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Old 03-10-2004, 06:50 AM   #10
Lalaith
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Lalaith is a guest at the Prancing Pony.Lalaith is a guest at the Prancing Pony.
We could assume that the older sisters had no surviving offspring, as they would have prior claim to the throne, Theodwyn being the youngest child.
Alternatively, (as I think Martinez suggests in his essay?) Rohan may not have had a strict primogenture law of succession. This would fit in with the Anglo-Saxon aspect of the culture. The Anglo Saxon kingships usually went to the oldest surviving male heir, but not automatically. It was more like modern family businesses - the business could be taken over by the kid that poppa thought most promising.

Ancient cultures often had very interesting inheritance systems. The Picts of Scotland, for example: kingship was inherited through the sister of the current monarch, so the king's nephews were the heirs. (Hence the relevance of Mordred being Arthur's nephew rather than son...anyway, sorry, this is a digression.)
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