What is "housecarls"

Usage examples of "housecarls".

Eglaf was captain of the Lincoln courtmen or housecarls, whichever the right name may be among those who speak of them.

Only when he came down to the guardroom sometimes with me would he take part in the weapon play that he loved, and the housecarls, who were all tried and good warriors, said that he was their master in the use of every weapon, and it puzzled them to know where he had learned so well, for he yet wore his fisher's garb.

So the housecarls, when they heard how Berthun was wont to treat him, thought also that he was some great man in hiding, and that the steward knew who he was.

When they saw my Norfolk housecarls, they waited no longer, and we only rode down one or two of them.

Good sport enough it was to see the brawny housecarls heave it from the ground and swing it.

And at the end of the hall, crosswise, were the tables for the housecarls, and the men of the house, and of the thanes who were guests.

And as the housecarls came in they hung their shields and weapons on the walls in order, so that they flashed bright from above the hangings that Berthun and his men had set up afresh and more gaily than I had seen yet in this place.

But he did not see the man he meant, and so turned sharply on us two housecarls behind him.

Light up your beacon if he comes, and shut your gates in his face, and I and the housecarls will take him in the rear, and he will not wait here long.

And then he gave us a good guard of his housecarls to take us down the street, as if he feared some danger.

Then the housecarls made a rush, and bore back our men, and the horse reared suddenly.

With him were the earl and Eglaf, and the housecarls, and I sent one to fetch Havelok quickly, that there might be no delay in the words that were to be said.

I saw one or two of Elfric’s housecarls among them, and the rest were the sheriff’s own men, with a few franklins who had joined him on the road.

A little chapel, cross crowned, stood on its left, and the guest house and guard rooms for the housecarls to the right, stretching across the centre of the camp where once the Roman huts had been.

I hold that Offa was not himself thereafter, though none might say that he was aught but as a king should be—not, like the housecarls at the end of the hail, careless of how the unwonted plenty of that feast blinded them and stole their wits.