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.

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.

Since 1950, when Dorothy Bethurum's study on the five documents of the group was published,[3] the composition of Geþyncðu is usually attributed to Wulfstan (II), Archbishop of York between 1002 and 1023, who was also responsible for drafting official law-codes for kings Æthelred and Cnut.