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Dinarid said:The Vikings murdered and raped their ancestors and stole their land. They sold so many Slavs from all different tribes into captivity that the very word "slave" comes from "Slav".
You apparently don't know, that in Old Norse language the word for slave was thrall:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrall
Check also the Old Norse - English dictionary (English slave = Old Norse þræll):
http://www.vikingsofbjornstad.com/Old_Norse_Dictionary_E2N.shtm#s
Slave is an English word, borrowed from French, borrowed from Latin, borrowed from Greek.
The ultimate origin of the world is from Byzantine-era Latin and from Byzantine-era Greek.
It indicates, that the word originated from South Slavs, not from East or West Slavs.
I explained this here:
me said:As for the association of ethnonym Slavs with the new term for "slaves", which emerged during the Early Middle Ages:
That association emerged after original Slavic-speaking invaders enslaved many ethnic Non-Slavs, and then allowed them to join their communities (this is one of reasons why Slavs were so successful in colonizing half of Europe in a very short time - they increased their numbers not just due to natural growth, but also by enslaving Non-Slavic locals and "turning them into Slavs", assimilating them).
Ethno-linguistic ancestors of modern South Slavs came to the Balkans from North-Eastern and North-Central Europe after 500 AD.
I never really understood this whole idea that modern South Slavs are supposedly the most "mixed" and the "least Slavic" of all Slavs. The most "mixed" (chiefly with Ugro-Finns and with Turkic tribes) are perhaps some of East Slavs. All archaeological and written evidence point to replacement in the Balkans during the Slavic invasion and colonization (even though sources also describe Slavs as enslaving Roman citizens and then liberating them and incorporating into their own tribes - so some degree of mixing with local Non-Slavs certainly took place).
Emperor Maurice in his "Strategikon" noticed, that Slavs treated their slaves (captives) in different ways than other peoples did.
Quote:
"(...) Slavs, unlike all other peoples, do not keep captives in perpetual slavery, but they demarcate for them a limited period of time, after which they give them a choice: they can either return home if they purchase their freedom, or stay among them as free people and friends. (...)"
So, according to "Strategikon", Slavic invaders used to incorporate captives into their ranks. They had an unusual habit of liberating their slaves and incorporating them into their own communities as free people - thus increasing their own numbers very fast.
This also hints to the origin of association of ethnonym Slavs with the new, Early Medieval Latin term for "slaves".
Slavic warriors enslaved thousands of Non-Slavs, and incorporated them into their own tribes as free people - unlike the majority of other peoples, who used to keep their captives in perpetual slavery, rather than mixing with them.
Therefore Slavic tribes which emerged in the Balkans must have included some descendants of former Byzantine citizens who got captured by the Slavs, then liberated, then linguistically and culturally assimilated into Slavic communities.
This is also confirmed by other sources, for example by these excerpts from Procopius of Caesarea:
Procopius of Caesarea, Book VII, XIII - describing the events in year 545 AD:
Quote:
"(...) For a great throng of the barbarians, the Sclaveni [Slavs], had, as it happened, recently crossed the Ister [Danube], plundering the adjoining country and enslaved a very great number of Romans. (...)"
Another excerpt from Procopius:
"(...) In Illyria and Thracia, from the Ionian Gulf to Byzantine surrounding cities, where Hellas and Chersonese regions are situated, (...) the Sclavenes and the Antes, penetrating practically every year since Justinian administering the Roman Empire, were inflicting irreversible damage to their inhabitants. In each invasion I estimate 200,000 Romans were either enslaved or killed (...)"
And here an excerpt from John of Ephesus:
"(...) In third year after the death of Emperor Justin, during the reign of victorious Tiberius, the damned nation of the Slavs has risen, and marching through entire Hellas, through lands of Thessaly and Thrace, captured many cities and strongholds, plundered, burned and robbed, seized the land and settled there with full ease, without fear, like in their own land. (...) they were plundering the country, burning it and robbing, as far as the Great Walls [of Constantinople], and this is how they captured many thousands of cattle, as well as many other kinds of booty. (...) Until today, that is until year 584, they still continue to live in peace in lands of the Rhomaioi, without fear and concern, plundering, enslaving and burning, getting rich and highjacking gold and silver, capturing horses and plenty of weapons; and they have learned to fight better than the Rhomaioi. (...)"
Also a passage from Menander Protector:
"(...) About the fourth year of the reign of Caesar Tiberius Constantine, some hundred thousand Slavs broke into Thrace, and pillaged that and many other regions. As Greece was being laid waste and enslaved by the Slavs, with trouble liable to flare up anywhere, and as Tiberius had at his disposal by no means sufficient forces, he sent a delegation to the Khagan of the Avars. (...)"
Jordanes about the three branches of early Slavic-speaking peoples (ethnonym Slavs comes from just one of them - the Sclaveni):
"(...) These people, as we started to say at the beginning of our account or catalogue of nations, though off-shoots from one stock, have now three names, that is, Venedi, Antes and Sclaveni. (...) they now rage in war far and wide, in punishment for our sins (...) Though their names are now dispersed amid various clans and places, yet they are chiefly called Sclaveni and Antes. (...)"
Procopius of Caesarea once again (about Slavic foederati/mercenaries fighting under Belisarius):
"(...) Belisarius was eager to capture alive one of the men of note among the enemy, in order that he might learn what the reason might be why the barbarians were holding out in their desperate situation. And Valerian promised readily to perform such a service for him. For there were some men in his command, he said, from the nation of the Sclaveni, who are accustomed to conceal themselves behind a small rock or any bush which may happen to be near and pounce upon an enemy. In fact, they are constantly practising this in their slave hunts along the river Ister, both on the Romans and on the barbarians as well. (...)"
And also: http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/147272.pdf
"(...) There is clear evidence from the excavations of the Athenian Agora that the late sixth century witnessed some interruption in the peaceful course of town life in Athens. Certain buildings, for example, are known to have been burnt and temporarily or permanently deserted at that time. Finds of coinage, evidently concealed in haste or abandoned in emergency and never recovered, allow a date to be assigned to events, for which, although they are well attested by archaeological discovery, it would otherwise be very difficult to demonstrate a particular historical context. Byzantine chroniclers tell of a Slavonic invasion of Greece which took place apparently at the end of the year 578 or early in 579, as a result of which large numbers of Slavs settled in Greece... It is virtually certain that some of the destruction in the Athenian Agora, for which a date in the years immediately following the invasion is here proposed, was the work of the Slavs... Menander Protector, in his work chronicling the period ca. 560-580, writes as follows (...)"
So early Slavs were famous for their slave hunts, in which they enslaved both Roman citizens, and other barbarians. Most of those captives were later becoming members of Slavic tribes, as "Strategikon" says.
and dad's side (see #3 and pics below). And fortunately/unfortunately, we were pretty good at it--but I don't see raiding, murdering, stealing and selling slaves as virtues. Post-Christianity, we became legit merchants. And were good at it. I come from neverending generations of wanderers, nomads, adventure seekers and world travelers, some of whom had the good sense to come back home and build what I now enjoy. I've lived almost half of my life in other countries but this one, I call home. Word to the wise > don't speak on things of which you know nothing.