Thrall vs. Slave

From: Joerg Baumgartner <joe_at_VSnr0hpI0INs4u7wPGfwYshrfXwwksZo8uHwU1tbEVlTnl09xmbvAatB_NbK7OeD5V_-BaFc>
Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2007 15:17:11 +0100 (CET)


Donald replying to my:
>>Slavery sounds rather civilized, implying a tradeable commodity. I wouldn't emphasize Vadrudi slavery over Praxian slavery - it is >>common, it happens to those who are weak and nearby, but it wouldn't define society in a way that it does for Fonritians or Vadeli.

>>I know it is no longer a commonly used English term, but I prefer "thrall" and "thraldom" for the kind of subjugation practiced by the vadrudi.

> What do you see as the distinction here? My dictionary implies
> "slave" and "thrall" are synonyms with the latter having a
> Scandinavian root.

Slave has a Scandinavian history, too - basically it is "captured Slav". As opposed to "trell", a general term for an owned (male) worker (but also for fighters in the service of a great lord, not unlike German "Knecht" and English "Knight").

Thrall (to me) has the connotation of someone born to the culture he serves in.

Maybe this is rooted in an aspect of German history, some local duchies of which had non-tradeable owned peasants well into the 19th century. Thrall is the term I would use to translate "Leibeigener", rather than slave, which has its direct parallel, and is strongly associated with the colonialist slave trade (and never was compared to property-serfdom aka "Leibeigenschaft" when abolition was an issue).

> Property is always tradable

In ultra-chauvinist cultures, does this extend to wives? (And this is a serious question in context of the Vadrudi.)

> although the
> market may be more or less developed in different places and
> times.

Somehow Vadrus and "fair trade" (a prerequisitive even for slave trade) don't go well together.

Which is why I hesitate to make the Yggites stereotype Vadrudi - Hrimthurs can serve that role a lot better. The Yggites evidently arranged themselves both with the local Ouori and with the Winterwood elves (before breaking those arrangements).            

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