Nor of the wise Vanir:
Though alone I came
Through the wavering fire
Your halls to behold.
(Skirnismál, 18.)
Slavery existed in the North from the earliest time, and was probably introduced by the followers of Odin.
Among thrall men, the thjon and bryti (steward) were the most prominent, and among the thrall women the seta and deigja, the latter being a kind of housekeeper or forewoman.
“Two are the best bondwomen of a man, seta and deigja, and two thralls, thjón and bryti” (Earlier Gulathing’s Law, 198).
Though serfdom, a modified form of slavery, existed afterwards in other parts of Europe, the land of the Swedes, Gautar, and Norwegians was never degraded by it; but, alas, it took root in Denmark, and showed there to what a miserable condition a free people can be gradually brought by not watching over their liberties.
There are in the Sagas numerous examples showing the contempt in which the thrall was held; his mark was closely cropped hair, and his dress was of white vadmal, to distinguish him from the free man.