meginörðum

Meginörðum is an Icelandic term that appears in discussions of rural landholding as a descriptive label for a set of principal estates within a district. The word is formed from megin-, meaning "principal" or "main," and örð/jörð, meaning "land," "farm," or "estate." In this construction, meginörðum would refer to the main farms or strategically important estates that dominated a landscape or parish.

Attestation of the form in primary medieval sources is limited, and it is not recognized as a formal legal category in standard Icelandic law. Because the form and its inflection can vary, meginörðum is often encountered in modern or secondary discussions as a label rather than an official title. Some scholars use the term to describe a grouping of large holdings associated with a single family or local power center, but such usage is not universal.

Geographically, the concept would be tied to rural organization, potentially reflecting how wealth and influence were concentrated in certain farms within an goð or goðorð. In contemporary writing, meginörðum may appear in genealogical histories or regional surveys as a generic description of major estates, rather than a fixed institution. The term’s precise meaning remains unsettled and heavily dependent on contextual interpretation.