The law’s words

Words the law-texts use, as Kelly sets them out. The forms are the Old Irish ones. Modern Irish forms will be added once they have been checked.

lóg n-enech “price of the face”

The sum a person was owed if wronged or insulted, fixed by their rank. It measured their legal standing as well as their worth: a person with none of their own had no standing in law.

Guide to Early Irish Law, chapters 1 to 3 (kings, lords, status). Used in: The Poet’s Warning, The King Who Was Satirised and Praised, Distraint on the Physician.

sét “a valuable thing”

The standard unit of value in the law-texts. A milch cow was worth two sets, and a cumal, which first meant a female slave, was normally worth three milch cows (six sets).

Guide to Early Irish Law, chapter 5, “Currency”. Used in: The Felled Oak, Nine Days’ Care, The Poet’s Warning, The Cow That Had Just Calved.

athgabál “taking again”

Seizing a debtor’s goods, usually cattle, to enforce a debt without going to court: notice, a delay, then seizure, then the animals held in a pound where more is forfeited each day.

Guide to Early Irish Law, chapter 7, “Distraint and legal entry”. Used in: Fasting upon a Lord, The Poet’s Warning, The Dog on the Neighbour’s Land, Distraint on the Physician, The Cow That Had Just Calved.

ráth, naidm, aitire

Someone who stood behind a bargain. The ráth was a paying surety, the naidm an enforcing surety who could distrain or seize the debtor, and the aitire a hostage-surety.

Guide to Early Irish Law, chapter 6, “Contracts and sureties”. Used in: Nine Days’ Care, Fasting upon a Lord.