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Thegn
In Anglo-Saxon England, thegns were aristocratic landowners of the second rank, below the ealdormen who governed large areas of England. The term was also used in early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers. In medieval Scotland, there were local officials known as thanes. Etymology The Old English (, "man, attendant, retainer") is cognate with Old High German and Old Norse ("thane, franklin, freeman, man"). The thegn had a military significance, and its usual Latin translation was , meaning soldier, although was often used. '' An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary'' describes a thegn as "one engaged in a king's or a queen's service, whether in the household or in the country". It adds: "the word ... seems gradually to acquire a technical meaning, ... denoting a class, containing several degrees", but what remained consistent throughout was its association with military service. Origins The precursor of thegn was the ''gesith'', the companion of the king or great ...
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Geþyncðo
''Geþyncðo'' (also ''Geþyncðu''), meaning “Dignities”, is the title given to an Old English legal tract on status and social mobility, probably written by Wulfstan (II), Archbishop of York between 1002 and 1023. It is sometimes known as one of the so-called 'promotion laws', along with ''Norðlleoda laga'', and both these texts belong to a legal compilation on status, dubbed ‘the ''Geþyncðu'' group’ by the historian Patrick Wormald. Though the extent to which these reflect reality is a topic of some debate, they constitute one of the most valuable primary documents for an understanding of social status in late Anglo-Saxon England. The ''Geþyncðu'' group: manuscripts and texts Taking the ‘''Geþyncðu'' group’ as a whole, Patrick Wormald distinguishes between two classes of manuscripts. The first originates in Worcester and consists of copies of texts in two of Wulfstan's autograph manuscripts: (1) Cambridge, CCC, MS 201 ('D'), which contains all five docu ...
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