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A thrall was a slave Thrall Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2009 or Serfdom in Scandinavia lands during the Viking Age. The status of slave (þræll, þēow) contrasts with that of the freeman (karl, churl]]) and the nobleman (Earl]], eorl).
The corresponding term in Old English was þeow (from Proto-Germanic , perhaps from a PIE root , "to run"). A related Old English term is esne "labourer, hireling" (from Germanic , cognate with Gothic language asneis "hireling", a derivation from "reward", from the same root as English earn).
The term was borrowed into Irish language as thráill, where it is used interchangeably with sclábhaí which is a cognate of the English Slavery (likewise for Slavs is disputed).
Thrall was known by similar words in other old languages (, , , , , ). The Middle Latin rendition of the term in early Germanic law is servus.
The death of a freeman was compensated by a weregild, usually calculated at 200 solidi () for a freeman, whereas the death of a slave was treated as loss of property to his owner and compensated depending on the value of the worker.Thus, in law, the death of an (unfree) blacksmith was to be compensated by 40 shillings and the death of a goldsmith by 50 shillings. If either a blacksmith or a goldsmith was maimed (losing their ability to do skilled work), the compensation was 15 shillings (Leges Alamannorum 41).
Finally, a person could become a thrall when they were taken prisoner during warfare. War captives were commonly ransomed by their own family or community, but in the case a war captive was not ransomed, they were viewed as legitimate targets for enslavement. This would have been the original source for slaves in the Nordic countries, during warfare between local tribes and cheifdoms in Scandinavia, before the local chiefdoms were united to become Kingdoms.Korpela, Jukka Jari (2018). Slaves from the North – Finns and Karelians in the East European Slave Trade, 900–1600. Studies in Global Slavery, Band: 5. Nederländerna: Brill. p. 31 After the unification of the Nordic countries, local warfare became more rare and slaves were now taken during warfare in foreign lands of he Nordic countries, and slave raids were to become one of the most important purposes of the viking raids.Dick Harrison (2006). Slaveri: Forntiden till renässansen. Lund: Historiska media. ISBN 91-85057-81-9. p. 246
The slaves taken during the viking raids in Europe, such as the British Isles in the West and Finland and the Baltics in the East, were used for slave trade not only in the Nordic countries themselwes, but also trafficked to be sold on, and the vikings were prominent suppliers of slaves to Christian Europe as well as to the Islamic Middle East, an international slave trade which was at its most intense stage during the 9th and 11th centuries.Korpela, Jukka Jari (2018). Slaves from the North – Finns and Karelians in the East European Slave Trade, 900–1600. Studies in Global Slavery, Band: 5. Nederländerna: Brill. p. 31-32
The vikings trafficked the slaves the captures for slave markets both in Christian Europe in the West as well as to Muslim slave markets in the East. The slave trade to Christian Europe went via both Pagan and Christian middlemen via the Elbe river Southward via Verdun, Koblenz and Arles toward the Mediterranean.Korpela, Jukka Jari (2018). Slaves from the North – Finns and Karelians in the East European Slave Trade, 900–1600. Studies in Global Slavery, Band: 5. Nederländerna: Brill. p. 33-35 Christian Europe disliked trade with Christian slaves, and the vikings foremost trafficked captive Pagans during this route.
The slave route to the Islamic countries in the East were however more important for viking economy. The Vikings trafficked European slaves captured in Viking raids in Europe in the East in two destinations from present day Russia via the Volga trade route; one to Slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate in the Middle East via the Caspian Sea, the Samanid slave trade and Iran; and one to the Byzantine Empire and the Mediterranean via Dnieper and the Black Sea slave trade.Pargas & Schiel, Damian A.; Juliane (2023). The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery Throughout History. Tyskland: Springer International Publishing. p. 126The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery Throughout History. (2023). Tyskland: Springer International Publishing. p. 126 Until the 9th century, the Vikings trafficked Baltic and Finnic European slaves from the Baltic Sea in the Northeastern Europe via the Wisla River or the Danube rivers South East through Europe to the Black Sea.Korpela, Jukka Jari (2018). Slaves from the North – Finns and Karelians in the East European Slave Trade, 900–1600. Studies in Global Slavery, Band: 5. Nederländerna: Brill. p. 35 The Viking slave route was redirected in the 9th century, and until the 11th century the Vikings trafficked European slaves from the Baltic Sea via Ladoga, Novgorod and the Msta river via the Route from the Varangians to the Greeks to the Byzantine Empire via the Black Sea slave trade, or to the Abbasid Caliphate via the Caspian Sea (and the Bukhara slave trade) via the Volga trade route.
People taken captive during the Viking raids across Europe could be sold to Moorish Spain via the Dublin slave tradeLoveluck, C. (2013). Northwest Europe in the Early Middle Ages, C.AD 600–1150: A Comparative Archaeology. USA: Cambridge University Press. p. 321 or transported to Hedeby or Brännö and from there via the Volga trade route to present day Russia, where slaves and furs were sold to Muslim merchants in exchange for Arab silver dirham and silk, which have been found in Birka, Wolin and Dublin;The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 3, C.900-c.1024. (1995). Storbritannien: Cambridge University Press. p. 91 initially this trade route between Europe and the Abbasid Caliphate passed via the Khazar Kaghanate,The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives. Selected Papers from the Jerusalem 1999 International Khazar Colloquium. (2007). Nederländerna: Brill. p. 232 but from the early 10th-century onward it went via Volga Bulgaria and from there by caravan to Khwarazm, to the Samanid slave market in Central Asia and finally via Iran to slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate.The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 3, C.900-c.1024. (1995). Storbritannien: Cambridge University Press. p. 504
Archbishop Rimbert of Bremen (d. 888) reported that he witnessed a "large throng of captured Christians being hauled away" in the Viking port of
. p. 244-246
This trade was the source of the Arab dirham
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Among such hoards can be mentioned the Spillings Hoard and the Sundveda Hoard.
In 1043, Hallvard Vebjørnsson, the son of a local nobleman in the district of greater Lier, was killed while he was trying to defend a thrall woman from men who accused her of theft. The Church strongly approved of his action, recognised him as a martyr and canonization him as Saint Hallvard, the patron saint of Oslo. St. Hallvard in Catholic Online. (2009)
Despite the existence of a caste system, thralls could experience a level of social fluidity. They could be freed by their masters at any time, be freed in a will or even buy their own freedom. Once a thrall man was freed, he became a "freedman", or leysingi, a member of an intermediary group between slaves and freemen. He still owed allegiance to his former master and had to vote according to his former master's wishes. It took at least two generations for freedmen to lose the allegiance to their former masters and become full freemen. If a freedman had no descendants, his former master inherited his land and property.Eyrbyggja Saga, Chapter 37.
While thralls and freedmen did not have much economic or political power in Scandinavia, they were still given a weregild, or a man's price: there was a monetary penalty for unlawfully killing a slave.
On Iceland, slavery was allowed in the Gray Goose Laws, which applied until 1270, but the law text Kristinna laga þáttur
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In Denmark, slavery was phased out during the 12th century, likely from economic reasons and influence from the Christian anti slavery rhetoric; existing slaves were last mentioned in the will of Bishop Absalom from 1201, in which he manumitted a couple of his existing slaves, and in a letter between the Pope and Anders Suneson, which mention the slaves of Suneson; after the early 13th century however slaves were no longer mentioned in Denmark, and the law text Jyske lov from 1241 no longer mention any slavery in existence in
Denmark.Jacobsen, G. (2021). Kvindeskikkelser og kvindeliv i Danmarks middelalder. Danmark: SAGA Egmont.
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In Sweden, slavery was phased out during the 13th century, banned in one county after another, and finally abolished in the last remaining county in 1335.Dick Harrison (2006). Slaveri: Forntiden till renässansen. Lund: Historiska media. ISBN 91-85057-81-9. p. 246
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