They took me to a great oaken-walled hall where sat many thanes along great tables, eating and drinking, and at the highest seat was Osric, and next him, Matelgar.
Before those stood some disputants, as it seemed, and I could not see the faces of the seated thanes clearly at first.
And so he took us to guest chambers in his own house, and there left us in charge of his steward, treating us fourthanes with all honour, and our men, as became their standing, among his own best men.
And there the thanes shouted and cheered as he came, and still more when he prayed them to follow him to victory or a warrior's death.
And it would be shame, even as these two thanes have said, not to give a guest a chance to have his pleasure.
Also, Osric's thanes having trouble enough on hand, I rode with this letter.
Then a silence came over the thanes who saw and knew me, looking up to see what this new freak of mine was.
Let me write while the thanes speak," and he gathered up pens and such, and a roll of parchment, sitting down at the table and then holding pen ready, and looking at us.
Then Osric flushed red, and his eyes sparkled, and he bid the thanes who crowded after the messenger get to horse and sound the assembly at once to go to the assistance of those who were yet on the hill.
Then they cried that they would surely not fail to reach him, and so the matter was settled, and the thanes told this to their men, who shouted and cheered, so that this seemed to be a good plan after all.
Also, day by day, he bade thethanes who had seen fighting, train their men as well as they might, and they worked well at that.
But come with me to the hall and I will right you with the thanes there.
His thanes are created by the delivery of a sword, which the king bolds by the blade and the thane takes by the hilt.
A king's thanes must avenge him if he falls, and owe him allegiance.
They had been thanes and earls, and owners of vast estates, but now they nearly all depended for their bread on the Lord Abbat of Ely.
The restored Lord of Brunn, having done so much in a few days, made full report thereof unto the good Lord Abbat and the great prelates and Saxon thanes that had made the isle of Ely and the Camp of Refuge their homes.
Norman woodcutter, who felled trees in the forest for his bread until brought by the bastard to cut Saxon throats and fatten upon the lands of our thanes and our churches and monasteries!
Was it for this the great and good men of our race, our thanes and our earls, bequeathed lands and money to us?
We have seen the freemen and thanes taking an active part in public life, attending the courts of the hundred and shire, as well as the folk moot or parish council of those times, and the slave mourning over his lack of freedom.
Archbishop Theodore encouraged the thanesto build and endow churches on their estates, and introduced to this country the parochial system, by means of which all villages could have the services of a resident pastor.
Theze had inferior thanes under them, called thani minores, who were also lords of manors.
The clergy, the thanes of the lower class, or other freeholders who had life estates in lands, were the suitors in the courts of the counties, the hundreds and manors.
Brady and Hicks," says Stuart, "contended that theze thanes were not jurors, but judges or lawyers.
By hiz own account of the matter, this writer supposes the trial by twelv waz originally a trial by the cheef men, (thanes lahmen) and the idea of equality waz never suggested in the practice till the ninth or tenth century.
Law waz in a rude state, at that period; but the thanes were both lawyers and judges; jure consulti.
Here the law of Ethelred iz explicit in ordaining a court of twelve thayni, thanes or barons, with their praepositus or president, who waz the officer of the hundred.
Oft drunken with beer {My thanes have made many boasts, but have not executed them.
Not long was the time till {The cowardly thanes come out of the thicket.
Also, "The liberties of these Anglo-Saxon thanes were chiefly secured, next to their swords and their free spirits, by the inestimable right of deciding civil and criminal suits in their own county courts.
The Norman Conquest was followed by a general confiscation of estates, and only four or five thanes retained lands which they or their fathers had held in the time of Edward the Confessor.
Forwards she had gone over the mirky moorlands, and had borne in her grasp, bereft of his soul, the best of the thanes who were wont to keep watch over Hrothgar's homestead.
And here I bid thee to take thy rest all sorrowless in Hart, with the troop of thy men and each of the thanes of thy people, the youth and the doughty ones.
Then was the wise King, the hoar battle-warrior, rough in his mood when he came to know that the dearest of his chief thanes was dead and bereft of life.
For warfare took away all the thanes of Finn except a mere remnant, so that he could not in the place where they met fight any warfare at all with Hengest, nor seize from the Prince's thane the woful leavings by fighting.
Then the proud son of Weohstan summoned from the troop the thanes of the King, seven of them together, and the very best of them, and he the eighth went under the hostile roof.
Kings and their councillors and great thanes came to the synods, as well as bishops and clergy.
The high altar of the great Minster Church stood directly over the well in which Edwin the first Christian King of the Northumbrians and his thanes were baptized.
What Puch and Addi were doing on their estates, probably others of the great Thanes were also doing, though no marvel occurred at the consecration of these other churches to lead the historian to mention them.
And there before the door was Sweyn our Earl, with twenty Danish house-carles that followed him, and at his side some of the wealthiest and worthiest thanes of our smiling shire of Hereford.
Ednoth lowered his sword; the thanesuncovered their heads; many cowered, some stared resentfully; some slipped away in the tracks of the vanished cattle; the women fell on their knees.
Though dead are all the paladins Whom glory had in ken, Though all your thunder-sworded thanes With proud hearts died among the Danes, While a man remains, great war remains: Now is a war of men.
The two chief charges against the story are that it was first recorded long after Alfred's death, and that (as Mr. Oman urges) Alfred never really wandered all alone without any thanes or soldiers.
Where seven sunken Englands Lie buried one by one, Why should one idle spade, I wonder, Shake up the dust of thaneslike thunder To smoke and choke the sun?
And as he stumbled on one knee, The thanes broke out in ire, Crying: "Ill the watchmen watch, and ill The sheriffs keep the shire.
And all the thanes who were gathering round him cried out that they would surely not fail him, and one could not but listen to the voice of all the noblest in England who were gathered there, for Eadmund had all his best with him.
And with him came those thanes and his half-brother Eadward, but Ethelred himself was not with them.
I saw the Wessex thanes catch Eadmund's bridle, and they turned his horse and spoke to him.
So Edric Streone went over to Cnut, and with him many thanes who despaired of help from Ethelred, and chose rather peace under a king who was strong enough to give it them.
Yet the thanes said that without the king no force would move.
That shall not be while there is one to give his life for you," I answered, and the thanes around us murmured "Aye!
But there are thanes and such-like left outside," he said, laughing more yet.
But at Sandwich we found the thanes whom Swein had held as hostages left, cruelly maimed in hand and face, with the message from Cnut that he would return.
At once the English thanes came in, and even Sigeferth and Morcar, the powerful lords of the old Danish seven boroughs in Mercia, brought their men to his help, and that was almost more than could have been hoped.
The crosses were buried, but the thanes of the Lord raised it begirt with gold and silver, and it should receive honor from all mankind.
From her dwelling-place she now came forth to avenge the death of her son, and snatched away from the group of sleeping Ring-Danes the good Æschere, dearest of all his thanes to Hrothgar.
Then, when histhanes who watched saw that, fear fell upon them, and they fled.
And when the hall was built, there night by night the thanes gathered and rejoiced with their King; and there, when the feast was over, they lay them down to sleep.
But in spite of all their grief and horror, when night came the thanes again lay down to rest in the great hall.
The Earls and theThanes met with the people, but did not form a separate body.
Then the boldthanes marched forward to Heorot, their armor and their weapons glittering as they went.
There the thanes met him with great rejoicings, and some quickly helped him to undo his armor, while others prepared to carry the great head of Grendel back to Heorot.
One night he came to Heorot when the noble guests lay at rest after the feast, and seizing thirty thanesas they slept, set off on his homeward journey, exulting in his booty.
Chief of his thanes was a noble and powerful warrior named Beowulf, who resolved to go to the help of the Danes.
If ever I hear that thy neighbors are again persecuting thee, I will bring a thousand thanes to thy aid; and I know that Higelac will uphold me in this.
Now as Wiglaf sat by his lord, grieving sorely at his death, the other ten thanes who had shown themselves to be faithless and cowardly approached with shame to his side.
The king, then, granted manors to his followers, and to such Saxon eorls and thanes as were willing to hold their lands on the same conditions as the Normans.
As the lords orthanes of the various vills, following the example of their kings, accepted Christianity, their people followed their example.
The dangers to which the Saxons had been exposed by the attacks of the Danes had put a great deal of power into the hands of the thanes and the king.
Then they chose three thanes and sent to the mother to ask her what the cause of complaint was.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "thanes" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
