Blind the Malevolent notices the piercing eyes of one of these people who is really a crossdressing Helgi. In one lay, the lies of one of these people are revealed after she burns her hands in a boiling pot of gemstones. They’re not giants, but two of these people created the sea’s salt after using a magical grindstone to produce King Mysing’s army, as told in the Song of Grotti. Skadi names a snow-drift after one of these people named Bredi, a hunter whose murder at the hands of a jealous Sigi begins the (*) Volsunga Saga. The ancestor of these people is the first to be fathered by Heimdall in the guise of Rig. Nine of these people use scythes to kill each other after Odin tosses them a whetstone. Ugliness portrayed via dark-skin, a short-stature, and cowardice are common literary motifs used to describe these people, whose kin typically did not receive weregild. For 10 points, name this slave-like Scandinavian social class. ■END■
ANSWER: thralls [or þræll or þēow; accept Þír; accept ambatt or ambottar; accept bryti until read; prompt on slaves or serfs; prompt on bond-women, concubines, maids or mistresses by asking “what social class were they in?”] (The gemstones and boiling plot clues are from The Third Lay of Gudrun.)
<Kevin Thomas, Beliefs>
= Average correct buzz position