Þul Manna 2III/1 — þegnar ‘freemen’
Bragnar, þegnar, beimar, hǫlðar,
firar ok flotnar, fyrðar, hǫlðar,
fǫruneyti, drótt, flokkr, harðmenni,
kníar ok kappar, kenpur, nautar.
Bragnar, þegnar, beimar, hǫlðar, firar ok flotnar, fyrðar, hǫlðar, fǫruneyti, drótt, flokkr, harðmenni, kníar ok kappar, kenpur, nautar.
Noble ones, freemen, warriors, freeholders, vital ones and seamen, vital ones, freeholders, company, retinue, flock, tough ones, kníar and champions, fighters, mates.
notes
[1] þegnar ‘freemen’: Pl. of þegn m. ‘thane, freeman’ (see Goetting 2006). In Rþ 24/4, Þegn is one of the sons of Karl. Cf. also the formulaic legal phrase þegn ok þræll ‘freeman and bondman’, i.e. ‘all men’. According to Skm (SnE 1998, I, 106), þegn is a term for ‘landowner’: Þegnar ok hǫlðar, svá eru búendr kallaðir ‘Þegnar and hǫlðar, this is what landowners are called’ (cf. Faulkes 1987, 151). As a legal term the word also means ‘liegeman, subject’, but in poetry it is most often used in the more general sense ‘warrior, man’. See also OE þegn, OHG thegan ‘follower, retainer, warrior’ and OS thegan ‘follower, child, boy’ (AEW: þegn).