Geþyncðu
| Geþyncðo | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Be wergeldum 7 be geðinðum (in Cambridge, CCC MS 201); Be leode geþincðum 7 lage (in Textus Roffensis); De veteri consuetudine promotionum (in Quadripartitus) |
| Author(s) | probably Wulfstan (II), Archbishop of York |
| Language | Old English |
| Manuscript(s) | (1) Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 201 (associated with Wulfstan); (2) Textus Roffensis; (3) Quadripartitus MSS. |
| Genre | legal tract |
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.
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 documents of the group: Geþyncðo, Norðleoda laga (“North-people's law”), Mircna laga (“Mercian law”), Að (“Oath”) and Hadbot (“Compensation for the ordained”); and (2) Corpus 190 ('O'), which preserves only the last three. The second class was produced at a further remove from its original scriptorium. It is represented by two early 12th-century manuscript families: (a) the Textus Roffensis, a substantial collection of Old English law-texts with Latin translations, and (b) the various manuscripts of the Quadripartitus, which offer a vast array of legal texts in Latin translation only. On grounds of style and layout, Wormald argues that the second class of the Geþyncðu group goes back to a common exemplar containing a southern redaction of material from Worcester. This material may have reached Rochester via Canterbury. Both Textus Roffensis and Quadripartitus contain versions of Geþyncðu and Norðleoda laga.
As opposed to the law-codes issued by Anglo-Saxon kings, the five texts offer no official enactments, but they record what the author or compiler understood to have been church law and customary law in certain regions of England, such as Wessex, (West) Mercia, the Danelaw and Northumbria. The core of the group is made up by a number of texts on wergild.
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