Goði

A goði (plural goðar, feminine gyða, feminine plural gyðar) is a person in a position of political and social prominince within the society of the Norse of Eydraumr. A goði is traditionally responsible for religious structure and communal feasts. It is the goði's responsibility to maintain the hof, or communal hall in which community religious observances or feasts would be held.
The specific office of a goði is their goðorð. While in the past each settlement's goðorð would be separate, they were all eventually united into an organized, codified structure. A particular goðorð was codified as a power that could be inherited, shared, traded, sold, or given.
Citizens were required to pledge to a local goðorð, though they were free to choose which one, and the relationship could be severed from either side. While the goði would be expected to advocate for their citizens and their rights, the citizens would be expected to answer a summons for aid from their goði in order to carry out their legal sentences. The goðorð of Eydraumr have evolved into the role of local judges, clerks, and local government as a whole.
While traditionally goði were only men, the practice of gyða holding a goðorð has become much less unusual. Most goðorður are inherited through familial lines. In modern times, many Völva have moved into goðorð positions to formalize their religious significance into secular law.

Sources:

• Byock, Jesse L. (1993). "Goði". Entry in Medieval Scandinavia, an Encyclopedia (Phillip Pulsiano, ed.), 230–231. Garland: NY and London, ISBN 0-8240-4787-7.
• Klaus Düwel (2008). "Runen als Phänomen der oberen Schichten". Studien zu Literatur, Sprache und Geschichte in Europa. p. 69.
• Aðalsteinsson, Jón Hnefill (1998). "Blót and Þing: The Function of the Tenth-Century Goði", in A Piece of Horse Liver: Myth, Ritual and Folklore in Old Icelandic Sources, 35–56. Reykjavik. ISBN 9979-54-264-0.
• Gunnar Karlsson, Goðamenning. Investigation of the role of the goðar (chieftains) in the Old Commonwealth period. ISBN 9979-3-2553-4. ISK 4990. (2004)

Type

Government