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Vikings raided monasteries to feed demand for eunuchs in the east, historian finds.
In Byzantium and the Abbasid Caliphate there was great demand for eunuchs – a new study suggests this demand was being met by the Vikings raiding monasteries in northwestern Europe.
Earlier studies have indicated that during the Early Middle Ages one of the main trade goods going from Western Europe to Byzantium and the Middle East was human slaves. Valente writes that the Vikings fulfilled a niche demand within this industry by targeting boys and young men in their raids. They could be sent to places such as Venice, where they would be castrated and shipped off eastwards.
Historical records point to examples of this slave trade taking place – such as a 10th century biography of St.Nian tells the story of 200 churchmen who were captured by the Vikings and taken to the slave markets in Venice. Valente writes, “religious men were being captured and were being sold through centers where castration was being practiced regularly, and records exist of large numbers of young men being sold specifically as eunuchs, suggesting that some slaves may have been taken for precisely that purpose – feeding the eastern markets for young, educated castrates.”
http://www.medievalists.net/2013/07/31/the-viking-slave-trade-and-eunuchs-in-the-east/
