Folkland represents a form of land tenure in Anglo-Saxon England distinct from 'bookland.' Unlike the latter, which was alienated through written charters granted by the Crown to the Church or nobility, folkland was held according to 'folcriht'—the unwritten, customary law of the people. It remained subject to various royal dues and services, such as 'feorm' (hospitality for the King) and 'fyrd' (military service), and was typically inalienable from the kin-group except under specific communal consensus. It formed the foundational economic structure of the pre-Conquest shire and hundred system.
Following the Norman Conquest, the legal distinction between folkland and bookland was largely superseded by the imposition of the feudal system. The remnants of folkland evolved into 'seignorial' holdings or were absorbed into the King’s demesne, eventually contributing to the legal development of copyhold tenure. Historically, nineteenth-century scholars like John Mitchell Kemble incorrectly theorized it was ager publicus (public land), but since Paul Vinogradoff's research, it has been recognized as private property governed by customary law rather than written privilege.