[487]. I write wita not wíta. The vowel is short, and the noun is formed either upon the plural participle of wítan to know, or upon a noun wit, intellectus, previously so formed. The quantity of the vowel is ascertained by the not uncommon spelling weota, where eo = ĭ (see Cod. Dipl. No. 1073), and the occurrence in composition of the form uta, which is consonant to the analogy of wudu, wuduwe, wuce for wĭdu, wĭduwe, wĭce, but excludes the possibility of a long í.
[488]. Cod. Dipl. Nos. 361, 1102, 1105, 1107, 1108.
[489]. Cod. Dipl. No. 1103.
[490]. Cod. Dipl. No. 364.
[491]. Chron. Sax. an. 1009.
[492]. See Cod. Dipl. Nos. 353, 364, 1107. There is one document signed by 121 persons (Cod. Dipl. Nos. 219, 220), but I have some doubt whether all the signitaries were members of the gemót.
[493]. Beda, H. E. ii. 13.
[494]. Chron. Sax. an. 978.
[495]. Such perhaps was the gemót which after Eádmund írensída’s death elected Cnut sole king of England, or that in which Earl Godwine and his family were outlawed.
[496]. This is not altogether devoid of strangeness, because we know that among the Oldsaxons of the continent there was a regulated system of elective representatives, including even those of the servile class. Hucbald, in his life of Lebuuini, tells us: “In Saxonum gente priscis temporibus neque summi coelestisque regis inerat notitia, ut digna cultui eius exhiberetur reverentia, neque terreni alicuius regis dignitas et honorificentia, cuius regeretur providentia, corrigeretur censura, defenderetur industria: sed erat gens ipsa, sicuti nunc usque consistit, ordine tripartito divisa. Sunt denique ibi, qui illorum lingua edilingi, sunt qui frilingi, sunt qui lassi dicuntur, quod in latina sonat lingua, nobiles, ingenuiles atque serviles. Pro suo vero libitu, consilio quoque, ut videbatur, prudenti, singulis pagis principes praeerant singuli. Statuto quoque tempore anni semel ex singulis pagis, atque ab eisdem ordinibus tripartitis, singillatim viri duodecim electi, et in unum collecti, in media Saxonia secus flumen Wiseram et locum Marklo nuncupatum, exercebant generale concilium, tractantes, sancientes et propalantes communis commoda utilitatis, iuxta placitum a se statutae legis. Sed etsi forte belli terreret exitium, si pacis arrideret gaudium, consulebant ad haec quid sibi foret agendum.” Pertz, Monum. ii. 361, 362.