I hope these two postings to this list answer your questions:
Ian Thomson wrote:
> Hello people who have a maths section of their brain.
> Does anyone know (and this Q is for a Glorantha article) what the
> ratio is between acres, hides, and hectares
>
> Thanks
This is my first mention of Hides on this list:
> Greetings and Salutations
> 2002-03-13-1400.
>
>
> david.boatright wrote:
> Can anybody make a rough calculation as to the amount of land
> > available around a stead?
>
>
> The Berkshire Doomsday Book entry states:
> 'If the king sent an army anywhere, one soldier went from five *hides*,
each
> hide providing four shillings towards his wages and subsistence for two
> months.'
> Although written later this may show how the Anglo-Saxon fyrd was
recruited
> and paid for. A hide is an administrative term for the amount of land
> considered necessary to support one man and his family. In actuality the
> exact size of a hide was not fixed as different terrain and soil types
would
> affect the amount of produce. In Berkshire a hide was measured as about
> forty acres.
> The men living in five hides had to club together to equip and pay for one
> of their number to go on campaign. A *hundred* is formed by recuiting men
> from twenty units of five-hides, giving twenty warriors equiped and
supplied
> for a summer campaign.
> The Vikings used a similar system, one hundred and fifty *carucates*
having
> an obligation to provide and raise thirty men.
> A capitulary of Charlemagne c.807 A.D. state: 'Each freeman who seems to
> hold five *mansi* shall likewise come to the army.' A mansi being the
> equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon hide.
>
> If we take that sixteen carls and their families live and work a stead, a
> stead will have sixteen hides as its cultivated lands. With forty acres
per
> hide that is 640 acres per stead.
> One acre equals 4046.9m2 so a steads holding will be 2590016 square metres
> or 1000 square miles. That is one hell of a lot of land. (if my maths is
> correct?).
[No it wasn't! :/ 640 acres equals exactly one square mile]
>
> That also means that three warriors from that stead can be sent out on
fire
> season campaigns and raids (1 warrior per five-hides). These wariors will
be
> equiped and supplied to be away from their homelands for the majority of
the
> season. The rest of the carls would fight and protect their lands should
a
> raid or attack happen.
>
> ------------------------
> Cheers Darran.
But this is what was decided on through the thread on this list:
> Greetings and Salutations
> 2002-03-30-1320.
>
> John Hughes wrote:
> >Greg:
> >
> >> My understanding of a hide is that it's equal to the amount
> >of land that a
> >> single ox tem can plow in the available average time and
> >land quality.
> >> That is, 40 acres in spring, 40 in fall and 40 fallow.
> >
> >This definition fits in with Michael's recollection of 120
> >acres. It's not
> >surprising that with what was originally a qualitative measure
> >of land - The
> >OED defines it as an Anglo-Saxon term denoting the (variable)
> >amount of land
> >required to feed a family for a year, typically between 60 and
> >120 acres -
> >that variants appear when it later becomes legislated into a
> >fixed area..
> >
> >For HW purposes, 120 acres seems the way to go, with the usual
> >GM fiat that,
> >in accordance with historical use, it can be 'as big as it
> >needs to be'.
>
> One of the positive uses of hides would be to calculate the size and style
> of a particular stead. A twenty hide stead, for example, would represent
a
> small holding worth 10% to a 200 hide clan. A stead with 160 hides could
be
> seen to be the main settlement of the clan.
> The knock on effect is that for each hide the stead has there will be a
Carl
> and his family (whether you calculate the hides from the number of carls
> resident at the stead or the size of the stead lands first is entirely up
to
> you). For each five-hide a stead has there will be a professional
warrior,
> Housecarl or Weaponthane supported and having a relationship to although
the
> Weaponthane may not be resident at the stead at the time.
> Should the exact number of acres be needed to be known then that can be
> easiler calculated from the 120(+/- 40) acres per hide depending on
quaility
> of the terrain.
>
> Cheers,
> Darran Sims.
> Assembly Rooms Duty Manager.
> E-mail- Darren.Sims_at_....
> -----------------------------------------------------
> ''Fiat justitria ruat coelum''
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