Brúð-férð

Meaning of Old Norse word "brúð-férð"

As defined by the Cleasby & Vigfusson Old Norse to English dictionary:

brúð-férð

and brúð-för, f. a bride’s journey, Landn. 304, cp. FS. 124, Rd. 255, FmS. iv. 180, Eg. 701, Grág. i. 441 A; as a rule the bridegroom was to carry his bride home, or she was carried home to him, and the wedding feast was held at the house and at the cost of the bridegroom or his parentS. The bride came attended and followed by her bridesmaids, friends, and kinsmen, sometimes a host of men; hence originate the words brúðferð, brúðför, and perhaps even brúðhlaup, etc. ‘Dress the hall! now the bride is to turn homeward with me,’ says the bridegroom-dwarf in the beginning of the poem Alvísmál; so the bride Freyja travels to the wedding at the giant’s, Þkv., cp. Rm. 37;—báðu hennar, ok heim óku, giptu Karli, gékk hón und líni, Ld. ch. 7, Nj. ch. 34, Harð. S. ch. 4, Sturl. iii. 181 sqq. In some cases, to shew deference to the father of the bride, the feast might be held at his house, Nj. ch. 2 (skyldi boð vera at Marðar), ch. 10, 14, Lv. ch. 12; cp. the curious case, Sturl. i. 226. In Icel., where there were no inns, the law ordered that a bride and bridegroom, when on the bride’s journey, had the same right as members of parliament on their journey to the parliament; every farmer was bound to shelter at least six of the party, supposing that the bride or bridegroom was among the number, K. Þ. K. 94. One who turned them out was liable to the lesser outlawry, Grág. i. 441.

Possible runic inscription in Younger Futhark:ᛒᚱᚢᚦ-ᚠᛁᚱᚦ
Younger Futhark runes were used from 8th to 12th centuries in Scandinavia and their overseas settlements