Of Infangthief and Outfangthief

[lethargic_man]

In 1066 And All That,^* there's a bit of doggerel in the Anglo-Saxon section beginning (quoted from memory, as I lent my copy to my then boss a few years ago, who failed to read it, misplaced it, took voluntary redundancy and retired to France):

When Cnut Cyng the Witan would enfeoff
Of Infangthief and Outfangthief

(You can tell it's mock Old English and not the real thing as it ends "'Infangthief is damgudthyng!'")

Anyhow, I'm currently reading Waverley (Andrew Levy, tongue in cheek: "It's a novel about Edinburgh train station, then?"), and was astonished to encounter the phrase "infangthief and outfangthief" there; apparently these are real words:

For, as he used to observe, ‘the lands of Bradwardine, Tully-Veolan, and others, had been erected into a free barony by a charter from David the First, cum liberali potest. habendi curias et justicias, cum fossa et furca (lie, pit and gallows) et saka et soka, et thol et theam, et infang-thief et outfang-thief, sive hand-habend, sive bak-barand.’ The peculiar meaning of all these cabalistical words few or none could explain

"Infangthief", it turns out, pertains to a thief caught (cf. German fangen) inside a feudal lord's lands, who then has the right of administering justice to said thief; "outfangthief" is a later (post-Old English) word for the opposite.

I think it's time I got myself a replacement copy of 1066 And All That.

* "A Memorable History of England, comprising all the parts you can remember, including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings and 2 Genuine Dates." Required reading if you know British history; nowhere near so funny if you don't.