thanes & carls AGAIN; Alex's musings.

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From: Steve <styopa_at_iname.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 08:01:46 -0600

Gian Gero wrote
> weaponthanes were the professional warriors (opposed to the fyrd, militia
> levy) during the anglo-saxon age pre 1000 a.d. in England.
David replied:
I'd love to see some reference for this -- so far as I know, Greg Stafford coined the term. (Certainly a quick search of the web didn't turn up "weaponthane" outside of a Gloranthan context.)

[Steve] To confirm David, AKAIK weaponthane is not used in any Middle/Old English texts I've ever read, nor in the few Middle/Old german texts. There's thane (or a variant) and there's carl (or the equivalent) there's even house-carl (or variants) but never as far as I recall, anyone referred to in real world literature as a weapon-thane. As we've hashed over here already: thane is a political role, huscarl is an occupation.

On an aside to Alex's Musings (tm) about the Lunar/British Imperial correlation, of course hazia and opium bear more than a casual resemblance.