Althing (930): Iceland's Parliament at Thingvellir

The Althing (Alþingi), Iceland’s general assembly, first met around 930 at Þingvellir, a lava plain in the south-west of the island. Every summer free men from across Iceland gathered there to make law, settle disputes and decide matters that concerned the whole community. For more than three centuries this assembly, together with local chieftains, governed Iceland without any king, and its successor is still Iceland’s parliament today.

Background: a new society without a king

Iceland was settled from about 870, mainly by Norwegians and by people from the Norse communities of the British Isles, including many enslaved or free Gaels. The settlement of Iceland is traditionally dated from Ingólfr Arnarson’s farm at Reykjavík in 874.

Settlers brought with them the Scandinavian custom of the “thing”, an open-air assembly of free men. Local things met in various districts, but within two generations the population was large enough that disputes between districts needed a common forum. There was no king or central authority to impose one.

According to Ari Þorgilsson’s Íslendingabók, written around 1122–1133, a man named Úlfljótr was sent to Norway to study law and returned with a code based largely on the law of the Gulathing in western Norway. His foster-brother Grímr geitskór (“goat-shoe”) is said to have searched the island for a suitable meeting place. The site chosen became Þingvellir, “the plains of the assembly”.

How the Althing worked

The Althing met once a year for about two weeks in June. People travelled for days on horseback and lived in turf-walled booths, temporary shelters roofed with cloth during the meeting. Alongside the legal business there was trade, feasting, marriage negotiations and news.

Power lay with the goðar (singular goði), chieftains who each led a following of farmers called thingmen. Originally there were 36 chieftaincies; reforms around 965 divided the island into four Quarters and raised the number to 39, with some later adjustments. A farmer could in principle choose which goði to follow.

The main bodies were:

• The Lögrétta (Law Council): the chieftains and their advisers, who decided what the law was and approved new laws and exemptions.
• The Quarter Courts: four courts, set up around 965, that heard cases from each Quarter.
• The Fifth Court: created around 1005 as a court of appeal for cases the Quarter Courts could not settle.

Each district also held its own spring assembly, where local cases could be heard first. Disputes that could not be settled locally were brought to Þingvellir, and many saga lawsuits describe chieftains gathering armed supporters there to strengthen their case.

The assembly had no army or police. A court could declare someone an outlaw, but enforcement depended on the winning side and its allies. This system worked for long periods, though it also produced the long feuds recorded in the sagas.

The law-speaker and the Law Rock

The most distinctive office was that of the law-speaker (lögsögumaður), elected for a three-year term. From the Lögberg, or Law Rock, he recited the laws aloud, one third each summer, so that the whole code was heard during his term. He also announced the procedures of the session and advised people on the law.

Until the early twelfth century Icelandic law was not written down, so the law-speaker served as the community’s legal memory. In the winter of 1117–1118 the laws were first committed to writing, and the surviving medieval law collection is known as Grágás (“Grey Goose”).

The exact site of the Law Rock is uncertain. The spot marked today by a flagpole was identified in the nineteenth century, and earlier locations have also been proposed.

The conversion to Christianity, 999 or 1000

The Althing’s most famous decision concerned religion. Around 1000 the Christian king of Norway, Olaf Tryggvason, was pressing Iceland to convert and held several sons of Icelandic chieftains as hostages. At the Althing that summer the Christian and pagan parties declared they would no longer live under the same law, which threatened to split the island.

Both sides agreed to let the law-speaker, Þorgeirr Ljósvetningagoði, decide, even though he was himself a pagan. According to Ari, Þorgeirr lay under his cloak for a day and a night without speaking. He then ruled that everyone should be baptised and follow one law, because dividing the law would divide the peace.

The compromise allowed, for a time, the private worship of the old gods, the eating of horse flesh and the exposure of unwanted infants. These exceptions were abolished a few years later. Ari dates the conversion to 1000, though some scholars argue for 999 based on his chronology.

Decline and loss of independence

In the thirteenth century power became concentrated in a few great families, and violent rivalry between them marked the period known as the Age of the Sturlungs. Between 1262 and 1264 the Icelanders accepted the authority of King Haakon IV of Norway in an agreement often called the Old Covenant.

The Althing continued to meet, but it now worked under royal law codes, Járnsíða (1271) and then Jónsbók (1281), and lost most of its law-making role. The office of law-speaker was replaced by royal law officers. After 1380 Iceland passed with Norway under the Danish crown. The assembly met at Þingvellir for the last time in 1798 and was abolished by royal decree in 1800.

Revival and legacy

During the nineteenth-century national movement, the Althing was restored as an advisory assembly by a Danish royal decree of 1843 and met in Reykjavík from 1845. It gained legislative powers in 1874, when Iceland received its own constitution. On 17 June 1944 the Republic of Iceland was proclaimed at Þingvellir.

The site became Iceland’s first national park in 1930, the assembly’s thousandth anniversary, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. Þingvellir is also known for its geology: it lies in a rift valley where the North American and Eurasian plates are slowly moving apart.

The Althing’s system of law and assembly shaped the Norse societies founded from Iceland, including the Norse settlement of Greenland, which had its own assembly. Its legal culture also underlies the Icelandic sagas, many of which centre on lawsuits at the Althing.

Myths and facts

• Myth: the Althing was a democracy. Only free men took part, and real power lay with a few dozen chieftains. Women, slaves and the poor had no voice.
• Myth: it has met without a break since 930. It was abolished from 1800 to 1845, and for centuries before that it had little legislative power.
• Fact: Iceland had no king for over three centuries. From about 930 to 1262–1264 the Althing and the chieftains provided the only common government.

Timeline

• c. 870–874: Norse settlement of Iceland begins.
• c. 930: The first Althing meets at Þingvellir.
• c. 965: Iceland is divided into Quarters with Quarter Courts.
• 999 or 1000: The Althing adopts Christianity.
• c. 1005: The Fifth Court is created.
• 1117–1118: The laws are first written down.
• 1262–1264: Icelanders accept the rule of the Norwegian king.
• 1800: The Althing is abolished.
• 1845: The restored Althing meets in Reykjavík.
• 1944, 17 June: The Republic of Iceland is proclaimed at Þingvellir.

Why it matters

The Althing shows how a medieval society without a king could organise law and justice through an annual assembly. Its decision of 999 or 1000 converted a whole country to Christianity peacefully, and its revival in the nineteenth century gave Iceland a powerful symbol of national identity.