Page:The Queens Court Manuscript with Other Ancient Bohemian Poems, 1852, Cambridge edition.djvu/120



The word mlat, which I have sometimes translated war-axe, sometimes axe, and sometimes mace, would be properly rendered war-hammer. Everybody has heard of the exploits of Thor and his hammer in the Edda.

The Kmets were possessors of landed estates, a kind of franklins, who had the right of seats in the sniem or parliament. The term includes both the Lechs and Vladykas.

The Lechs were nobles, and the word is connected with szlechta, and the Polish szlachtic, a nobleman.

The Vladykas (from vladiti, to sway) were the representatives or heads of families or clans. In later times the term Vladyky signified the lesser nobility, as opposed to the Páni or Magnates.