ring-hall

English

Etymology

Calque of Old English hringsele, from hring (“ring”) + sele (“hall”).

Noun

ring-hall (plural ring-halls)

  1. (kenning, literary) An Anglo-Saxon mead hall.
    • 1843, J.M. Kemble, The Poetry of the Codex Vercellensis, London: Æfric Society, page 96:
      the joy of halls to the men
      and hoarded treasure,
      the bright ring-halls,
      and for himself a ship
      on the sea-shore
      would seek.
    • 1983, Constance Hieatt, Beowulf and Other Old English Poems, New York: Bantam, page 34:
      Heorot is cleansed, the bright ringhall[.]
    • 1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 64:
      When I first landed
      I proceeded to the ring-hall and saluted Hrothgar.
    • 2011, Alvin A. Lee, Gold-Hall and Earth-Dragon, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, page 165:
      In the midst of this imago mundi, in this enclosing and protecting ring-hall of the people favoured by God and their king, is situated the gift-throne from which the lord of the rings circulates treasures among the dryht men.
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