
Forty clients. His word outweighs that of the grades below him when they disagree. For this part of the text one manuscript survives, and it says 15 séts, which Kelly says can hardly be right.
probably 30 séts
about 15 milch cows
Kelly, p. 28. MacNeill, §113. Breatnach, p. 242, for the manuscripts.
tánaise ríg, the heir-apparent
MacNeill translates the title “second of a king”. The text says the whole túath looks to him for the kingship.
30 séts
about 15 milch cows
MacNeill, §114, for the figure, which Kelly does not give. Kelly, p. 26, for the word.
Kings
rí túaithe, the king of one túath
He rules only his own túath. The text says his seven cumals are one for each of the chief grades under him.
7 cumals
about 21 milch cows
Kelly, p. 17. MacNeill, §116.
rí túath, the king over three or four túatha
Also called ruiri, “great king”. Críth Gablach calls him a “king of bands”, a name found nowhere else.
8 cumals
about 24 milch cows
Kelly, p. 17. MacNeill, §117.
rí ruirech, the “king of great kings”
Kelly equates him with the king of a province. Most law-texts know no king above him.
14 cumals
about 42 milch cows
Kelly, pp. 8, 17 and 18. MacNeill, §118.
How the text explains its own figures
From the lawCríth Gablach gives reasons for some of its numbers. MacNeill’s “chattel” is the sét.
- The small farmer has three séts and not five because “the establishment of his house is not complete”, and he cannot stand surety as a bóaire can, “owing to the smallness of his means”.
- The strong farmer’s five are one for each thing he can do at law: “a chattel for his bond, a chattel for his guarantee, a chattel for his evidence, a chattel for his hostage, a chattel for his composing (disputes) and for his judgment in farm-law”.
- Of the lowest lord’s ten: “Five chattels in regard of his own house in the first place, and five in regard of the five houses that are in vassalage to him”.
- The king’s seven cumals are “a cumal for every chief grade that is under his power”.
Scholars sayMacNeill judged the farmer’s five functions to be “merely mnemonic”, a way to remember the number. Kelly reports the lord’s reckoning as the text gives it: five of his ten séts stem from his five base clients.
MacNeill, §§83, 88 with its note, 108 and 116. Kelly, p. 12.
Uraicecht Becc: the Church, poets and people of skill
Scholars sayUraicecht Becc, the “Small Primer”, is the other main text on rank. Breatnach calls it unique in its breadth. It covers churchmen, commoners, lords, kings, poets, judges, craftsmen and entertainers, though in less detail than Críth Gablach gives the lay grades.
Scholars sayScholars have placed it differently. MacNeill thought it was the tract on rank that once opened the Senchas Már, and among the oldest written law. Binchy argued that it came from the same school as the Bretha Nemed texts, one in which law and poetry had not yet been separated. Kelly and Breatnach both point to its Munster connections: it names the king of Munster and the monasteries of Emly and Cork. Breatnach adds two cautions. The Senchas Már had a tract on rank of its own, now in fragments, and Uraicecht Becc shares wording with it as well as with Bretha Nemed. And its language, which MacNeill and Binchy put in the 8th century or earlier, would be in keeping with the 9th century or even the early 10th.
MacNeill, pp. 265 and 271. Kelly, pp. 47 and 246. Breatnach, pp. 297 to 300 and 315 to 317.
The table gives the text’s figures as Kelly reports them, with MacNeill’s paragraph where his translation has the same figure. Three things about it need saying.
- The figures for the grades of the Church are Kelly’s. MacNeill’s translation names the seven grades (§8) and then says only “In like measure for the grades of the church” (§18), without giving the sums.
- MacNeill’s translation gives the physician and the three smiths 8 séts (§39). Kelly gives 7, and says that one manuscript tradition has 8.
- MacNeill thought the last paragraphs of the text were added after it was first written. They are the ones that give the 14 cumals and name Munster, Cork and Emly.
| Who | Honour-price, and where we read it |
|---|---|
| The Church | |
| Lector | 7 sétsKelly, p. 38 |
| Usher | 10 sétsKelly, p. 38 |
| Exorcist | 15 sétsKelly, p. 38 |
| Subdeacon | 20 sétsKelly, p. 38 |
| Deacon | 30 sétsKelly, p. 38 |
| Priest | 3½ cumalsKelly, p. 38 |
| Bishop | 7 cumalsKelly, p. 38 |
| Archbishop, or the abbot of a great monastery such as Cork or Emly | 14 cumalsKelly, p. 41 |
| Poets | |
| Ollam, the chief poet | the same as the king of one túathMacNeill, §20. Kelly, p. 46 |
| Ánroth | 20 sétsKelly, p. 117. MacNeill, §26 |
| Cli | 10 sétsMacNeill, §25 |
| Cano | 7 sétsMacNeill, §24 |
| Doss | 5 sétsMacNeill, §23 |
| Macc fuirmid | 3 sétsMacNeill, §22 |
| Fochloc, the lowest grade | a sét gabla. Kelly says this would seem to be a sét and a halfKelly, pp. 46 and 115. MacNeill, §21 |
| Judges | |
| A judge of matters to do with craftsmen | 7 sétsKelly, pp. 51 and 52 |
| A judge of traditional law and of poetry | 10 sétsKelly, p. 52 |
| A “judge of three languages”: traditional law, poetry and canon law | 15 sétsKelly, p. 52 |
| Healing and craft | |
| Physician | 7 séts, and the same for a masterKelly, p. 57 |
| Blacksmith, silversmith or coppersmith | 7 séts, and no more for a masterKelly, pp. 62 and 63 |
| Wright skilled in one of four things: building churches, mills or boats, or working yew | 7 sétsKelly, p. 61 |
| Wright skilled in all four | 15 sétsKelly, p. 61 |
| “Chief expert wright” | 20 sétsKelly, p. 61. MacNeill, §59 |
| Harpist | 5 séts. He is the only entertainer with a price of his ownKelly, p. 64 |
| Chariot-builder or engraver | 3 sétsKelly, p. 63 |
| Turner, leather-worker or comb-maker | a yearling heiferKelly, p. 63 |
| Horn-player, juggler, jester and other entertainers | none of their own. A wrong done to one was paid for as a share of his employer’sKelly, p. 64 |
Scholars sayUraicecht Becc does not mention the bard, who had not the poet’s training. A later tract on metre gives him half the honour-price of the poet of the same level.
Kelly, pp. 46, 47 and 57. MacNeill, p. 280.
Where the two texts part
From the lawBoth texts rank the farmers and the lords, and their figures for the lords differ. Uraicecht Becc puts the aire ard above the aire tuíseo. Críth Gablach has them the other way about. Uraicecht Becc also goes lower: below the fer midboth it names three grades whose honour is worth a fleece of wool, a lamb and a sheep.
| Rank | Críth Gablach | Uraicecht Becc |
|---|---|---|
| Three grades below the fer midboth | not named | a fleece of wool, a lamb and a sheep |
| fer midboth | two grades: a yearling heifer and a two-year-old heifer | one grade: a yearling heifer |
| The two grades of farmer | 3 séts and 5 séts | 3 séts and 5 séts |
| aire déso | 10 séts | 7 séts |
| aire échta | no price of his own | 10 séts |
| aire ard | 15 séts | 20 séts |
| aire tuíseo | 20 séts | 15 séts |
| aire forgill | 15 in the manuscript, probably 30 | 30 séts |
| King of one túath | 7 cumals | “half of seven cumals” |
Scholars sayMacNeill took those three lowest grades to be boys under twelve, and their honour-price to be a fiction that brings the farmers’ grades up to seven. Kelly glosses the lowest of them, the inol, as perhaps an apprentice.
Críth Gablach: Kelly, pp. 10, 17, 28 and 82, and MacNeill, p. 270 and §§66, 69, 83, 87, 107 to 113 and 116. Uraicecht Becc: MacNeill, §§11 to 16 and 33 to 36, with p. 277, and Kelly, pp. 8, 28 and 82.
People who took their price from someone else
Scholars sayA grown freeman’s honour-price came from his own rank. That of each of his dependants was a share of his.
| Who | Honour-price, and where we read it |
|---|---|
| A man’s chief wife | normally half of hisKelly, pp. 11 and 71 |
| A son or daughter over seven who still depends on him | normally half of hisKelly, pp. 11 and 84 |
| A son who has failed in his duty to care for his parents | a quarterKelly, p. 11. MacNeill, §83 |
| A child up to the age of seven | the same as a cleric’s, whatever the parents’ rank, according to Bretha CróligeKelly, p. 83 |
| A concubine | generally half of what the chief wife hasKelly, p. 71 |
| The mother of a king, a bishop or a sage | the same as her son’s, if she keeps the lawKelly, p. 78 |
| The steward or the messenger of a king or lord | half of his employer’sKelly, pp. 65 and 66 |
| An outsider from overseas married to a woman of the túath, the cú glas or “grey dog” | half of his wife’s, if her kin recognise the marriageKelly, p. 6 |
| A castaway taken into service | normally a third of his master’sKelly, p. 6 |
| A base fuidir, a tenant with no standing of his own | a quarter of his lord’s, and his wife an eighthKelly, p. 34 |
| A slave | The law treats a slave as the master’s property. Payment for a wrong done to a slave goes to the masterKelly, pp. 11 and 95 |
Scholars sayA fall in a man’s rank did not pull his family down with him. According to Bretha Crólige, if a man is degraded for an offence his son’s honour-price stays where it was, “for the misdeed of the guilty should not affect the innocent”. In the same way, Kelly says, a wife’s honour-price is not lowered by her husband’s fall.
Scholars saySome women were assessed in their own right. Kelly points to a list in Bretha Crólige of women of particular importance in the túath, among them the woman wright and the woman physician. If such a woman did not count herself as dependent on a husband, the judges set what she was owed for an injury by her own dignity and possessions.
Kelly, pp. 11, 12 and 77.
Losing it, and washing it clean
From the lawAn honour-price could be lost by acting beneath it. The introduction to the Senchas Már, in MacNeill’s translation: “There are four magnates of a tuath who degrade themselves into petty folk: a king who gives false judgment, a bishop who stumbles, a fili who fails in his duty, an incompetent noble.” Críth Gablach brings a king down to a commoner’s price for working with mallet, spade or axe, or for a wound in the back taken in flight, as The King and the Axe tells.
From the lawCríth Gablach also says how a stained honour is made good.
“Any filth that stains a person’s honour, there be three that wash it away, soap and water and towel. This, first, is the soap, confession of the misdeed before men and promise not to return thereto again. The water, next, payment for whatever perishes through his misdeeds. The towel, penance for the misdeed, by the judgment of books.”
From the lawRank could rise as well as fall. Uraicecht Becc speaks of the man who buys land or standing “by his art or by his husbandry or by his talent that God gives him”, and gives the saying “a man is better than his birth”.
MacNeill, §§7, 101, 126 and 128, and p. 315. Kelly, pp. 11, 12, 19 and 27.
Where we are not sure
Scholars sayThe two scholars we have read do not agree on how far the tables matched life. Kelly says the texts on rank differ among themselves and that their schemes can only have borne a limited resemblance to reality. MacNeill granted that the grading “had not settled down into commonly accepted doctrine”, but held that it “was no mere matter of juristic theory, but was an actual and important factor in the everyday practical working of the laws”.
Neither book tells us how often a sum in these tables was ever paid.
A note of our own. In Uraicecht Becc the grades of the Church are matched with the lay grades. So its priest, at 3½ cumals, and its king of one túath, at “half of seven cumals”, stand on the same step, the one above the deacon and the aire forgill at 30 séts. At the later rate of six séts to the cumal that step would be worth 21 séts, less than the step below it, which cannot be what the text means. Of the rates Kelly reports, only the one that puts twenty séts to the cumal keeps the scale climbing. A later paragraph of the text gives thirty séts to people it calls equal to the king of one túath, and Kelly, describing the text, speaks of seven cumals for him. We have not found the difficulty discussed in the books we have read. So we give the figures as they stand and do not turn them into cows.
Where MacNeill and Kelly differ, and which we have followed
- The aire forgill. For that part of Críth Gablach one manuscript survives, and it gives him 15 séts, the same as the aire ard two grades below him. MacNeill translates it as it stands. Kelly says it can hardly be right and prefers the 30 of Uraicecht Becc. The ladder follows Kelly.
- The sét. MacNeill counts every fifth sét as a full milch cow, so that five séts are three cows. Kelly reports the later rate of two séts to the cow, and the strokes follow that.
- The yearling heifer. Kelly says it was generally half a sét, which is a quarter of a milch cow. MacNeill’s note values it at three scruples of silver against twelve for the sét, which would make it an eighth of a milch cow. The ladder follows Kelly.
- The ages of the fer midboth. Binchy, as Kelly reports him, makes the lower grade fourteen to seventeen and the higher seventeen to twenty. MacNeill’s translation gives the higher grade “from fourteen years to twenty”.
- The highest judge. Kelly gives the “judge of three languages” 15 séts and notes that the chief expert wright has more. One paragraph of MacNeill’s translation (§38) has a judge “of the three rules” rise to twenty séts as well.
- The lowest poet’s sét gabla. MacNeill translates it “minor chattel” and takes it to be the lowest of three grades of sét. Kelly, from the figure in another text, says it would seem to be a sét and a half.
- The king of one túath in Uraicecht Becc. The table above gives the words of MacNeill’s translation, “half of seven cumals”. See our note.
We have read Críth Gablach and Uraicecht Becc only in MacNeill’s translation, which is a century old, and not in the Old Irish.
A third text on rank, Míadshlechta, “Categories of Rank”, sorts people differently again, and Kelly notes that it alone of the three names a king of all Ireland. We know it only from MacNeill’s summary, which gives its list of the seven things by which a man is measured: “physique, kindred, land, husbandry, profession, wealth, integrity”.
Kelly, pp. 9, 18, 28, 38, 46, 52, 61, 63, 82, 115 and 116. MacNeill, pp. 266, 270, 274, 275, 277, 281, 284 and 311 to 313. Breatnach, pp. 242 and 264.
Where this comes from
- Eoin MacNeill, “Ancient Irish Law: the Law of Status or Franchise”, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, volume 36, section C (1923), pp. 265 to 316. It translates Uraicecht Becc at pp. 272 to 281 and Críth Gablach at pp. 281 to 306, and summarises Míadshlechta at pp. 311 to 313. The paragraph numbers are MacNeill’s. Read directly. MacNeill died in 1945 and the paper is out of copyright, so we quote it.
- Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (1988), chiefly the introduction and the three chapters on the law of persons (pp. 1 to 98) and the section on currency (pp. 112 to 116). The page for each figure is given beside it. Read directly, and put into our own words.
- Liam Breatnach, A Companion to the Corpus Iuris Hibernici (2005): pp. 241 to 244 on Críth Gablach, pp. 264 and 265 on Míadshlechta, pp. 297 to 300 on the Senchas Már’s tract on rank, and pp. 315 to 317 on Uraicecht Becc. Read directly, for the dates, the manuscripts and how the texts are related.
- Not read: the Old Irish of either text; D. A. Binchy’s edition of Críth Gablach (1941) and his article “The Date and Provenance of Uraicecht Becc” (1958); Liam Breatnach’s edition of Uraicecht na Ríar (1987); Neil McLeod’s study “Interpreting Early Irish Law: Status and Currency” (1986 and 1987), which Kelly cites.
Last checked against these books: 2026-10-06. How we read our sources · Corrections