Chapter XIII: Early Anglo-Saxon Custom

I. KING ALFRED’S DOOMS.

[Sidenote: Alfred’s laws not earlier than the Compact with Guthrum.]

In order that the examination of early Anglo-Saxon custom may be free from the intrusion of elements introduced by the Northmen, it is necessary to go back to evidence of earlier date than the laws of King Alfred. Though collected mainly from earlier sources, these laws took their present form probably after the Compact with Guthrum had been made.

They do not profess to be a full statement of early West-Saxon law. King Alfred himself declares that he dared not add much of his own, ‘But those things which I met with either of the days of Ine my kinsman, or of Offa, King of the Mercians, or of Ethelbert--those which seemed to me the rightest I have here gathered together and rejected the others.’

Under these circumstances it will be more convenient to refer back to King Alfred’s laws when needful in connection with the earlier evidence than to consider them as a separate whole.

There is, however, one subject upon which the evidence of King Alfred’s laws may properly be considered before passing on to the earlier laws.

[Sidenote: Were the terms ceorl and gafol-gelda equivalent?]

We have seen that in the Compact with Guthrum the Anglo-Saxon ‘ceorl who sits on gafol-land’ and who was made ‘equally dear’ at 200 scillings with the Danish lysing was, if the words may be taken strictly, not necessarily a typical or representative member of the ceorlisc class as a whole. Only some of the ceorlisc class may have been gafol-geldas on other people’s land. It is important, therefore, to examine whether King Alfred’s laws afford contemporary evidence that the ceorlisc and the twy-hynde classes were practically the same, and whether they were, as a rule, gafol-geldas. We have seen, from the precious fragments before quoted, that under ancient ‘English’ law a ceorl could rise out of the twy-hynde class and become entitled to a twelve-hynde wergeld of 2000 thrymsas.

If such a statement had been found in West-Saxon law, the inference might at first sight be that the ceorlisc class could hardly have been mainly a class of gafol-geldas. The laws of Alfred surely ought to throw some light upon this important matter.

In section 39 is the following:--

[Sidenote: The ceorl below the six-hyndeman.]

Gif hwa on ciorlisces monnes flette gefeohte mid syx scill.
gebete þam ceorl. Gif he wæpne gebrede ⁊ no feohte sie bi healfum
þam. Gif syx-hyndum þissa hwæðer gelimpe þriefealdlice [arise
be þære ciorliscan bote. xii-hyndum men twyfealdlice] be þæs
syx-hyndan bote.

If any one fight in a ceorlisc man’s flet with six scillings
let him make bot to the ceorl. If he draw his weapon and fight
not let it be half of that. If, however, either of these happen
to a six-hynde man let it increase threefoldly according to the
ceorlisc bot; to a twelve-hyndeman twofoldly according to the
six-hynde’s bot.

The ceorlisc man in this section takes the place of the twyhynde man in contrast with the six-hynde and twelve-hynde classes. The payments are the bots payable to the owners for fighting within their sacred precinct or inclosure, and the amounts following the proportions of the wergelds of the three classes are:--

Ceorlisc man’s 6 scillings
Six-hyndeman 18 ”
Twelve-hyndeman 36 ”

In this section the ceorlisc class seems clearly to take the place of the twy-hynde class. They seem to be identical.