Thrall

A thrall was a slave or serf in Scandinavian lands during the Viking Age. The status of slave contrasts with that of the freeman and the nobleman. Etymology Thrall is from the Old Norse , meaning a person who is in bondage or serfdom. The Old Norse term was lent into late Old English, as . The term is from a Common Germanic ("runner", from a root "to run"). Old High German had a cognate, , meaning "servant, runner". The English derivation thraldom is of High Medieval date. The verb "to enthrall" is of Early Modern origin (metaphorical use from the 1570s, literal use from 1610). The corresponding term in Old English was (plural ). The corresponding native term in Anglo-Saxon society was (from Germanic , perhaps from a PIE root , "to run") A related Old English term is "labourer, hireling" (from Germanic , cognate with Gothic "hireling", a derivation from "reward", from the same root as English earn).