Vikingatida slaveri

500 f.Kr. - 1066
karlfredrik
Inlägg: 892
Blev medlem: 30 april 2015, 22:51

Vikingatida slaveri

Inlägg av karlfredrik » 30 augusti 2020, 20:04

Neil Price:;Vikingatida slaveri.
read://https_www.smithsonianmag.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smithsonianmag.com%2Fhistory%2Flittle-known-role-slavery-viking-society-180975597%2F%3Futm_source%3Dsmithsoniandaily%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3D20200825-daily-responsive%26spMailingID%3D43294861%26spUserID%3DNjIwNDg1MjczODU4S0%26spJobID%3D1822053449%26spReportId%3DMTgyMjA1MzQ0OQS2%26fbclid%3DIwAR3_Sp-J7SiuwFN66p04t40zCb9wCvb0fSkshv7y65n0T8VzUISGR016g0I
One of the most enduring components of the Viking image is the notion of freedom—the adventure of a far horizon and all that went with it. But for many, this was an unattainable hope. Any true reading of life in the Viking Age first has to come to terms with an aspect of everyday experience that probably represented the most elemental division in societies at the time: the difference between those who were free and those who were not. Beneath the social network, any other distinction of status, class, opportunity and wealth pales beside the most basic fact of liberty and the consequent potential for choice.

The institution of slavery had long antecedents in Scandinavia, probably going back thousands of years before the time of the Vikings. By the eighth century A.D., a considerable population of unfree people lived in the North, their condition largely a hereditary one built up over generations. In the Viking Age, this picture changed dramatically because, for the first time, Scandinavians began to make the active acquisition of human chattel a key part of their economy. This was one of the primary objectives of Viking raids and military campaigns—and the result was a massive increase in the numbers of enslaved people in Scandinavia.

Let it therefore be clearly stated: The Vikings were slavers, and the kidnapping, sale and forced exploitation of human beings was always a central pillar of their culture.

One reason why this reality has made so little public impact is that the conventional vocabularies of enslavement—as employed by academics and others working on, for example, the transatlantic trade of more recent centuries—have rarely been applied to the Viking Age. In particular, there is ambiguity in the terminology because a very different word has always been used in place of “slave”: the Old Norse thræll—giving us the modern English “thrall,” which we now use as in being enthralled by a person, a work of art or an idea.

A judicious combination of archaeological and textual sources can produce a relatively comprehensive picture of Viking slaveholding. One intermediate state of servitude, for instance, was voluntary up to a point, albeit entered into under considerable economic compulsion, such as a means of clearing debts. Certain crimes were also punishable by serving as a thrall for a fixed period of time.

The Norse system of thralldom was not always complete chattel slavery, but most of the enslaved had little agency. As two prominent Viking scholars observed 50 years ago, “The slave could own nothing, inherit nothing, leave nothing.” They were not paid, of course, but in some circumstances, they were allowed to retain a small portion of the proceeds they obtained at market when selling goods for their owners. As a result, it was technically possible, though rare, for a thrall to purchase his or her freedom. They could also be manumitted, or released from slavery, at any time. Based on these parameters, some scholars have argued that the number of actual enslaved people in Viking Age society was relatively low. But as researchers conduct additional analysis of detailed European records of Viking slave-taking raids, the scale of this trade has been revised sharply upward.

s

tyder-no
Inlägg: 100
Blev medlem: 1 oktober 2017, 11:24

Re: Vikingatida slaveri

Inlägg av tyder-no » 1 oktober 2020, 14:50

Slavhållet började inte med vikingatiden, och - extremt viktigt - slutade inte med den.
Det har varit estimerat, att slavmarknaden i Dublin, grundat av norsk/danska vikingar under 800-talet, omsatte ca 1 000 000 slaver under 300-350 år - det stängdes först 1170.
Och flertalet tycks ha exporterats till Östen. Det fanns några tiotusentals slaver i Skandinavien, utav alla kategorier. T.ex. tycks kung Harald Hårfagre varit storkund av kvinnor till sina hirdmän, han gav dom:
malmi húnlenzkum
ok mani austrœnu.

'hunnisk malm' (=guld/silver?) och kvinnor från öst.
Några slaver blev berömda, som Håkon Jarls Kark. Han stack ihjäl Håkon då dom var på flykt tillsammans, och tok huvudet med till Olav Tryggvason. Som till tack skar huvudet också av honom.

Skriv svar