For the Australian rules footballer, see James Hird. The hird, in Norwegian history, was originally an informal retinue of personal armed companionsFor this Germanic tradition the German generic term Gefolgschaft 'body of followers' is also used in modern literature; it was even adopted by powerful Romans in the late empire, by such Latin names as bucellarii or the more common comitatus., hirdmen or housecarls, but came to mean not only the nucleus ('Guards') of the royal army, but also developed into a more formal royal court household.The term came from Old Norse "hirð", again from either Old English hir[1]d/heard/hird/hurd or old German heirat 'marriage', both of which can mean "body of men". While the term is often used in Norse sagas and law codes, it is a medieval term - the sagas were primarily written down in the 12th century using the language of their own time. There is some uncertainty as to what the term replaced, although the term hlid or Lið is used in Danish sources

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hird
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