doomstead

plural doomsteads

1. historicalAn Ancient Scandinavian public meeting for passing judgement and making group decisions; thing (public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country)

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

   1897, The Younger Edda: Also Called Snorre's Edda, Or the Prose Edda, page 73

   2 more examples

   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.

   1935, The Earliest Norwegian Laws, page 376

   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.

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