Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/109

 CHAP. III. OF THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE NORTHMEN.

the historical sagas tell us little concerning the religion and religious establishments of the pagan Northmen, they give us incidentally a great deal of curious and valuable information about their social condition and institutions; and these are of great interest, because they are the nearest sources to which we can trace almost all that we call Anglo-Saxon in our own social condition, institutions, national character, and spirit. The following observations are picked up from the sagas. The reader of Snorro Sturleson's "Heimskringla" has before him the facts, or narratives, and can see himself whether the following inferences from them are warranted, and the views given of the singular state of society among the Northmen correctly drawn.

The lowest class in the community were the Thraell (Thralls, slaves). They were the prisoners captured by the vikings at sea on piratical cruises, or carried off from the coasts of foreign countries in marauding expeditions. These captives were, if not ransomed by their friends, bought and sold at regular slave markets. The owners could kill them without any fine, mulct, or manbod to the king, as in the case of the murder or manslaughter of a free man. King Olaf Tryggvesson, in his childhood, his mother Astrid, and his foster-father Thorolf, were captured by an Esthonian viking, as they were crossing the sea from Sweden on their way to Novogorod, and were divided among the crew, and sold. An Esthonian man called Klerkon got Olaf