Thrall
Thrall ( Old Norse þræll ; þír , male, meaning: "an unfree servant") were called slaves by the Vikings . In the caste system of that time, these were the lowest-ranking people and usually performed jobs for which no special qualification was required.
background
Slavery was one of the main sources of income for the Normans . Unlike many other forms of slavery in human history, the status of Thrall could be obtained voluntarily or involuntarily. The oldest known description of Thrall goes back to the Roman historian Tacitus , who wrote in 98 that Swedes ( Svear ) had no right to carry weapons and that the weapons were locked and guarded by a slave who only had to surrender the weapons when attacked by enemies.
Caste system
As usual in the Middle Ages , the Vikings lived in a rigid, graduated caste system . Unfree were at the bottom of this social order and these were called Thrall. One could become Thrall by pledging to do so in need, such as starvation, when captured and sold, or born to a Thrall mother. The former was considered the most shameful route to slavery and was first banned. The most common way of doing thrall was to raid or buy prisoners abroad. Like the slaves of ancient Rome , the Scandinavian Thrall could be of any ethnic origin. If the Thrall were of a low social grade, they had a secure social status similar to that of a servant or a maid .
The lord of a thrall had power of life and death over them. A thrall could also be used as a human burial object at the burial of a Viking colonel. While a child born to a female Thrall automatically became a Thrall itself, the child of a male Thrall with a female free was as free as the mother.
In the course of the Christianization of Northern Europe , the demand for non-Christian slaves increased, and the Scandinavians, because of their favorable geographical location close to large non-Christian peoples, held a practically monopoly in this slave trade . In 1043 Hallvard Vebjørnsson , the son of a regional nobleman in the Lier district , was killed trying to defend a female thrall against a man who accused her of theft. His deed was resolutely approved by the Church, which finally recognized him as a martyr, canonized him and venerated him as St. Hallvard , who also became the patron saint of Oslo .
Use the Thrall
Much labor was required to run a Scandinavian farm, the heaviest and dirtiest part of which the Thrall had to do. Women were often entrusted with household chores such as churning , cooking, or weaving. Meanwhile, male Thrall had to rake dung, chop wood and tend cattle. Thrall of all sexes were involved in the harvest of grain and other crops. In the Viking Age, the Free were occasionally on raids, and during these times the Thrall alone looked after their masters' court.
etymology
Thrall is an Old Norse term . þræll denotes a bound or enslaved person, Thralltum denotes the state of bound or enslavement, servitude or servitude.
reception
In the popular game series Warcraft , the character of Thrall was named because of the fact that he was a slave before he became the leader of a large faction.
In Tomb Raider: Underworld , Thrall dead are animated by a strange blue liquid that is supposed to protect their remains. They have glowing blue eyes and look like rotting skeletons.
In the series Spaceship Enterprise (second season, English title of the episode: "The Gamesters of Triskelion") captured aliens are referred to as Thrall, who are forced to fight gladiators on the planet Triskelion.
In the game series Myth: The Fallen Lords , the simplest units of the undead that work for the dark are called Thrall. These Thrall are human corpses which are animated by black magic, wear simple body armor, carry large battle axes as weapons and are only moderately intelligent.
literature
- Williams, Mary Wilhelmine Social Scandinavia in the Viking Age (The Macmillan Company. 1920)
- Karras, Ruth Mazo Slavery and Society in Medieval Scandinavia (Yale Historical Publications Series. Yale University Press. 1988)
- Knut Helle (Editor), The Cambridge history of Scandinavia (Cambridge University Press. 2003)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thrall (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thrall%27s?r=14
- ^ The Origin and Situation of the Germans. Thralls are also a kind of vampire Slave, but still a slave eather way. (written by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus. English translation by Thomas Gordon. From an edition included in the Harvard Classics, 1910) http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/tacitus-germanygord.html
- ↑ Slavery and Thralldom: The Unfree in Viking Scandinavia (The Viking Answer Lady) http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/thralls.shtml
- ^ Viking Social Organization (Regia Anglorum Publications. 2002) http://www.regia.org/viking2.htm
- ↑ St. Hallvard (Catholic Online. 2009) http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=658
- ↑ Enthrall (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2009. Houghton Mifflin Company) http://dictionary.reference.com/dic?q=enthrall&search=search
- ↑ http://www.wowwiki.com/Thrall