Note 29 — THE PRETENDERS (1863)

Bishop Nicholas’s speech, “Nu slår jeg bonden, herre jarl,” means literally, “Now I strike (or slay) the peasant”; the pawn being called in Norwegian “bonde,” peasant, as in German “Bauer.” Thus in this speech and the next the Bishop and the Earl are girding at Dagfinn the Peasant. [Our own word “pawn” comes from the Spanish peon = a foot-soldier or day-labourer.]