Dictionary

ring-hall en · NOUN

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (literary, qualifier:kenning) An Anglo-Saxon mead hall.
   • 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. 2011, Alvin A. Lee, Gold-Hall and Earth-Dragon, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, page 165:
   • Heorot is cleansed, the bright ringhall[.] 1983, Constance Hieatt, Beowulf and Other Old English Poems, New York: Bantam, page 34:
   • When I first landed I proceeded to the ring-hall and saluted Hrothgar. 1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 64:
   • 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. 1843, J.M. Kemble, The Poetry of the Codex Vercellensis, London: Æfric Society, page 96:

Forms