Thraldom : a history of slavery in the Viking age / Stefan Brink.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brink, Stefan, author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Standardized Title:

Vikingarnas slavar. English

Language:

English

Swedish

Subjects (All):

Slavery--Scandinavia--History.

Slavery.

Vikings--Social life and customs.

Vikings.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (408 pages) : illustrations (black and white, and colour).

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021]

Summary:

This volume provides a history of slavery in Viking Age Scandinavia by examining a multitude of sources, including archaeology, runic inscriptions, Icelandic sagas, early law, DNA analysis, and place names. Viking society was characterized by different dependencies and by fluid transitions between freedom and enslavement. 'Thraldom' surveys, in nuanced ways, the unique role of slavery in medieval Scandinavia.

Contents:

Cover

Thraldom

Copyright

Contents

Foreword and Acknowledgments

Prologue

1. Introduction

2. Difficulties of Defining Slavery and the Borders between Free and Unfree

Ancient philosophers' views on and historical descriptions of slavery

Research on slavery

3. Slavery in Europe during Antiquity and the First Millennium

Germany and the "Germanic" area

Slavery in Anglo-​Saxon England

Slaves in Ireland

Spain

Summary

4. Scandinavian Slavery

5. Where Did the Slaves Come From?

6. Thralls in Old Norse Poetry and Sagas

7. Thralls in Runic Inscriptions

8. Terms for Thralls and Their Meanings

ambátt, ambótt

deja

man n., mansmaðr m. (mansman n.?)

líni

ánauðigr maðr

Terms based on the stem *þeṷ-​

thrall

hapter and est

kæfsir

muslegoman

slave

val

vassal

bryti and lavard-​lord and lady

fostri/​fostra

"servant"-​patron-​client

*þeṷ-​ in personal names

9. How Were Thralls Used?

10. Evidence for Thralls in Scandinavian Place-​Names

11. How Were Thralls Identified?

12. Thralls' Names in Scandinavia

13. The Special Case of Älmeboda Parish in Southern Småland

14. Thralls in the Archaeological Material: Can We Excavate Slavery?

15. The Rise and Fall of Scandinavian Thraldom: When Did Slavery Appear in Scandinavia?

16. The Status of Slaves in Prehistoric Scandinavian Society: An Attempt at a Summary

17. Excursus Trelleborg

Appendix 1: Historical and Archaeological Periods in Europe

Appendix 2: Development of Indo-​European Languages

Abbreviations

Bibliography

Primary Sources and Collections

Secondary Sources and Studies

Index of Persons

Index.

Notes:

Translated from the Swedish.

Also issued in print: 2021.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-753237-3

0-19-753238-1

0-19-753236-5