Wapentake

The Wapentake was the Danish equivalent of the Hundred of the West Saxon and Mercian counties. The word is Scandinavian and refers to the brandishing of weapons to signify assent in a popular assembly. The functions of the Wapentake were substantially those of the Hundred.

For more detail, see Olof S. Anderson, The English Hundred-names (1934); H.R. Loyn, 'The Hundred in the tenth and early eleventh centuries', British government and administration, edited by Henry Hearder and H.R. Loyn (1974), pages 1-15; Cyril R. Hart, The Danelaw (1992); and Dawn M. Hadley, The northern Danelaw, its social structure, c.800-1100 (2000).