[Tlhingan-hol] Last X and testament?

[lojmIt tI'wI' nuv 'utlh]

I feel certain that one of the functions of every House is to defend the interests of the House, including the property of all who die within it. I would not expect lawyers to be involved.

There’s never been a suggestion that any Klingon feels debt to follow the orders of the dead. The whole point of winning a contest to the death is to be the guy still standing who gets to tell others what to do. When you lose such a contest, your pre-posthumus wishes don’t linger longer than you did.

Succession is more important than property rights, since those who succeed make choices as to who defends what property for whom. If a successor has challengers and the challenger wins, then there is a new successor, regardless of the wishes of the original leader.

Who would defend the rights of orphans and widows and widowers? The House, not the law. Hold up a Last Will and Testament to someone grabbing property of someone recently departed and you’ll likely get the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid response to “Rules? In a knife fight?"

lojmIt tI’wI’ nuv ‘utlh
Door Repair Guy, Retired Honorably



On Mar 8, 2014, at 11:06 PM, Rohan Fenwick <qeslagh at hotmail.com> wrote:

> ghItlhpu' lojmIt tI'wI' nuv, jatlh:
> > All of this assumes that Klingons would have a will.
> 
> I'm assuming nothing, merely asking how a Klingon would describe such a thing in Klingon.
> 
> taH:
> > Wouldn’t it be more likely that when someone dies, everybody just fights over their stuff?
> 
> It is possible, but I doubt it. Klingon culture is heavily ceremonial when it comes to death, and the importance of heritage to Klingon society, coupled with the fact that Klingon legal terminology is otherwise relatively well-developed (DIb, ghIpDIj, bo'DIj, meqba', Hat, mab, qI', mub, chut), makes me think there are likely to be many complex legal provisions in place for when someone dies.
> 
> > And who cares about commands left by a corpse? The whole idea is repugnant.
> 
> Not left by a corpse: left by the person while their spirit ({qa'}) still inhabited them, and as the spirit continues to survive after death, the wishes of the spirit should continue to be respected, I would think. We also know at least one proverb that indicates the actions of a Klingon spirit would continue to be relevant after death:  {qaStaHvIS wej puq poHmey vav puqloDpu' puqloDpu'chaj je quvHa'moH vav quvHa'ghach} "the dishonour of the father dishonours his sons and their sons for three generations" (TKW p.155).
> 
> > Next, you’ll be looking for the word for “funeral”.
> 
> What, you mean {nol} "funeral" (TKD p.97)?
> 
> > {mol} is something one does to treasure, not to corpses.
> 
> With respect, "not to corpses" is absolutely wrong. {mol} is glossed in TKD as both "bury" and "grave" and if treasure were the intent then the gloss would surely have been "pit", not "grave". Moreover, {mol} "grave" bears the same relationship to {lom} "corpse" as {pogh} "glove" to {ghop} "hand", so there's a potential etymological connection there as well that further supports the idea that {mol} is first and foremost what is done to a corpse.
> 
> QeS
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