doomstead

English

Noun

doomstead (plural doomsteads)

1. (historical) An Ancient Scandinavian public meeting for passing judgement and making group decisions; thing (public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country)
   • 1897, The Younger Edda: Also Called Snorre's Edda, Or the Prose Edda, page 73:

     The third root of ash is in heaven, and beneath it is the most sacred fountain of Urd. Here the gods have their doomstead.

   • 1935, The Earliest Norwegian Laws, page 376:

     And the plaintiff shall set his doom over against [that of] the defendant after a space of five nights at the proper doomstead, whether he [the defendant] is there or not; and let the doom be set and held and let the men wait till midday. And when the midday is past, the plaintiff shall summon the defendant to a wager doom at the proper doomstead after a space of five nights.

   • 1940, Henry Binkley Stein, Thirty Thousand Gods Before Jehovah, page 63:

     There were many gardens and many gods with a central home or doomstead where judgment was given to all the gods and where they swore allegiance as mentioned in the story of the island of Poseidon.

Anagrams

• doomsdate