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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9359173" data-attributes="member: 42582">There is no serious crime, but there can clearly be legal disputes - eg Bilbo's with the Sackville-Bagginses. And there is at least some petty theft - eg of Farmer Maggot's mushrooms.I don't think there are lawyers in The Shire, but I do think there could be JPs - if only to hold intruders or wrongdoers for handing over to the King's officers for the dispensing of justice. And also, as I said, to certify or witness private legal arrangements, which clearly are a thing that happens in The Shire. (It is not a place where property is held in common. It has a noticeable class hierarchy.) And even in The Shire, there would be fencing disputes or straying of animals onto others' pastures or crop-fields that would require adjudication.Yes, Anglo-Saxons and Goths. (I'm relying here on Shippey, The Road to Middle-Earth.)Personal relationships - including between Theoden and Erkenbrand - will be fundamental. But personal relationships can also be important in feudalism: I don't think there is a sharp contrast between all warlord/retainer and all lord/vassal relationships. Though there may be a sharp contrast between some of them - eg there may be some lord/vassal relationships that are largely devoid of a personal dimension and are more purely legal in their character.I think how all this works in Rohan and in Gondor is left rather opaque. And is Rohan's obligation to respond to the beacons analogous to a treaty obligation? Or analogous to the obligation of a vassal to assist their lord?</blockquote>

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