landfæsten

From land (“land”) +‎ fæsten (“fortified place”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɑndˌfæs.ten/

landfæsten n

1. a fortified place on land
2. a pass
   • late 9th century, translation of Orosius’ History Against the Pagans

     Leoniða, Læcedemonia cyning, Crēca byrġ, hæfde IIII þūsend monna, þā hē anġēan Xersis fōr, on ānum nearwan londfæstenne; ⁊ him þǣr mid ġefeohte wiðstōd.

     Leonidas, king of Sparta, a Greek city, had four thousand men, when he marched against Xerxes, in a narrow fortified pass; and stood against him in battle.

Strong a-stem:

• Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller (1898) “land-fæsten”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.