Slavery in Ireland
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Slavery had already existed in Ireland for centuries by the time the Vikings began to establish their coastal settlements, but it was under the Norse-Gael Kingdom of Dublin that it reached its peak, i
Viking Age slave chain (found in Germany)
As a young man, Saint Patrick was kidnapped by Irish pirates, transported to Ireland, and sold as a slave.
Slaves having a stick fight. A white indentured servant is standing on the left.
Thrall
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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.
Slavery in Ireland
…inhabitants to the Dublin slave markets. When the Vikings established early Scandinavian Dublin in 841, they began a slave market that would come to sell thralls captured both in Ireland and other countries as distant as Muslim Spain, as well as sending Irish slaves as far away as Iceland, where Gaels formed 40…
Erling Skjalgsson sets his thralls to day-work (Erik Werenskiold, 1899)
Beowulf's thrall steals the golden cup from the dragon (Joseph Ratcliffe Skelton, 1908)
Hexateuch king