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Anglo-Saxon

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æ
þ

grið

  • noun [ neuter ]
Dictionary links
Grammar
grið, es; n.
peace limited to place or time, truce, protection, security, safety. [The word comes into use during the struggles with the Danes. Icel. grið (v. Cl. and Vig. Dict.) means first home, domicile, then in pl. truce, peace, pardon; friðr is the general word, grið the special, deriving its name from being limited in time or space (asylum)]
Show examples

  • Leófsig ealdorman grið wið hí gesætte

    alderman Leofsig made a truce with them,

      Chr. 1002; Erl. 137, 25.

  • Ðonne nam man grið and frið wið hí

    then was truce and peace made with them,

      1011; Erl. 145, 3, 4.

  • We willaþ wið ðam golde grið fæstnian

    for the gold we will make a truce,

      Byrht. Th. 132, 53; By. 35.

  • Heó gesóhte Baldwines grið

    she sought the protection of Baldwin,

      Chr. 1037; Erl. 167, 3: 1048; Erl. 178, 34: 180, 17, 19.

  • Ðá gyrnde he gríðes and gísla

    then he required security and hostages,

      180, 6: 1095; Erl. 231, 25.

  • Sette man him iv nihta grið

    his safety was secured for four days,

      1046; Erl. 173, 4.

  • Godes grið

    protection belonging to the church,

      Swt. A. S. Rdr. 107, 99.
for the passages in which the word occurs as a technical term in the laws, see Thorpe, index to vol. i. of 'Ancient Laws and Institutes,' s. v. Schmid, p. 585, arranges the several 'griths' under the following heads
Place; churches, private houses, the king's palace and precincts;
Time; fasts and festivals, coronation days, days of public gemots and courts, times when the fyrd is summoned;
Persons; clergy, widows, and nuns. On this word, Stubbs, i. 181, says-'The grith is a limited or localized peace, under the special guarantee of the individual; and differs little from the protection implied in the mund or personal guardianship which appears much earlier; although it may be regarded as another mark of territorial development. When the king becomes the lord, patron, and mundborh of his whole people, they pass from the ancient national peace of which he is the guardian into the closer personal or territorial relation of which he is the source. The peace is now the king's peace; ... the frith is enforced by the national officers, the
grith by the king's personal servants: the one is official, the other personal; the one the business of the country, the other that of the court. The special peace is further extended to places where the national peace is not fully provided for: the great highways ... are under the king's peace.'
Etymology
[A. R. Laym. griþ: Orm. griþþ.]
Derived forms
DER. cyric-, hǽlnes-, hád-, hand-grið.
Entry information
Citation

Bosworth, Joseph. “grið.” In An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online, edited by Thomas Northcote Toller, Christ Sean, and Ondřej Tichy. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014. https://bosworthtoller.com/17550.

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  • grið, n.

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