From Transblawg I learn of the word udal; in the OED's words, udal land or lands are "land(s) in Orkney or Shetland held by the old native form of freehold tenure." The word is the "Orkney and Shetland form of Norw. odal, odel, ONor. óthal odal," and odal is defined as "Land held in absolute ownership without service or acknowledgement of any superior, as among the early Teutonic peoples; esp. such an estate among the Scandinavian peoples, or in Orkney and Shetland (where the usual form of the word is udal, q.v.)"—it's related to German edel 'noble.' Some islanders are highly upset about the usurpation of udal law by Scottish feudal law, and you can read all about it at their website; me, I just like the word. It's so much handier than allodial.
Posted by languagehat at January 26, 2004 03:54 PMThe accursed feudal innovations must go.
Posted by: zizka at January 26, 2004 05:37 PMHmmm... I'm tired this morning and my mind is wandering but I wonder very much if libertarian activist Jim Davidson didn't have this word in mind when he began his Awdal Roads Company project (www.awdal.com). Cool coincidence if not. I'll have to mention it to him.
Posted by: speedwell at January 27, 2004 08:58 AMAwdal is a place: see http://awdal.com/faq.html.
Posted by: Anton Sherwood at February 2, 2004 09:31 PMI am reading the letter of James Teit (1864-1922) who was a Shetlander who emigrated to Canada in 1884. He says is is Secretary of the Udal League of B.C. Do you know anything about this?
Posted by: wendy wickwire at February 19, 2004 02:42 PM
Not a thing, sorry. I just like the word.
Posted by: language hat at February 19, 2004 02:54 PM