Thralls were given duties and positions of trust. King Ann’s thrall, Tunni, as we have seen, became the King’s adviser, and became so powerful that he rebelled against his own master.
“Erling Skjálgsson said to King Olaf: ‘To this I will quickly reply, that I deny reproaching Aslak or others for being in your service; but I acknowledge that now, as heretofore, each one of us kinsmen wants to be above the others. I will also confess that I willingly submit to thee, King Olaf, but it will be hard for me to bow before Selthorir, who is thrall-born in all his kindred,[[506]] though he is now your árman (tax-gatherer)”[[507]] (St. Olaf’s, c. 122).
The chief Thorolf Skjalg was a great friend of the wife of the bondi Lodin. Lodin was slain at night, it was not known by whom, and Thorolf took the widow home.
“He wanted to make the sons of Lodin thralls, and succeeded in making a thrall of Rögnvald, but not of Ulf, who was sold as a thrall into far-off countries.... Thorolf had Rögnvald among his thralls, and when he was grown up he placed him over other thralls to command them and keep them at work” (Fornmanna Sögur, c. 145).
If any harm was done to thralls, the master took payment in the same manner as he did for harm done to his cattle, horse, &c. In two cases only did the thrall himself take payment—when offended by another thrall, or when at the Thing, church, or feast with his master; in the first case taking all the payment, in the last one-twelfth.
“A hauld shall get 3 aurar (as rett) on the behalf of his bryti and thjon, and deigja and seta; and 2 aurar for all other slaves. A thrall’s rett shall be two-thirds less than his master’s. If a thrall beats another thrall this shall be paid, but the master owns it not” (Frostath., xi. 21).
“If a man’s thrall follows him to church, or to a feast, or to a Thing, then he is holy where the ships land or stand. If a man beats him in either place, a fine in silver shall be paid to the king” (Frostath., 61).
The child of a free woman by a thrall was free, and belonged to the family of the mother.
The child of a thrall woman by a free man was a slave, and belonged to the master of the mother, unless the father publicly declared it to be his own, and it gained liberty before it was three nights old.[[508]]
The price of thralls varied somewhat, and in Egil’s Saga we have mention of a thrall for whom three marks in silver were paid, or twice as much as the average; they were generally sold at two and three marks; a common thrall woman being usually sold for one mark. The Swedes and Danes considered three marks as the average value of a thrall.[[509]]