282 THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND. [book i.
thirty pounds, “ Jnittig punda.” Now however con-
tradictory all these statements may at ârst sight
appear (and there can be no doubt that some of them
are ridiculously exaggerated), it is not impossible
to reconcile and explain them. Every one of the
authorities I have cited, except Florence, who has
evidently calculated his sum upon what he believed
to be the value of the mancus, reads thirty thousand
of some coin or other. One will have them pounds,
another shillings, another mancuses, etc. Now
they are all wrong in their denomination, and all
equally right in their number ; and for this very
obvious reason,—the originals from which they de-
rived their information did mention the number,
and did not mention the denomination. Each au-
thor put the question to himself, “ Thirty thousand
what ? ” and answered it by supplying the supposed
omission with the coin most familiar to himself.
But there cannot be the least doubt that the Saxon
original read Jnittig Jmsenda, thirty thousand, and
nothing else ; and this is not only actually the read-
ing of some MSS. of the Chronicle, but most likely
the cause of the error which lies in the other copies,
incautious transcribers having been misled by the
resemblance between the Saxon J? and p, and mis-
taken the contraction Jnittig Jmnda for Jnittig pun-
da, thirty pounds. It is the custom of the Anglo-
saxon tongue, in describing measures of land or
sums of money, to use the numerals only, leaving
the commonest units to be supplied by the reader.
Thus if land were intended, thirty thousand would
denote that number of hides ; and where money is
CH. X.]
FÆ'HDE. WERGYLD.
283
intended, at least in Kent, thirty thousand seæts1.
This then I believe to have been the sum paid to
Ini, and the regular personal wergyld of a Kentish
king. Let us now apply this sum to elucidate the
value of the other Kentish wergylds. From a com-
parison of the compensation appointed for in-
juries done to the nails of the fingers and toes, Mr..
Thorpe, the late Mr. Allen, and I concluded that
. the value of a Kentish shilling was twenty seæts.
But thirty thousand seæts would be fifteen hundred
such shillings, and assuming this to be the royal
wergyld, we shall find the eorl’s to be 360, the
ceorl’s 180 shillings, which amounts are exactly
thirty times the value of the several mundbyrds2.
In the first volume of Mr. Thorpe’s Anglosaxon
Laws, at p. 186, there is a document which pro-
fesses to give the values of different classes in
Northumberland. Its date is uncertain, though it
appears to have been generally assigned to the com-
mencement of the tenth century. I confess that I
can hardly reconcile myself to so early a date, and
think it altogether a suspicious authority. It tells
us as follows :
“ 1. The Northpeople’s royal gyld is thirty thou-
sand tlιrymsas ; fifteen thousand thrymsas are for
the wergyld, and fifteen thousand for the royal dig-
ɪ Conf.' Leg. HloiSh. § 13. ÆSelr. § 7. Ælfred’s Beda, Hi. 6. So, an
fɪftig, one fifty, means fifty psalms to be sung or said. ÆSelst. iv. § 3.
v. 8. § 6. No one mistakes the meaning of five hundred, five thousand
a year.
2 1500 Kentish shillings, which are equivalent to rather more than
7800 Saxon shillings, were a sufficient sum, at a period when an ewe
with her lamb was worth only one Saxon shilling. Leg. Ini, § 55.