Origins
The Thing (Old Norse: þing) was the assembly institution of Norse and wider Germanic societies, serving as the primary venue for lawmaking, dispute resolution, and political deliberation among free men. Archaeological and linguistic evidence suggests the institution’s roots extend to the pre-Roman Iron Age, with cognate terms appearing across Germanic languages (German Ding, English “thing” as in “Hustings”). By the Viking Age (c. 793-1066 CE), the Thing had developed into a sophisticated system of nested assemblies operating at local, regional, and national levels.
The Thing emerged from the social organization of Germanic peoples, where free farmers (bóndi) held political rights and collective decision-making occurred through assembly. Unlike Mediterranean city-states centered on urban spaces, Scandinavian societies organized around dispersed farmsteads connected by kinship and regional identity. The Thing provided the periodic gathering point where these scattered communities assembled to conduct business requiring collective action: resolving disputes, outlawing criminals, recognizing kings, and responding to external threats.
The institution’s archaeological traces include assembly sites (þingvellir) marked by distinctive features: raised platforms or mounds for speakers, boundary stones, and locations at natural communication nodes. Sites like Thingvellir in Iceland, Tynwald on the Isle of Man, and the Swedish law-mounds preserve physical evidence of Thing assemblies. Runic inscriptions and later saga literature describe Thing procedures in detail, though scholars debate how accurately medieval sources reflect earlier practices.
Structure & Function
The Thing operated at multiple levels of Scandinavian society. Local Things (héraðsþing) met frequently to handle disputes and minor matters among neighboring communities. Regional Things (lögsþing or landsting) assembled annually or at longer intervals to address issues affecting larger areas and to promulgate or confirm law. In some regions, overarching assemblies emerged: Iceland’s Althing (established 930 CE), the Norwegian Gulating and Frostating, and the Danish landstings served as supreme assemblies for entire populations.
Procedurally, the Thing combined elements of democratic participation with aristocratic leadership. Free men had the right to attend, speak, and vote—often by acclamation or showing of weapons (vápnatak). However, chieftains (goðar in Iceland) and leading farmers dominated proceedings through their larger followings, wealth, and speaking ability. The lawspeaker (lögsögumaður) held a crucial role: memorizing the entire law code and reciting it over three years, preserving legal tradition before written records. This oral legal culture required substantial collective memory and gave lawspeakers considerable interpretive authority.
Dispute resolution at the Thing followed formal procedures designed to prevent blood feud while allowing honorable settlement. Parties presented their cases, called witnesses, and submitted to judgment by the assembly or designated arbitrators. Penalties included compensation payments calibrated to the injury and the victim’s status, lesser outlawry (exile from the local district), and full outlawry (complete legal protection withdrawn). The system emphasized restoration and compensation over punishment, though it maintained escalating sanctions for those who refused settlement or repeated offenses.
Historical Significance
The Thing represents one of history’s most developed systems of participatory governance before modern democracy. While participation was limited to free men (excluding slaves, and effectively marginalizing poorer free men), the institution established principles of public deliberation, law by consent, and limitations on executive power that would influence later democratic development. The Icelandic Althing, traditionally founded in 930 CE and meeting continuously until 1800, is sometimes called the world’s oldest parliament, though this claim requires qualification given the Althing’s medieval character.
Viking expansion carried the Thing institution across the North Atlantic and into the lands of Norse settlement. The Faroe Islands (Løgting), Orkney, Shetland, and the Hebrides developed local Things. The Isle of Man’s Tynwald, established in the late 10th century and still meeting annually at its original site, demonstrates the institution’s remarkable persistence. In the Danelaw regions of England, Thing influence shaped local government terminology and practice—the “wapentake” division of northern English counties derives from vápnatak, the weapon-brandishing that signified assent.
The Thing’s legacy extends beyond direct institutional continuity to broader influence on constitutional thought. Nineteenth-century nationalists in Scandinavia celebrated the Thing as evidence of indigenous democratic traditions predating modern liberalism. More substantively, the Thing’s procedures—public assembly, oral pleading, judgment by peers, law requiring communal consent—contributed to the broader Germanic legal tradition that would shape English common law and continental European practices. The institution demonstrates that sophisticated mechanisms for collective governance emerged independently of Mediterranean classical traditions, offering alternative models for organizing political life.
Key Developments
- c. 500 BCE: Thing-type assemblies likely exist among Germanic peoples; archaeological evidence limited
- 98 CE: Tacitus describes Germanic assemblies in Germania, confirming assembly tradition
- c. 600-700 CE: Regional Things consolidated in Scandinavia; Gulating (Norway) possibly established
- c. 800-850 CE: Viking expansion begins; Thing institutions spread to North Atlantic colonies
- c. 862 CE: Varangians establish rule in Rus’; adapted assembly practices continue
- c. 900 CE: Gulating law code formalized in Norway
- 930 CE: Althing established in Iceland at Thingvellir; creation of Icelandic Free State
- c. 979 CE: Tynwald established on Isle of Man; continuous meeting tradition begins
- c. 1000 CE: Christianity officially adopted at Althing; peaceful conversion of Iceland
- 1117 CE: Icelandic laws first written down; end of purely oral legal tradition
- 1262-1264 CE: Iceland submits to Norwegian crown; Althing continues but with reduced autonomy
- c. 1350 CE: Black Death devastates Scandinavia; disruption to Thing assemblies
- 1523 CE: Swedish Riksdag emerges from medieval Thing traditions
- 1800 CE: Althing suspended by Danish authorities during administrative reforms
- 1843 CE: Althing reconvened as consultative assembly; beginning of modern parliamentary development
- 1944 CE: Iceland declares independence at Thingvellir; symbolic return to founding site