Eðaldeild
The Eðaldeild (Եձալդեիլդ; a Hártal word meaning “house of nobles”) is one of the two houses of the Landsþing, the governing body of Helminthasse. The body traces its descent from the vísráð of the early Siur commonholds, and from the samhaltráð which advised the thár of Siurskeyti prior to the Helmin secession.
Origins
The earliest forms of representation of the people in the Siur commonholds probably arose in the late first century BCE; in most instances, the people of a particular township gathered at a central location to air grievances, discuss matters of common concern and frame and pass laws by which to govern themselves, at a general assembly. In modern Hártal this is called the þing (the term is both singular and plural). The very term “commonhold” – then viðald in Hártal, originally from við haldum öllum, “we hold all” – was at least semi-consciously intended to reflect the notion that the community owned itself, with thossir or theinar merely acting as its stewards, a principle that was given additional force as Arlatur attained its current dominant position in Siur life.
While the concept of nobility arose in the Siur country much as it did in other parts of the developing world – as a combination of land acquisition, strategic partnerships and main force where required – the Siur never developed the same notions of serfdom that obtained in other regions; certainly, they were not bound to their lands in the sense of having to gain permission from their liege lord before departing from them, and their fealty was regarded as something freely given rather than merely assumed as present (and at times vigorously enforced), as in most other countries. Indeed, one of the key qualities required of a thein in the pre-modern period was a sense of how to balance his actions so as to retain and enlarge his personal support without placing his lands in jeopardy; a thein who ruled his lands harshly or capriciously could easily find his commonhold’s population base shrinking, and its strength declining to the point where it became prey for stronger neighbours.
While Arlatur in theory decried the idea of anything resembling a hierarchy, as relationships within and between commonholds became more complex, the limitations of their community-based systems of government became clearer. The early vísráð came into being as a means of controlling the management of a commonhold on a day-to-day basis (although þing gatherings did continue, usually at half-yearly intervals unless special circumstances intervened). The samhaltráð was, in its essentials, no more than this same process taken to a further level of complexity; a group of theinar advising the thár, just as they themselves were advised by their thossir and other prominent liegemen. While a form of advisory council existed under the rulership of Jukka af Essingi, the samhaltráð in its modern form was not established until the unification of the Siur commonholds in 1623 under Sterkur Fálk.
The first Eðaldeild
The original Helmin Eðaldeild was convened at the Mikillhörsalur in the Helminthasse capital of Virkið on 5-7 Petrial 1812 (15-17 Gimindur 1012 ÁL), after the loss in the Siurskeyti assembly of a vote of no confidence in the ruling thár, Ármann Lindskold af Geirroði. The delegates consisted of fifty-three members of the Siurskeyti samhaltráð which had voted on that matter, representing five of the commonholds which formed that country. A further eighteen were unable to attend because of illness, prohibitive distance or (in two cases) imprisonment, while seven more who held known views against secession refused to attend, regarding the entire gathering as treasonous.
Almost two hundred years of history – on both sides of the new border – have served to airbrush away much of the complexity of the Eðaldeild’s deliberations. In particular, Hringur Slátrari, thein of the Helminthasse commonhold and the first althein of the new nation, has been both lauded and vilified in almost equal measure for his part in bringing about the breakaway. Records of the Mikillhörsalur sessions reveal a much more nuanced picture; the original deildarmenn were well aware of the opprobrium in which they were likely to be held if the attempt at secession failed, and some valiant efforts were made, even at this eleventh hour, to hold the nation together.
However, the key point at issue – that a central government in Ostari had gathered too much power to itself and had turned the commonholds (loyalists as well as rebels) into economic satrapies – was never seriously disputed. Many delegates consciously invoked the long-standing Siur principle of the axareiður, the oath of fealty taken by a man of lands before his thosse or thein and customarily expressed in terms which indicated clear obligations on both sides, and denounced the Ostari rulership as, in the words of the Vinhaxaskur delegate Sverð Fellinu af Heslum, þjόfar og eiðriftarir (“thieves and oath-breakers”) – the latter arguably carrying more force in contemporary Siur society.
The Bandalagsplögg or Articles of Alliance, the documents which officially declared the secession of the five allied commonholds, were signed by fifty-one of the delegates. Of the missing two, Hvítur Klöpp af Grænndali fell ill during the three days of debate and was being nursed by his sister nearby, and Magni Hindarbridds af Bratturengi apparently forgot to sign the deed (folk legend has it that Hindarbridds was actually sleeping off a hangover at the time the other delegates were putting their names to the document). While perforce provisional in the first instance, this group – with some minor changes as a result of casualties during the Summer War – reconvened in the same building on 2nd Conservene (11th Ekunur 1013 ÁL) as the first Eðaldeild of the Alliance of Independent Siur Commonholds, the official name of the new country.
The voice of a nation
The new chamber was very consciously patterned after its counterpart in Siurskeyti – unsurprisingly, given that the greater part of its membership at the outset had been members of that body – but developed its own tone quite early. In particular, the conscious shifting of emphasis from Siurskeyti’s more centralised, increasingly federal structure to the looser set-up of the new Helminthasse made for a significantly more volatile assembly in its early years; the founders of the new nation made specific provisions for the Eðaldeild to concern itself only with matters affecting most or all commonholds, all else being delegated to the local level. (The commonhold assemblies or viðaldsdeildir did not yet exist in their current form; Helminthasse would be the first commonhold to create one, in 1820, and the other commonholds would follow suit by 1835.) This specifically referred to national defence and foreign relations (although the legal terminology was left vague enough that it could be, and at times in the future would be, read as having a much wider remit).
As part of its operating protocols, the new assembly adopted a proposal first developed for the Siurskeyti assembly by Viska Skaft, later to become alráðherra, whereby votes in the house would pass only on a double majority (at least 65 votes in the original 129-seat assembly, and at least three of the five commonholds). The contending claims to dominance of the two larger western commonholds, Helminthasse and Sarevi, threatened at times to make the remaining three not much more than sideshows; however, for most of this period the Skaft rules enforced a need to secure broad-based and country-wide agreement to legislature, giving the eastern commonholds rather more weight and influence than their voting strength alone would suggest.
The Eðaldeild was probably not intended at the outset to have the lead role in running the affairs of the country; its founder members were, however, aware that the thár’s failure to act in the wider interests of the nation had been responsible in part for the secession. In consequence, they – perhaps unconsciously – set in train a process in which the althein gradually assumed a more apolitical status; some altheinar have deliberately cultivated this as a distinction, consciously claiming the “view from the mountaintop” that deildarmenn concerned with day-to-day minutiae cannot have. The process was a slow one and subject to occasional reversals as strong altheinar sought to assert themselves; it was probably only with Eiðsvarinn Hárfell from 1878 that the separation of powers was really completed.
The Eðaldeild today
When originally constituted, the Eðaldeild was the new Helminthasse’s only legislative chamber, and in this manifestation contained representatives of all of the húðir extant at the time. However, the establishment of the Fólksdeild in 1881 would see the new chamber gradually share the function of primary legislative responsibility with the Eðaldeild, and the older house assumed something closer to its current situation. As the new house was also represented at the húð level – although on the basis of appointment from the viðaldsdeildir rather than by direct election – the membership of the Eðaldeild was reduced, initially to 75 before a further reduction in 1926 to its current level of thirty, six from each commonhold. As in times past – and in a process carried over to the Fólksdeild on its establishment – a vote must receive a majority in terms both of individual votes and of commonholds in order to pass the house; this is intended as an additional safeguard against the passing of legislation which would unduly disadvantage one or more commonholds against others. The most significant power retained today by the Eðaldeild alone is the right to choose the althein.
The precise composition of the chamber is established by vote among the thossir of each individual commonhold, and in this respect the Eðaldeild stands outside the system of concatenated chambers of government which typifies the rest of the Helmin system. Individual members sit for a maximum of five years, as do members of the Fólksdeild, although there is no limit to the number of times that they may be re-elected.
Practically by definition, the Eðaldeild’s membership includes the scions of Helminthasse’s senior nobility. While this is, of course, no guarantor of excellence in and of itself (and, in an overwhelmingly Arlaturi nation, would not generally be regarded as such), the country’s alráðherrar and many of the cabinet were drawn from the Eðaldeild up to the early 1960s, and exclusively therefrom prior to 1881. A custom of appointment of the alráðherra from the Fόlksdeild arose after the Long War – perhaps due to a war-weary country considering that the theoretically more broadly-based franchise of the lower house granted its members greater popular legitimacy. The principle was never given legal definition, although the controversial appointment of the eðaldeildarherra, Heiðra Steinn, to the premiership in 2011 has been the only instance of a Helmin noble occupying the office of alráðherra since Kapp Elsturhæð stepped down in 1944.