Council of Elders within Woodmen society

[Winterwolf]

Kurt and I are interested in the people in each of the Woodmen settlements and outside them.
From HotW p92:
"The Woodmen of the forest have no king. Each House has a council of Elders, and important decisions are voted on by everyone who meets beneath the roof of the Great House."

I presume others have put together some sort of details for their Council of Elders for each of these settlements.
Has anyone made standard the kinds of positions within the Councils?
I found in an earlier topic, mirdanis stated:
"two of the seven Council members of Woodland Hall are women, the chief healer and the sister of the previous bearer of Wolfbiter, an accomplished shieldmaiden in her own right."
So mirdanis has a chief healer on the Council at Woodland Hall, probably a reasonable position in this kind of society.
I am just interested to know what others have done when it comes to this kind of detail....

Thanks!

[Majestic]

There's a ton of detailed information in the Darkening of Mirkwood on pages 13-14, for many of the various elders and leaders that might help you out (unless you're keen to make them up all yourself!).

Some of those characters (like Hartfast of Mountain Hall) are then detailed quite a bit in other sections and books.

[Winterwolf]

Well, p13-14 of DoM only mentions:
Ingomer Axebreaker of Woodland Hall as head of councils of Woodland Hall, he is detailed more in HotW.
Hartfast of Mountain Hall, he is detailed much more in A Darkness in the Marshes within TfW.
Fridwald the Runner of Woodmen-town, but he is not stated to be on a Council of Elders.

Of probable future Woodmen settlements, leaders listed as:
Amaleoda of the Black Tarn
Ceawin of East Bight

Not much detail here in my opinion - it's a start but I'm looking to see what others have built up from this.

[Halbarad]

“When the folk of Woodmen-town do not go to Radagast for counsel, they turn to old Fridwald.”

Fridwald ‘the Runner’ is an old man and thus, by definition, an Elder. Although the text isn’t specific in naming him as such, I’d say it’s a reasonable assumption that he is on the Council of Elders of Woodmen-town, if not the Chief Elder. He is definitely the voice(Speaker?) of Woodmen-town at the Folk Moot.

I doubt that there are actual positions on the Council, beyond that of the elected representative to speak on behalf of that particular house at the Folk Moot.

I have it in ‘my mind’ that each extended Woodman family has a representative upon the council. This representative is the oldest person of high standing within the family, for the Woodmen perceive age as an indicator of wisdom. The fact that they have a council of ‘elders’ certainly suggests such a thing.

I also have a pseudo clan structure in mind with satellite communities filling the place of cadet branches and septs of the Houses. Thus there might be smaller communities of one or two families with names such as Woodman-crossing or Woodland Dell, but the folk are members of one of the larger Houses of the Woodmen. Each extended family from these communities sends a representative Elder to the council of that house.

Rhosgobel has no named Elder at the Folk moot. Radagast attends, but only as an honoured guest. I have named my Speaker of Rhosgobel, Regnald ‘the Russet Hound’. He is wily as the fox for whom he is named and has a bushy red beard that resembles a foxes tail.

[Winterwolf]

Sounds like a good argument that Fridwald would be on the Council of Elders for Woodmen-town.

Would all old people (Elders) be on their Council of Elders? Not everyone who is older may want to be, I guess.
I suppose many may turn up when required for meetings but not contribute nor be usually very notable.

I doubt that there are actual positions on the Council, beyond that of the elected representative to speak on behalf of that particular house at the Folk Moot.

This makes sense to me.

I like your other suggestions too!

[Halbarad]

You are welcome Winterwolf.

In answer to your question about whether all older people/elders are entitled to take a Council seat. I'd say that each extended family within a community may have several persons suitable for the council, but that only one may represent that family on the council. This would probably be the Elder with the highest Standing in the family.