Iceland founds the Althing

Settlers in Iceland set up an assembly called the Althing, which met outdoors at Thingvellir. Chieftains gathered each summer to make laws and settle disputes.

The founding date is traditionally given as about 930. It was abolished by Danish decree in 1800 and revived in 1845.

Context

Þingvellir means Assembly Plains and lies beside the river Öxará in southwest Iceland. For two weeks each summer, free Icelanders travelled there from across the country to settle legal disputes and conduct public business. Visitors still see the site of the Lögberg, the Law Rock.

The lawspeaker stood on the Lögberg and recited the laws to the gathering. The law council, Lögrétta, was the legislative body and the assembly's supreme institution during the Commonwealth period, which ran from 930 to 1262. Britannica calls it the first medieval Scandinavian assembly with national legislative power.

Iceland converted to Christianity in the year 1000, and laws were among the first things written down afterwards. The assembly met at Þingvellir until about 1798, and the Danish crown abolished it by decree in 1800. It was revived in 1845 and moved to Reykjavík.

The one later exception to that move came in 1944, when a session at Þingvellir declared the Icelandic republic. Because of the gap between 1800 and 1845, claims that the Althing is the oldest parliament depend on how continuity is counted, and the founding date of about 930 is traditional rather than precisely recorded.