Undesirable Biographies. Victims of Viking Slavery and Ransom Payments
Undesirable Biographies. Victims of Viking Slavery and Ransom Payments

Summary/Abstract: The present article tries to throw light on Viking Age slavery by looking at several biographies of slaves, such looking at slavery from below, instead of looking at normative texts regarding the legal status of slaves. These biographies of course normally regard those who regained their freedom again, whether transmitted by themselves (as in the case of Findan or Moriuht) or by those procuring their release (Ansgar, Rimbert). They throw light on various aspects of slave-making and slave-trading, especially on the dominant role the payment of ransom for prisoners played especially in Western Europe. This may have had to do with the problems involved by transporting slaves over large distances, their chance to escape (as in the case of Findan), but it also explains the scarcity of silver in the form of dirhems west of Sweden. A side issue, and one for future research, is the question of genre, in which such biographies tend to be found, and where hagiography plays a large role.

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