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Possibly it was the unit of assessment for military service, possibly it was the recognized endowment of a Saxon thegn.

Moreover, in the laws of the Wessex king, Ine, the value of a man’s oath is expressed in hides, the oath for a king’s thegn being probably worth 60 hides and that of a ceorl 5 hides.

But in the broad way in which the poet states it, it may be absolutely denied, inasmuch as the acquisition of wealth is made of itself to transform the ceorl into a thegn: a singular coincidence of idea with the vulgar modern theory, but incompatible with fact in an age when a dominant caste of gentlemen obtained.

Burh I can understand; authorities abound for its use as expressing the manoir of the Anglo-Saxon thegn.

In the days of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, a merchant who went three times over sea with his own craft, was entitled to rank as a thegn, or nobleman.