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Thane   Listen
noun
Thane  n.  A dignitary under the Anglo-Saxons and Danes in England. Of these there were two orders, the king's thanes, who attended the kings in their courts and held lands immediately of them, and the ordinary thanes, who were lords of manors and who had particular jurisdiction within their limits. After the Conquest, this title was disused, and baron took its place. Note: Among the ancient Scots, thane was a title of honor, which seems gradually to have declined in its significance.






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"Thane" Quotes from Famous Books



... passing through the woods and fields, when suddenly, in the midst of a laund, there met them three women in strange and ferly apparel, resembling creatures of an elder world, whom when they attentively beheld, wondering much at the sight, the first of them spake and said, All hail, Macbeth, thane of Glamis (for he had lately entered into that dignity and office by the death of his father Synel). The second of them said, Hail, Macbeth, thane of Cawdor. But the third said, All hail, Macbeth, that hereafter shall be king of Scotland. Then Banquo, What sort of women, said he, are you, that seem ...
— Lives of the Necromancers • William Godwin

... advanced on one course until they came to the town of Alton; and then there came against them the men of Hampshire and fought against them. And there was Ethelward the King's high-steward slain, and Leofric at Whitchurch and Leofwin the King's high-steward and Wulfhere the bishop's thane, and Godwin at Worthy, Bishop Elfry's son, and of all men one hundred and eighty; and there were of the Danish men many more slain, though they had possession of the place of slaughter." A mere ...
— England of My Heart—Spring • Edward Hutton

... scene that might recall a remote half feudal, half patriarchal age, when, under the smoky rafters of his antique hail, some warlike thane sat, with kinsmen and dependants ranged down the long board, each in his degree. Here, doubtless, Ragueneau, the Father Superior, held the place of honor; and, for chieftains scarred with Danish battle-axes, was seen a band of ...
— The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century • Francis Parkman

... passages, in which the Thane of Cawdor is mentioned, is very remarkable; in the second scene the Thanes of Rosse and Angus bring the king an account of the battle, and inform ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes - Volume V: Miscellaneous Pieces • Samuel Johnson

... not easy is the contest with the evil Grendel. But to fight for a good cause and to nobly win or nobly die is the best a man can do. Proud is my heart when I see so many brave men ready to overcome the evil monster or to die fighting, but all may not venture. Go, my cousin and my thane," he said to Beowulf, "and make thy name famous in all places ...
— Northland Heroes • Florence Holbrook

... at least caprice, in the persons paying; and with either jealousies or mean compliances in such as were competitors for receiving them; it was now ordered by the law of king Edgar[n], that "dentur omnes decimae primariae ecclesiae ad quam parochia pertinet." However, if any thane, or great lord, had a church within his own demesnes, distinct from the mother-church, in the nature of a private chapel; then, provided such church had a coemitery or consecrated place of burial belonging to it, he might allot one third of his tithes for the maintenance ...
— Commentaries on the Laws of England - Book the First • William Blackstone

... gives an account of the desperate struggle between Saxon and Dane for supremacy in England, and presents a vivid picture of the misery and ruin to which the country was reduced by the ravages of the sea-wolves. The hero of the story, a young Saxon thane, takes part in all the battles fought by King Alfred, and the incidents in his career are unusually varied and exciting. He is driven from his home, takes to the sea and resists the Danes on their own element, ...
— Historic Boys - Their Endeavours, Their Achievements, and Their Times • Elbridge Streeter Brooks

... first Abbot. In Bede no mention is made of royal patronage, and the whole credit of founding the abbey is given to Saxulf. Another account represents him as having been a thane of great wealth and renown, and that this abbey was dedicated by him "as the first fruits of the Mercian church." He was made Bishop of Lichfield in 675, but continued to take an active part in the affairs of the abbey. ...
— The Cathedral Church of Peterborough - A Description Of Its Fabric And A Brief History Of The Episcopal See • W.D. Sweeting

... the offices at court are filled with them, and it is seldom a word of honest English is spoken in the palace. The Norman castles are rising over the land, and his favourites divide among them the territory of every English earl or thane who incurs the king's displeasure. Were it not for Earl Harold, one might as well be under ...
— Wulf the Saxon - A Story of the Norman Conquest • G. A. Henty

... he is to meet his courtiers at a state-banquet, given in honor of Banquo, he tells them with hardihood. For we must remember that this jealous king is no longer the warrior Thane whom we first encounter upon the 'blasted heath', and whom we afterwards see haunted by horrid visions of 'air-drawn daggers', as he turns his hand to crime. He has gotten far beyond all this. Murders to him are become but 'trifles light ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 32, June, 1860 • Various

... following is the larger part of chapter eight of Scott's Ivanhoe. The hero of the novel is a Saxon knight, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, son of Cedric. Ivanhoe is in love with his father's ward, Rowena, but Cedric wishes her to marry a thick-headed Saxon thane, or lord, called Athelstane. According to Scott, the period was one of unrest. England had come into the possession of the Normans, and the native Saxons hated their new masters. Richard was king. But since ...
— Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year • E.C. Hartwell

... truth, to make things pretty;— How trees are brought, perforce, together, Where never tree was known to grow: And founts condemned to trickle, whether There's water for said founts or no;— How ev'n the wonder of the Thane In sketching all its wonder loses, As woods will come to Dunsinane, Or any where the ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 578 - Vol. XX, No. 578. Saturday, December 1, 1832 • Various

... Frode, the Dane of Avalcomb." The red mouth trembled a little. "He is dead now. He was slain last night, by Norman Leofwinesson, who is Edric Jarl's thane." ...
— The Ward of King Canute • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz

... the old castle of Calder (pronounced Cawder), the Thane of Cawdor's seat. I was sorry that my friend, this 'prosperous gentleman', was not there. The old tower must be of great antiquity. There is a draw-bridge,—what has been a moat—and an ancient court. There is a hawthorn-tree, ...
— The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. • James Boswell

... the king an old man exceeding well-informed; he was a very rich thane, and skilful in each doom, he was named Ulfin, much wisdom was with him. The king drew up his chin, and looked on Ulfin, greatly he mourned, his mood was disturbed. Then quoth Uther Pendragon to Ulfin the knight: "Ulfin, say me some ...
— Brut • Layamon

... "Take Thane with you, and carry Mr. Hazelton's transit to Grizzly Ledge. Mr. Hazelton and I will be ...
— The Young Engineers in Colorado • H. Irving Hancock

... for the Geats, and a thane waited upon them, and all the noble warriors gathered together, and a great feast was held once more in Heorot with song and revelry. Waltheow, Hrothgar's queen, came forth also, and handed the wine-cup to each of the thanes, ...
— Famous Tales of Fact and Fancy - Myths and Legends of the Nations of the World Retold for Boys and Girls • Various

... was added a footstool, curiously carved and inlaid with ivory, which mark of distinction was peculiar to them. One of these seats was at present occupied by Cedric the Saxon, who, though but in rank a thane, or, as the Normans called him, a Franklin, felt, at the delay of his evening meal, an irritable impatience, which might have become an alderman, whether of ancient or ...
— Ivanhoe - A Romance • Walter Scott

... to Nairn, a miserable town, but a royal burgh, of which the chief annual magistrate is styled lord provost. In the neighbourhood we saw the castle of the old thane of Cawdor. There is one ancient tower, with its battlements and winding stairs, yet remaining; the rest of the house is, though not modern, of ...
— Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 - The Works Of Samuel Johnson, Ll.D., In Nine Volumes • Samuel Johnson

... of this great army of Duffs of Clunybeg and Hatton and Fetteresso and the rest advancing towards me solemnly waving their family-trees. In the van, with his Dunsinane honours thick upon him, marched MACDUFF—MACDUFF, you know, who was also "Thane of Fife, created first Earl, 1057, m. Beatrice Banquo." Then followed a long train of other warriors—General Sir ALEXANDER, who fought in Flanders; Captain GEORGE, who was killed at Trafalgar; Admiral ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, April 15, 1914 • Various

... the marsh dividing Fife from Strathern. Around the pedestal of this cross are tumuli, said to be the graves of those who, having claimed the privilege of the law, failed in proving their consanguinity to the Thane of Fife. Such persons were instantly executed. The people of Newburgh believe that the spectres of these criminals still haunt the ruined cross, and claim that mercy for their souls which they had failed to obtain ...
— Purgatory • Mary Anne Madden Sadlier

... and in their midmost branches bees. The flocks bear for them their fleecy burdens ... they live in unchanged happiness, and need not fly across the sea in impious ships"—faiths which are in striking contrast to the tribal warrior's conception as set forth by the Saxon thane of King Eadwine of Northumbria. "This life," said this poetical thane, "is like the passage of a bird from the darkness without into a lighted hall where you, O King, are seated at supper, while storms, and rain, and snow rage abroad. The sparrow flying in at our door and straightway ...
— Folklore as an Historical Science • George Laurence Gomme

... tales, whose merry license shook The fat sides of the Saxon thane, Forgetful of the ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... terror or pity might be gathered from common and actual observation—might be discerned in the workings of the face, the expressions of the tongue, the writhings of a troubled conscience. "Your face, my Thane; is as a book where men may read strange matters." Midnight and secret murders too, from the imperfect state of the police, were more common; and the ferocious and brutal manners that would stamp the brow of the hardened ruffian or hired assassin, more incorrigible and undisguised. The ...
— Hazlitt on English Literature - An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature • Jacob Zeitlin

... when he and his wife were alone; although he was careful not to say anything uncivil before Lady Palliser. He scoffed at the little lad's position, as if it had been an offence in the child himself—called him the microscopic baronet, the baby thane, laughed with bitterest laughter at any little touch of arrogance which clouded the natural sweetness of ...
— The Golden Calf • M. E. Braddon

... his dark cell A sacred sign all-glorious from heaven, Like to the shining sun; then was it shown 90 That holy God was working aid for him. The voice of Heaven's Majesty was heard, The music of the glorious Lord's sweet words, Wondrous beneath the skies. To His true thane Brave in the fight, in dungeon harsh confined, He promised help and comfort with clear voice:— "Matthew, My peace on earth I give to thee; Let not thy heart be troubled, neither mourn Too much in mind; I will abide with thee, And I will loose thee from these bonds that bind 100 Thy limbs, and ...
— Andreas: The Legend of St. Andrew • Unknown

... capital, no loss; all was profit; and ever since that day it has seemed to me the only manner of doing business worth while. There are, or were, other compensations in a life of trade, which might fire the ambition of a strenuous youth. I remember three voyages made the merchant a Thane ...
— Confessions of Boyhood • John Albee

... Sackville, Earl of Dorset, by the same; extra fine and rare—(with a copy by Thane). 3 ...
— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... summons. They knew that the king would have them abandon their old customs and accept the new faith. But they considered that he had no right to dictate to them; so they turned this summons into one of war, and drew together, both thane and thrall, from all ...
— Olaf the Glorious - A Story of the Viking Age • Robert Leighton

... cases Shakespeare clearly shows the performer exactly how to carry out his ideas of the nature of a man during part of the action. One of the plainest instances of this kind of instruction is in Macbeth. The ambitious thane's wife is urging him on to murder his king. Her advice gives the ...
— Public Speaking • Clarence Stratton

... murderers, has been often pointed out. It forms a picture of itself. An instance of the author's power of giving a striking effect to a common reflection, by the manner of introducing it, occurs in a speech of Duncan, complaining of his having been deceived in his opinion of the Thane of Cawdor, at the very moment that he is expressing the most unbounded confidence in the loyalty and services ...
— Characters of Shakespeare's Plays • William Hazlitt

... Heorot. In this hall Hrogar and his retainers live in joy and festivity, until a malignant fiend, called Grendel, jealous of their happiness, carries off by night thirty of Hrogar's men, and devours them in his moorland retreat. These ravages go on for twelve years. Bewulf, a thane of Hygelac, King of the Goths, hearing of Hrogar's calamities, sails from Sweden with fourteen warriors—to help him. They reach the Danish coast in safety; and, after an animated parley with Hrogar's coastguard, who at first takes them for pirates, they are allowed to proceed to the royal ...
— Beowulf • James A. Harrison and Robert Sharp, eds.

... of Belmont The Thane's Daughter Helena; the Physician's Orphan Desdemona; the Magnifico's Child Meg and Alice; the Merry Maids of Windsor. Isabella; the Votaress Katharina and Bianca; the Shrew and the Demure Ophelia; the Rose of Elsinore Rosalind and Celia; the Friends Juliet; the ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 62, January 4, 1851 • Various

... most nearly allied species of the surrounding islands. Ten species of Pieridae have the same character, and in four or five of the Nymphalidae it is also very distinctly marked. In almost every case, the species found in Celebes are much larger than thane of the islands westward, and at least equal to those of the Moluccas, or even larger. The difference of form is, however, the most remarkable feature, as it is altogether a new thing for a whole set of species in one country to differ in exactly the same way from the corresponding sets in ...
— The Malay Archipelago - Volume I. (of II.) • Alfred Russel Wallace

... Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the ...
— Familiar Quotations • John Bartlett

... "Thane of Menteith," he said, "you have well spoken; nor is there one of us in whose bosom the same sentiments do not burn like fire. But it is not strength alone that wins the fight; it is the head of the commander, as well as the arm of the soldier, that brings ...
— A Legend of Montrose • Sir Walter Scott

... When Thane Eldred first met Vida Irving he was immediately taken captive. So fair a vision never crossed his path before; whatever of enchantment might have been wanting in golden curls and blue eyes was completed by a voice such as few possess, rich, sweet, and fine compass; ...
— Divers Women • Pansy and Mrs. C.M. Livingston

... I to any thane lordly treasures in former times have given, while we in the good realm all blissful sate, and had sway of our mansions:— at no more acceptable time could he ever with value my bounty requite. If now for this purpose any one of my thanes would himself volunteer that ...
— Anglo-Saxon Literature • John Earle

... found that shall henceforth practise any heathenship, either by sacrifice or by "fyrt", or in any way love witchcraft, or worship idols, if he be a king's thane, let him pay X half-marks; half to Christ, half to the king. We are all to love and worship one God, and strictly hold one Christianity, and totally renounce ...
— The Witch-cult in Western Europe - A Study in Anthropology • Margaret Alice Murray

... to bear away the palm of longevity from old Parr. As you won't come, you will write; I long to hear all those unutterable things, being utterly unable to guess at any of them, unless they concern your relative the Thane of Carlisle, [4] though I had great hopes we had ...
— The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals, Volume 2. • Lord Byron

... Not a Thane within reach but he knew his family and connexions, how many of his ancestors had fallen by the sword of the English, how many in domestic brawl, and how many by the hand of the executioner for march-treason. Their castles he was acquainted with from turret to foundation-stone; and as for the ...
— The Monastery • Sir Walter Scott

... collecting forces from his southern and midland counties, and also directed his fleet to reassemble off the Sussex coast. Harold was well received in London, and his summons to arms was promptly obeyed by citizen, by thane, by sokman, and by ceorl; for he had shown himself during his brief reign a just and wise king, affable to all men, active for the good of his country, and (in the words of the old historian) sparing himself from no fatigue by land or sea. [See Roger de ...
— The Fifteen Decisive Battles of The World From Marathon to Waterloo • Sir Edward Creasy, M.A.

... hair and flattered himself that he could sing. And there was always in him that side of his nature, so the reader must know that when Nellie Logan came to his office that bright summer morning and found him wrapped in his day-dream of power, she addressed herself not to the Thane of Wheat who should be King hereafter, but to the baritone singer in the Congregational choir, and the wheat king scampered back to the dream world when ...
— A Certain Rich Man • William Allen White

... a king's thane be charged with killing a man, if he dare to clear himself, let him do it with twelve king's thanes. If the accused man be of less degree than the king's thane, let him clear himself with eleven of his equals, and with one king's thane. ...
— Anglo-Saxon Literature • John Earle

... requisite for one in such orders, was sent, in the days of King AEthelred, from Alphege, the bishop and successor of AEthelwold, to a monastery which is called Cernel, at the desire of AEthelmer, the Thane, whose noble birth and goodness is everywhere known. Then ran it in my mind, I trust, through the grace of God, that I ought to translate this book out of the Latin tongue into the English language not upon presumption of great learning, but because ...
— Bibliomania in the Middle Ages • Frederick Somner Merryweather

... close of the chapter, at p. 23, four plates; the first of which is a View of Dunrobin Castle and the surrounding scenery; the second, a smaller View of the Castle: the third, a View of Druid Stones, with another of Battle Stones in Strathflete: and the fourth, Dornoch, with the Thane's Cross.—The last chapter is entitled "The Chapel of Rosslyn," to which is prefixed a vignette of Rosslyn Chapel. It is followed by four plates; the first exhibiting a View of a Column in Rosslyn Chapel; the second, ...
— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... rugs, and on the walls hung the mounted heads of beasts. These things impressed themselves upon Philip first. It was as if he had stepped suddenly out of the world in which he was living into the ancient hall of a wild and half-savage thane whose bones had turned to dust ...
— God's Country—And the Woman • James Oliver Curwood

... whole jockey club might not hear, took me back into the room we had quitted, and left me to find, or make whatever acquaintance I could. Pampered and spoiled as I was in the most difficult circles of London, I was beyond measure indignant at the cavalier demeanour of this rustic Thane, whom I considered a being as immeasurably beneath me in every thing else, as he really was in antiquity of birth, and, I venture to hope, in cultivation of intellect. I looked round the room, and did not recognize a being of my acquaintance: I seemed ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... which was unlikely, as it would have been done at once if at all. Between us, the Saxon and I managed to get Dalfin into her, and then our new companion followed. He wore a thrall's dress, and had not so much as a knife on him. Yet one could see that he bore himself as might a thane, while his voice ...
— A Sea Queen's Sailing • Charles Whistler

... English book-collector. The son of a rich Thane might have looked to a political career; he preferred to devote himself to learning, and would have spent his life in a Roman monastery if the Pope had not ordered him to return to England in company with Theodore of Tarsus. His first expedition was made ...
— The Great Book-Collectors • Charles Isaac Elton and Mary Augusta Elton

... for minor offences, while a freeman might atone for any crime, even for murder, by the payment of a fine, the amount of the penalty being determined by the rank of the victim. Among the Saxons the life of a king's thane was worth 1200 shillings, while that of a common free man was valued only one-sixth ...
— A General History for Colleges and High Schools • P. V. N. Myers

... village of Howli—all men evil affected towards the Police of the Sirkar. As prisoners they came, the irons upon their hands, crying for mercy—Imam Baksh, the farmer, who had denied his wife to the Havildar, and others, ill-conditioned rascals against whom we of the Thane bore spite. It was well done, and the Havildar was proud. But the Dipty Sahib was angry with the Stunt for lack of zeal, and said 'Dam-Dam' after the custom of the English people, and extolled the Havildar. Yunkum Sahib lay still in his long chair. 'Have the men sworn?' ...
— Soldiers Three • Rudyard Kipling

... we go to see the old abbey. It is an imposing and well-preserved pile. It was founded by Ethelwold, a thane—one of those righting, praying, thieving old rascals who lived in the tenth century, and made things lively for any one who went past their houses with money on his person. When Ethelwold had stolen ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - Vol. XI, No. 27, June, 1873 • Various

... them, in return for their faithful support and service in war, the use of the land during their lifetime, or so long as they remained true to him. In Macbeth, we read how, for his treason, the lands of the thane (earl) of Cawdor were taken from him by the Scottish king and given to the thane of Glamis. The lands thus lent were called fiefs. Upon the death of the tenant, they went back to the king or duke who had given them in the first place, ...
— The World War and What was Behind It - The Story of the Map of Europe • Louis P. Benezet

... described as 'noble and affecting, like an exhibition in Athens or Rome.' Lord Grosvenor, at the close, went up to Garrick, 'and told him that he had affected his whole frame, showing him his nerves and veins still quivering with agitation.' The masquerade our traveller, as the 'travelled thane,' affects to regard complacently as an 'entertainment not suited to the genius of the British nation, but to a warmer country, where the people have a great flow of spirits, and a readiness at repartee.' Bozzy ...
— James Boswell - Famous Scots Series • William Keith Leask

... (Gunhild), Gunner (Gunhere), [Footnote: It is unlikely that this name is connected with gun, a word of too late appearance. It may be seen over a shop in Brentford, perhaps kept by a descendant of the thane of the adjacent Gunnersbury.] Haines (Hagene), Haldane (Haelfdene), Hastings (Haesten, the Danish chief who gave his name to Hastings, formerly Haestinga-ceaster), Herbert (Herebeorht), Herrick Hereric), Hildyard (Hildegeard), Hubert, Hubbard, Hobart, Hibbert (Hygebeorht), Ingram (Ingelram), ...
— The Romance of Names • Ernest Weekley

... Macbeth tonight," Sid confirmed, returning to his frowning-practice: left eyebrow up, right down, reverse, repeat, rest. "And I must play the ill-starred Thane of Glamis." ...
— No Great Magic • Fritz Reuter Leiber

... your threat," said Vincent, and instantly addressed the stranger. "Buy a watch, most noble northern Thane—buy a watch, to count the hours of plenty since the blessed moment you left Berwick behind you.—Buy barnacles, to see the English gold lies ready for your gripe.—Buy what you will, you shall have credit for three days; for, ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott

... whistled the Knight of Kinfauns; "by the Thane's Cross, man, but this is an ill favoured pirn to wind: Yet it shall never be said the fairest maid in the Fair City was cooped up in a convent, like a kain hen in a cavey, and she about to be married to the bold burgess Henry Wynd. That tale shall not be told while I wear belt and ...
— The Fair Maid of Perth • Sir Walter Scott

... on ev'ry alcove writ, Immodest, lewd attempt at wit, Disgraceful to the times. Here Scotland's dandy Irish Earl,{50} With Noblet on his arm would whirl, And frolic in this sphere; With mulberry coat, and pink cossacks, The red-hair'd Thane the fair attacks, F-'s ever on the leer; And when alone, to every belle The am'rous beau love's tale will tell, Intent upon their ruin. Beware, Macduff, the fallen stars! Venus aggrieved will fly to Mars; There's mischief brewing. What mountain of a fair is that, Whose jewels, ...
— The English Spy • Bernard Blackmantle

... you, my young friend," said he, good-humouredly. "It is a pleasure we lose as we grow older,—that of being sleepy. However, 'to bed,' as Lady Macbeth says. Faith, I don't wonder the poor devil of a thane was slow in going to bed with such ...
— Alice, or The Mysteries, Book VII • Edward Bulwer Lytton

... in 1835 Prof. of Oriental Languages at St. Andrews. In 1812 he pub. Anster Fair, a mock-heroic poem, in ottava rima, full of fancy and humour, which at once brought him reputation. In later life he produced two tragedies, Cardinal Beaton and John Baliol, and two poems, The Thane of Fife and Papistry Stormed. He also issued a Syriac and ...
— A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature • John W. Cousin

... would have been more specially noticed and protected by his laws. It was otherwise, however, in the reign of Athelstan; for there is a famous law made by him, by which the rank and privileges of a thane are conferred on every merchant, who had made three voyages across the sea, with a vessel and cargo of his own. By another law passed in this reign, the exportation of horses ...
— Robert Kerr's General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 18 • William Stevenson

... anecdote which Mr. Lingard furnishes from Bede of the debate on the conversion of the Northumbrian king, Edwin, we cannot forbear transcribing. The high priest of the heathen rites having spoken—a thane "sought for information respecting the origin and destiny of man. 'Often,' said he, 'O king, in the depth of winter, while you are feasting with your thanes, and the fire is blazing on the hearth in the midst of the hall, you have seen a bird, pelted by the storm, enter ...
— Coronation Anecdotes • Giles Gossip

... withal a lover of home, who trod at times, with bitter longing for his native land, the thorny paths of exile. To him physical cowardice was the unforgivable sin, next to treachery to his lord; for the loyalty of thane to his chieftain was a very deep and abiding reality to the Anglo-Saxon warrior, and in the early poems of our English race, love for "his dear lord, his chieftain-friend," takes the place of that love ...
— Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race • Maud Isabel Ebbutt

... was conquered. Glowing in death he fell. They twain had destroyed the winged beast. Such should a warrior be, such a thane in need. ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 2 (of 12) • Various

... a year," said the suave Judge Van Dorn. "A year ago you boys were smoking on me as the new judge of this judicial district. All hail Thane of Cawdor—" He smiled his princely smile, taking every one in with his frank, bold eyes, and waved himself into the blustery night. There he met Mr. Calvin, who, owing to a turn matters had taken at home, was just beginning another long period of exile from the hearthstone. He walked the night ...
— In the Heart of a Fool • William Allen White

... "Thane or Lordling, think no scorn Of the poor and lowly-born. In brake obscure or lonely dell The simple flowret prospers well; The gentler virtues cottage-bred, omitted Thrive best beneath the humble shed. Low-born Hinds, opprest, obscure, Ye who patiently endure To bend the knee and bow ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas

... approached materially connected with the Lady Isabella, and whose consummation the late Thane of Fife had earnestly prayed he might have been permitted to hallow with his blessing. Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan and High Constable of Scotland, had been from early youth the brother in arms and ...
— The Days of Bruce Vol 1 - A Story from Scottish History • Grace Aguilar

... squireen[obs3], patrician, laureate. gentry, gentlefolk; *squirarchy[obs3], better sort magnates, primates, optimates[obs3]; pantisocracy[obs3]. king &c. (master) 745; atheling[obs3]; prince, duke; marquis, marquisate[obs3]; earl, viscount, baron, thane, banneret[obs3]; baronet, baronetcy[obs3]; knight, knighthood; count, armiger[obs3], laird; signior[obs3], seignior; esquire, boyar, margrave, vavasour[obs3]; emir, ameer[obs3], scherif[obs3], sharif, effendi, wali; sahib; chevalier, maharaja, nawab, palsgrave[obs3], ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... place on Christmas Day, and the old books tell us of the gorgeous procession and the wonderful service. St. Edmund had to make a solemn promise of loyalty to God and his people, and after being anointed with holy oil he was clothed in certain royal garments by the Bishop, while a thane stepped forward and put sandals on his feet, a purple cloak was put upon his shoulders, and in his hand a sceptre of mercy and an iron rod of justice. After that a naked sword was presented to him, and a helmet put on his head. Then, laying aside ...
— Stories of the Saints by Candle-Light • Vera C. Barclay

... arms of old England; that at Stamford Bridge the proud Danes and Norwegians had sustained a crushing defeat, and been driven to seek refuge in their ships, and that these warriors, now approaching, were their own sons, husbands, or fathers, who had gone forth with Edmund, Thane of Aescendune, to fight under the royal banner of Harold, the ...
— The Rival Heirs being the Third and Last Chronicle of Aescendune • A. D. Crake

... the fatality in "Hamlet," "King Lear," in "Macbeth"? Is its throne not erected in the very centre of the old king's madness, on the lowest degree of the young prince's imagination, at the very summit of the Thane's morbid cravings? Macbeth we may well pass by; not need we linger over Cordelia's father, for his absence of consciousness is all too manifest; but Hamlet, Hamlet the thinker—is he wise? Is the elevation sufficient wherefrom he looks down ...
— Wisdom and Destiny • Maurice Maeterlinck

... presented arms when he arrived; helped him to all Ivanhoe's favorite cuts of the mutton or the turkey, and forced her poor husband to light him to the state bedroom, walking backwards, holding a pair of wax-candles. At this hour of bedtime the Thane used to be in such a condition, that he saw two pair of candles and two Ivanhoes reeling before him. Let us hope it was not Ivanhoe that was reeling, but only his kinsman's brains muddled with the quantities of drink which it was his daily custom to consume. Rowena said it was the crack which the ...
— Burlesques • William Makepeace Thackeray

... Wemyss Castle on our return to Kinghorn. On the left, before descending to the coast, are considerable remains of a castle, called popularly the old castle, or Macduff's Castle. That of the Thane was situated at Kennochquay, at no great distance. The front of Wemyss Castle, to the land, has been stripped entirely of its castellated appearance, and narrowly escaped a new front. To the sea it has a noble situation, overhanging the red rocks; but even there the structure ...
— The Journal of Sir Walter Scott - From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford • Walter Scott

... once more to play a considerable part on the stage. I was born in England, in the reign of Ethelred II. My father's name was Ulnoth: he was earl or thane of Sussex. I was afterwards known by the name of earl Goodwin, and began to make a considerable figure in the world in the time of Harold Harefoot, whom I procured to be made king of Wessex, or the West Saxons, in prejudice of Hardicanute, whose mother Emma endeavored afterwards to set another ...
— From This World to the Next • Henry Fielding

... sleep. He stood long at the window of his cell in a dreamy reverie. The story of the last Thane of Michelham, as related in the Andredsweald, had often been told around the camp fires, and although he was only in his thirteenth year when he left them, it was all distinctly imprinted in his memory. ...
— The House of Walderne - A Tale of the Cloister and the Forest in the Days of the Barons' Wars • A. D. Crake

... London—faces that look as if they deemed the stream of all human happiness flowed only from the Mint,—to such a man, how great the satisfaction, how surpassing the enjoyment of these "last few days!" As with the Thane of Cawdor, every man's face has been a book; but, alas! luckier than Macbeth, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various

... if she be indeed a daughter of Shakespeare's, is the eldest born of that group to which Lady Macbeth and Dionyza belong by right of weird sisterhood. The wives of the thane of Glamis and the governor of Tharsus, it need hardly be said, are both of them creations of a much later date—if not of the very latest discernible or definable stage in the art of Shakespeare. Deeply dyed as she is in bloodguiltiness, the wife of Arden is much ...
— A Study of Shakespeare • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... Sin'el, thane of Glamis, and father of Macbeth. He married the younger daughter of Malcolm II. ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 • E. Cobham Brewer

... of the reign of William, the Norman conqueror, Gamel, the Saxon Thane, Lord of Recedham or "Rached," being left in the quiet possession of his lands and privileges by the usurper, "minded," as the phrase then was, "for the fear of God and the salvation of his immortal soul, to build a ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby

... Wilfrid was founded by Offa, Thane of Aescendune, in the year of the Lord 938, and completed by his son and successor Ella, who was treacherously murdered by his nephew Ragnar, and lies buried within these sacred walls. The first prior was Father Cuthbert, my godfather, after ...
— Alfgar the Dane or the Second Chronicle of Aescendune • A. D. Crake

... edifices are in process of erection that will rank with some of the best in Edinburgh and Glasgow. It has a long and pretentious history, reaching back to the Romans, and dashed with the romance of the wild ages of the country. Oliver Cromwell, or Sledgehammer II., Macbeth, Thane of Cawdor, Queen Mary, Prince Charlie, and other historical celebrities, entered their names and doings on the records of ...
— A Walk from London to John O'Groat's • Elihu Burritt

... Kenneth's issue by Morna or Morba of Lorn was John Mackenzie, II. of Kintail, who was thus, through his mother, third In descent from John, the first Red Comyn, who died in 1273, and sixth from the great Somerled of the Isles, Thane of Argyle, progenitor of the Macdougalls of Lorn and of all the Macdonalds, who died ...
— History Of The Mackenzies • Alexander Mackenzie

... great king; Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky And fan our people cold. Norway himself, with terrible numbers, Assisted by that most disloyal traitor The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict; Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof, Confronted him with self-comparisons, Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm, Curbing his lavish spirit: and, to conclude, The victory fell ...
— Macbeth • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]

... table was visibly baronial. At the head sat the great Thane, with the flower of his family and of the guests about him; then on each side came the neighbors of the "old" house, grading down to vassals and retainers—superintendents, cashiers, heads of departments, and the like—at ...
— The Turmoil - A Novel • Booth Tarkington

... weird, a thane of the Pictish race, had his dwelling near the giddy cliffs where the young eagles scream to the roar of the dark waters of the Forth. He had a daughter whose beauty was the theme of all tongues. Her fame ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume VI • Various

... The life of a Wallus, or Cambricus, homo, who possessed a hyde of land, is fixed at 120 shillings, by the same laws (of Ina, tit. xxxii. in Leg. Anglo-Saxon. p. 20) which allowed 200 shillings for a free Saxon, 1200 for a Thane, (see likewise Leg. Anglo-Saxon. p. 71.) We may observe, that these legislators, the West Saxons and Mercians, continued their British conquests after they became Christians. The laws of the four kings of Kent do not ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 3 • Edward Gibbon

... no more sygnyfyeth To playne vnderstandyng but in euery mane Bothe Sensualyte & Reason applyeth Rather Dethe to flee then with hir to be tane Loo in that poynt accorde they holly thane And in all other they clerely dyscorde Thus is trewly ...
— The Assemble of Goddes • Anonymous

... the Meek reigned King of Scotland there lived a great thane, or lord, called Macbeth. This Macbeth was a near kinsman to the king, and in great esteem at court for his valor and conduct in the wars, an example of which he had lately given in defeating a rebel army assisted by the troops ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles and Mary Lamb

... for Gamelbar! Menthorpe, Bryan, Castelfar! Heave, Thorparch Of the Waving Larch, And Spofford's thane, for Gamelbar! Blaise for Gamel, Brame for Gamel, Rougharlington ...
— Songs from Vagabondia • Bliss Carman and Richard Hovey

... suppose that, between the Treasury and Whitehall, the remote descendant of some Saxon thane occupied a small tenement and garden which stood in the very middle of the ample highway. Suppose further, the property thereabouts being Government property, that the road on either side of this estate had been measured a hundred times, and jealously ...
— The Causes of the Corruption of the Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels • John Burgon

... world in general, and she admired him for the qualities that were most conformable to his inclination. It was no case of hero-worship, to be sure, nor for tragedy; but then what a satisfaction it must be to sweet Lady Macbeth, coiled up on her sofa, to feel that the thane of Cawdor has ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... her (perhaps not on purpose), in a new sort of carriage which he was learning to drive, and the good lady was killed on the spot. She left the fine gentleman two sons,—Joseph Brandon, the present thane,—and a brother some years younger. The elder, being of a fitting age, was sent to school, and somewhat escaped the contagion of the paternal mansion. But the younger Brandon, having only reached his fifth year at the time of his ...
— Paul Clifford, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... his sermon, he schew the great luif of God towardis his Church, whome it pleaseth to foirwarne of dangeris to come so many yearis befoir thei come to pas. 2. He breavelie[479] entraited the estait of the Israelitis, who thane war in bondage in Babylon, for the most parte; and maid a schorte discourse of the foure Impyres, the Babyloniane, the Persiane, that of the Greakis, and the fourte of the Romanes; in the destructioun ...
— The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6) • John Knox

... a few days the cow-herd asked him who he was, and how he came to be wandering about in that distressed and destitute condition. Alfred told him that he was one of the king's thanes. A thane was a sort of chieftain in the Saxon state. He accounted for his condition by saying that Alfred's army had been beaten by the Danes, and that he, with the other generals, had been forced to fly. He begged the cow-herd to conceal him, and to keep the secret of his character until times ...
— King Alfred of England - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott

... immediate object of this notice,—that this island is one of the few spots in the vicinity of Edinburgh that has been rendered classical by the pen of Shakspeare. In the second scene of the opening act of the tragedy of Macbeth, the Thane of Ross comes as a hurried messenger from the field of battle to King Duncan, and reports that Duncan's own rebellious subjects and the invading Scandinavians had both been so completely defeated by his generals, Macbeth and Banquo, that ...
— Archaeological Essays, Vol. 1 • James Y. Simpson

... is the place, do you not, Mr. Thane? This is Pilgrim Station?" The old gentleman spoke to the younger of the two men in front, who, turning, showed the three-quarter view of a tanned, immobile face and the keen side glance of a pair of dense black eyes,—eyes that saw everything and ...
— A Touch Of Sun And Other Stories • Mary Hallock Foote

... Bare vp his arme whane he faught with his wyff: He foonde for haste no better bokeller, Vpon his cheeke the distaff came so neer. [120] Hir name was cleped Tybot Tapister. To brawle and broyle she nad no maner fer, To thakke his pilche stoundemel nowe and thanne Thikker thane Thome ...
— The Disguising at Hertford • John Lydgate

... victory was ascribed to the intercession of St. Andrew and St. Duthak. Our saint, after longing desires of being united to God, passed joyfully to bliss, in 1253. His relics, kept in the collegiate church of Thane, in the county of Ross, were resorted to by pilgrims from all parts of Scotland. Lesley, the pious bishop of Ross, (who, after remaining four years in prison with queen Mary, passed into France, was chosen suffragan of Rouen, by cardinal Bourbon, and ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler

... Professor Freeman does not hesitate to dismiss the story of his existence as "pure fable." But if Sir William of Normandy must fall from the family tree, his place is most creditably taken by Godric, a Saxon Thane, who, as a forefather, is at least as respectable as any ...
— Love Romances of the Aristocracy • Thornton Hall

... children of Thespis are general in their censures of the architect, its having placed the locality of exit at such a distance from the oily irradiators which now dazzle the eyes of him who addresses you. I am, cries the Queen of Terrors, robbed of my fair proportions. When the king-killing Thane hints to the breathless auditory the murders he means to perpetrate, in the castle of Macduff, "ere his purpose cool;" so vast is the interval he has to travel before he can escape from the stage, that his purpose has even time to freeze. Your condition, cries the ...
— Rejected Addresses: or, The New Theatrum Poetarum • James and Horace Smith

... gives an account of the fierce struggle between Saxon and Dane for supremacy in England, and presents a vivid picture of the misery and ruin to which the country was reduced by the ravages of the sea-wolves. The hero, a young Saxon thane, takes part in all the battles fought by King Alfred. He is driven from his home, takes to the sea and resists the Danes on their own element, and being pursued by them up the Seine, is present at the long and desperate ...
— A World of Girls - The Story of a School • L. T. Meade

... eyes in such matters. I have no doubt your cousin is a worthy man and as prosperous a gentleman as the Thane of Cawdor in his prosperous days but probably if he and I came together we shouldn't have a word ...
— The Belton Estate • Anthony Trollope

... sea-soul beats blithe and strong; The black foam-breasters taste Biscayan spray, And where 'neath Polar dawns the narwhals throng:— Free hands, free hearts, for labour and for glee, Or village-moot, when thane with churl unites Beneath the sacred tree; While wisdom tempers force, and bravery leads, Till spears beat Aye! on shields, and words at ...
— The Visions of England - Lyrics on leading men and events in English History • Francis T. Palgrave

... whom he saw drest in a fine suit of clothes, "And what art thou to-night?" Tom answered, "The Thane of Ross[26];" (which it will be recollected is a very inconsiderable character.) ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 4 (of 6) • Boswell



Words linked to "Thane" :   citizen, noble, Scotland, nobleman, thaneship



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