and inferior. The feudal social inferior or vassal would pledge military service and protection to the superior (Lord). In return, the superior would reward the inferior with land, compensation, or privileges. Nomenclature The Germanic term for the comitatus is reconstructed as *druhtiz, with Old English forms dryht and druht, and Scandinavian drótt. Equivalents highlighting different features of the lord/man bond include the trust-element of the early Frankish antrustio, royal bodyguard; the Danish vederlag or Society, and the Norse hird or household following. Women The Wife's Lament in the Exeter Book uses the language of the comitatus to sharpen awareness of the conflict between the wife's claim on her lover, and the brotherhood-claims of the lord and his followers: In the words of the Wife's Lament, "that man's kinsmen began to think in secret that they would separate us." How typical this is of the medieval genre of the frauenlied – with the romantic theme of a woman being left by her husband because he needs to be with his liege lord – is however debatable. Even in Anglo-Saxon England, if the Exeter Book contains few pieces featuring women or written from the female perspective, Beowulf by contrast has roles for women precisely in strengthening the cohesion and unity of the comitatus: thus the 'peace-weaver' (a woman given in marriage to resolve a feud) Queen Wealtheow makes the normative claim that “Here each comrade is true to the other/loyal to lord, loving in spirit./The thanes have one purpose, the people are ready:/having drunk and pledged, the ranks do as I bid.”. Tacitus finds that women helped late first century Germanic warriors fight their battles. According to Tacitus, warbands were frequently composed of men of one family or clan and kept near to them their women and children during battles. Mothers and wives of warriors treated wounds and compared the war injuries of their men to other warriors. Women also gave encouragement and food to warriors in battle. If Germanic combatants were losing a battle, Tacitus claims that women aided the cause by "thrusting forward their bare bosoms, and making them [the Germanic warriors] realize the imminent prospect of enslavement -- a fate which the Germans feared more desperately for their women than for themselves." Women were also believed by Germans to hold within them "an element of holiness and a gift of prophecy; and so they [Germanic warriors] do not scorn