Bóndi (also húsbóndi, (pl.) bændr in

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

) was the Norse core of society, formed by farmers and craftsmen in the Scandinavian

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

, and constituted a widespread middle class. They were free men and enjoyed rights such as the use of weapons and the privilege to join the

Thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuses ...

as farm-owning landlords. The profile is specified in '' Rígsthula'', a Scandinavian legend describing the god Ríg lying with three couples to procreate and give birth to the three social classes:

thrall A thrall was a slave or Serfdom, serf in Scandinavia, Scandinavian lands during the Viking Age. The status of slave (, ) contrasts with that of the Franklin (class), freeman (, ) and the nobleman (, ). Etymology Thrall is from the Old Norse ...

s, karls (or bændr) and

jarl Jarl was a rank of the nobility in Scandinavia during the Viking Age and Early Middle Ages. The institution evolved over time and varied by region. In Old Norse, it meant "chieftain", specifically one appointed to rule a territory in a king's stea ...

s. The poem describes the image and behavior as it should be, and the type of work expected at each.

Karl

The

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

cites Karl as a result of the illicit relationship between god

Heimdal Heimdal is a borough in Trondheim Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It covers the western and southwestern parts of the municipality. The main centre of the borough is also known as Heimdal and it is located in the central part of the b ...

and mortal Amma. Karl and his wife Snor would be progenitors of the peasants and freemen. The odalsbóndi (owner with hereditary possessions) could give up some of their land to other karls in exchange for loyalty and unconditional support whenever necessary. However, the term ''karl'' in some ancient writings denoting a free man status of low social class without access to family ties with upper castes or royalty.

Sailors and traders

The bóndi had parallel activities; were great sailors, merchants, and

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

; in areas further north also hunters and fishermen. With their snekke for war and

knarr A knarr () is a type of Norse merchant ship used by the Vikings for long sea voyages and during the Viking expansion. The knarr was a cargo ship; the hull was wider, deeper and shorter than a longship, and could take more cargo and be operated ...

to trade, Vikings virtually dominating the seas in northern Europe. Sometimes hackers and other traders, according to circumstances. It is in 873, despite the mutual distrust between the Vikings and the

Carolingian Empire The Carolingian Empire (800–887) was a Franks, Frankish-dominated empire in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as List of Frankish kings, kings of the Franks since ...

, both parts came to an agreement that the merchants could cross borders in order to buy and sell goods in good will.

Birka Birka (''Birca'' in medieval sources), on the island of Björkö, Ekerö, Björkö (lit. "Birch Island") in present-day Sweden, was an important Viking Age trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as many parts of Continent ...

and

Hedeby Hedeby (, Old Norse: ''Heiðabýr'', German: ''Haithabu'') was an important Danish Viking Age (8th to the 11th centuries) trading settlement near the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula, now in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig ...

become two important enclaves and trade routes of the time.

Iceland

In the

icelandic Commonwealth The Icelandic Commonwealth, also known as the Icelandic Free State, was the political unit existing in Iceland between the establishment of the Althing () in 930 and the pledge of fealty to the Norwegian king with the Old Covenant in 1262. W ...

, a bóndi figure was subject to the authority of a

goði Gothi or (plural , fem. ; Old Norse: ) was a position of political and social prominence in the Icelandic Commonwealth. The term originally had a religious significance, referring to a pagan leader responsible for a religious structure and com ...

so their rights as free men were subject by law to a minimum in properties (a cow, a boat or a network for each family member) and establish a formal relationship with the goði, thereafter a bóndi formally considered a follower and his vote as ''Þingmaðr'' ("men of thing") was influenced by the will of goði in the

Althing The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Parliament, national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ('Thing (assembly), thing ...

. These conditions were regulated by the Icelandic law collected in the ''

Grágás The Gray Goose Laws ( {{IPA, is, ˈkrauːˌkauːs}) are a collection of laws from the Icelandic Commonwealth period. The term ''Grágás'' was originally used in a medieval source to refer to a collection of Norwegian laws and was probably mis ...

''.Byock, Jesse (1993), ''Feud in the Icelandic Saga'', University of California Press, p. 212.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bondi Social class in Europe Norse culture