Thrall

A thrall was a slave or serf in Viking Age Scandinavia, the lowest of the three orders of Norse society, below the freeman (karl) and the nobleman (jarl). Thralls were property, bought and sold; people became thralls by birth, debt, punishment or capture in war. Most captives of Viking raids were sold abroad, many to Muslim merchants for silver and silk; those kept tended animals, fished and farmed. Thralls could be freed or buy their freedom, and slavery was phased out from the 12th century until the last Swedish county abolished it in 1335.