annika björklund absolute compared to those of slaves, since slaves were kept in bondage. An important difference between the two is also the fact that slaves were property, bought and sold, while servants were not. According to theOxford English Dictionary (OED), a servant in the Middle Ages was generally a person employed to wait upon or obey the directions of a master or a mistress, or to perform certain tasks indoor and outdoor in a household, such as a domestic servant or a farm servant.7 In this category may be included also hired labour, often referred to as ‘servants in husbandry’. Furthermore, also persons serving a king or the crown – employed for such tasks as bookkeeping or managing estates – were referred to as servants.8 They differ, however, from those in the preceding definition by their socially higher rank and more complex tasks. In a Swedish context, surprisingly little research has been conducted about servants, in particular for the period before 1600.9 Martin Andersson’s wide-ranging recent book about servants thus offers important new information on the subject. His study is, however, restricted to ‘servants in husbandry’ (Sw. legohjon): low ranking poor labourers, former slaves, often working under difficult conditions. In his sources, servants apart from ‘servants in husbandry’ are high-status servants, such as vassals and administrators serving kings and noblemen; and male and female stewards, such as the redasven and the deja.10 Testaments, on the other hand, suggest that the group of servants was diverse and included a range of social hierarchies. Furthermore, a picture of servants and ser327 smith Toki raised a runestone in memory of Thorgisl Gudhmunder’s son who gave him gold and freedom (Brink 2021, pp. 186f); the runestone U 330, mentioning Ragnfast’s housecarl Assur, is one of five stones mentioning the wealthy family of Ragnfast and his wife Inga. Housecarls are also mentioned on runestones U 335 and Sö 338 (Källström 2022, pp. 41f). A housecarl was a (royal) guardsmen, in Old English also meaning farmer, freeman, and warrior; in Old Scandinavian language also an unfree man (Brink 2021, p. 164). 7 OEDservant. 8 OEDservant. 9 But see Janken Myrdal’s study on how female servants often received cows as a testamentary gift (Myrdal 2008); Eva Andersson’s study on how servants often received simpler, less expensive fabrics, such as wool and linen, as a bequest (Andersson 2006, p. 239); and Olof Lund’s study showing how high-ranking servants were included in informal networks (Lund 2022). 10 Andersson 2023, pp. 45, 311; Sw. deja: Eng. milkmaid. Sw. redasven: Eng. steward.
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