ALLODIUM  , or ALOnIum, a legal

term for lands which are the absolute property of their owner, and not subject to any service or acknowledgment to a superior . It is thus the opposite of fe-odum or fief . The proper derivation of the word has been much discussed and is still doubtful, though it is probably compounded of all, whole or entire, and odh, property: Allodial tenure seems to have been common throughout northern Europe . It exists in Orkney and Shetland, but is unknown in England, the feudal system having been made universal by William the Conqueror .