mead hall

plural mead halls

1. A large communal building used in early Germanic and Norse societies as a place for feasting, drinking, socializing, and governance, serving also as the residence of a chieftain or king and symbolising the heart of the community or tribe.

   I have [...] stopped on my way home at the mead halls of the Franks across the sea.

   1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 18

   1 more example

   he handed down orders for men to work on a great mead-hall meant to be a wonder of the world forever.

   1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 5