Pingvellir - 2015
The Vikings established the world's first democratic parliament, The Alping, here in AD930.
A UNESCO World Heritage site, Pingvellir is Iceland's most important historical place.
The site is in a superb natural setting inside an immense fissure-ridden rift valley caused by the separating North American and European tectonic plates.
While legend has it that you can swim and scuba-dive in a chasm between the the two tectonic plates, that is not the case.
This photo is taken from the edge of the North American plate. The mountains in the distance form the start of the European plate.
According to the Book of Settlements (Landnámabók), the settlement of Iceland began in AD 874
when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfur Arnarson became the first permanent Norwegian settler on the island.
Many of Iceland's original settlers had run-ins with royaly back in mainland Scandinavia.
The chancers ond outlaws decided that they could live happily without kings and instead created pings (assemblies) where government and justice could be served.
Eventually a nationwide ping became necessary and this was was the site chosen.
Þingvellir was the centre of Icelandic culture.
Every year during the Commonwealth period, people would flock to Þingvellir from all over the country, sometimes numbering in the thousands.
They set up dwellings with walls of turf and rock and temporary roofing and stayed in them for the two weeks of the assembly.
Although the duties of the assembly were the main reason for going there, ordinary people gathered at Þingvellir for a wide variety of reasons.
Merchants, sword-sharpeners, and tanners would sell their goods and services, entertainers performed, and ale-makers brewed drinks for the assembly guests.
News was told from distant parts; games and feasts were held.
Young people met to make their plans, no less than leading national figures and experts in law.
Itinerant farmhands looked for work and vagrants begged. Þingvellir was a meeting place for everyone in Iceland, laying the foundation for the language
and literature that have been a prominent part of people's lives right up to the present day.
The Alþingi was Iceland's legislative and chief judicial authority for the duration of the Commonwealth, until 1271.
Executive power was in the hands of the chieftains and parties to individual cases.
This proved to be quite an adequate arrangement for as long as the balance of power remained, but flaws emerged when it was disrupted.
In the final decades of the Commonwealth there were clashes between chieftain families, which resulted in Iceland coming under the Norwegian crown. Executive power was strengthened under this new order, while legislative and judicial authority remained in the hands of the Alþingi
but was gradually transferred to the Norwegian and later Danish rulers until the King of Denmark became an absolute monarch of Iceland in 1662.
The Vikings established the world's first democratic parliament, The Alping, here in AD930.
A UNESCO World Heritage site, Pingvellir is Iceland's most important historical place.
The site is in a superb natural setting inside an immense fissure-ridden rift valley caused by the separating North American and European tectonic plates.
While legend has it that you can swim and scuba-dive in a chasm between the the two tectonic plates, that is not the case.
This photo is taken from the edge of the North American plate. The mountains in the distance form the start of the European plate.
According to the Book of Settlements (Landnámabók), the settlement of Iceland began in AD 874
when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfur Arnarson became the first permanent Norwegian settler on the island.
Many of Iceland's original settlers had run-ins with royaly back in mainland Scandinavia.
The chancers ond outlaws decided that they could live happily without kings and instead created pings (assemblies) where government and justice could be served.
Eventually a nationwide ping became necessary and this was was the site chosen.
Þingvellir was the centre of Icelandic culture.
Every year during the Commonwealth period, people would flock to Þingvellir from all over the country, sometimes numbering in the thousands.
They set up dwellings with walls of turf and rock and temporary roofing and stayed in them for the two weeks of the assembly.
Although the duties of the assembly were the main reason for going there, ordinary people gathered at Þingvellir for a wide variety of reasons.
Merchants, sword-sharpeners, and tanners would sell their goods and services, entertainers performed, and ale-makers brewed drinks for the assembly guests.
News was told from distant parts; games and feasts were held.
Young people met to make their plans, no less than leading national figures and experts in law.
Itinerant farmhands looked for work and vagrants begged. Þingvellir was a meeting place for everyone in Iceland, laying the foundation for the language
and literature that have been a prominent part of people's lives right up to the present day.
The Alþingi was Iceland's legislative and chief judicial authority for the duration of the Commonwealth, until 1271.
Executive power was in the hands of the chieftains and parties to individual cases.
This proved to be quite an adequate arrangement for as long as the balance of power remained, but flaws emerged when it was disrupted.
In the final decades of the Commonwealth there were clashes between chieftain families, which resulted in Iceland coming under the Norwegian crown. Executive power was strengthened under this new order, while legislative and judicial authority remained in the hands of the Alþingi
but was gradually transferred to the Norwegian and later Danish rulers until the King of Denmark became an absolute monarch of Iceland in 1662.
