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Literary notes about thrall (AI summary)

The word thrall is deployed with rich versatility in literature, where it can denote both literal bondage and a metaphorical state of enchantment or subjugation. In some works, it refers explicitly to the condition of slavery or servitude, as when characters are confined by royal decree or historical practice [1, 2, 3, 4]. In contrast, other texts use thrall to evoke the sense of being powerfully captivated—whether by magic, overwhelming emotion, or an irresistible attraction to authority—which in turn deepens the narrative’s exploration of power and submission [5, 6, 7, 8]. This duality allows writers to blur the lines between external chains and inner captivity, enhancing the symbolic texture of their characters’ experiences.
  1. In 1335, King Magnus decreed that no Christian within his realm should remain a thrall, thus practically abolishing the remnants of slavery.
    — from Norwegian Life An Account of Past and Contemporary Conditions and Progress in Norway and Sweden
  2. The thrall was a serf rather than a slave, and could own a house, etc., of his own.
    — from The Story of the Volsungs (Volsunga Saga); with Excerpts from the Poetic Edda
  3. Tom stood perfectly submissive; and yet Legree could not hide from himself that his power over his bond thrall was somehow gone.
    — from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  4. There was no reason why I should be the thrall of any man.
    — from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
  5. The solitary knight shook his head again, eyeing me solemnly as if in hope to discern in my face the sorcery that held himself in thrall.
    — from Henry BrockenHis Travels and Adventures in the Rich, Strange, Scarce-Imaginable Regions of Romance by Walter De la Mare
  6. And what enchantment held the king in thrall When lonely Brynhild wrestled with the powers That war against all passion, ah!
    — from Poems, with The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde
  7. Not his ascendancy alone, however, held me in thrall at present.
    — from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë
  8. Even in me is might For thus much, seeing I live no thrall of thine, But Lord Apollo's; neither do I sign Where Creon bids me.
    — from Oedipus King of Thebes by Sophocles

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