In
Anglo-Saxon and post-Anglo-Saxon culture, the term has a considerably broader scope and meaning.
Frith has a great deal to do not only with the state of peace but also with the nature of social relationships conducive to peace. Moreover, it has strong associations with stability and security. The word
friþgeard, meaning "asylum,
sanctuary" was used for sacrosanct areas. A
friþgeard would then be any enclosed area given over to the worship of the gods. Seating oneself on a
frith-stool was sometimes a requirement for claiming
sanctuary in certain English churches.
Frith is also used in the context of
fealty, as an expression of the relationship between a lord and his people.
Frith is inextricably related to the state of
kinship, which is perhaps the strongest indicator of
frith. In this respect, the word can be coterminous with another significant Anglo-Saxon root-word,
sib (from which the word 'sibling' is derived) - indeed the two are frequently interchanged. In this context,
frith goes further than expressing blood ties, and encompasses all the concomitant benefits and duties which kinship engenders. As early as the rule of
Æthelstan in 930 AD,
frith-guilds were responsible for maintaining the peace under law in England,
particularly in
London. Later, this concept expanded to a sort of mutual defence, such as in
Berwick-upon-Tweed. In the post-
conquest poem
Rime of King William, a
deorfrið (literally animal-
frith) referred to one of the
royal forests set up by
William the Conqueror, probably the
New Forest. Stefan Jurasinski argued that
frið here could have carried the legal notion of protection (Latin:
pax). == See also ==