Hold (or Hauld) is a title of nobility, used in viking times used both in Scandinavia and in England.
Recognized as title for "noblemen of exalted rank" by Sir Francis Stenton in his renowned standard work Anglo-Saxon England, and described as a title just below the earl in Oxford Dictionary of Surnames, the title nevertheless has become somewhat obsolete even in historical treatises.
But in the main work on the topic the definition of hold as a noble title, both in Norway and old Northumbria, is crystal clear: Die norwegischen Höldar. Sitzungsberichte der königlichen bayerischen Wissenschaftsakademie, by Konrad Maurer, the German legislative historian.