Thing assembly: Encyclopedia II - Thing assembly - Viking and medieval society

Thing assembly - Viking and medieval society

In the pre-Christian clan-culture of Scandinavia the members of a clan were obliged to avenge injuries against their dead and mutilated relatives. A balancing structure was necessary to reduce tribal feuds and avoid social anarchy. We know from the North-Germanic cultures the balancing institution was the thing although similar assemblies are reported also from other Germanic peoples.

The thing was the assembly of the free men of a country, province or a hundred (hundare/härad/herred). There were consequently, hierarchies of things, so that the local things were represented at the thing for a larger area, for a province or land. At the thing, disputes were solved and political decisions were made. The place for the thing was often also the place for public religious rites and for commerce.

The thing met at regular intervals, legislated, elected chieftains and kings, and judged according to the law, which was memorized and recited by the "law speaker" (the judge). The thing's negotiations were presided over by the law speaker and the chieftain or the king. In reality the thing was of course dominated by the most influential members of the community, the heads of clans and wealthy families, but in theory one-man one-vote was the rule. A famous incident took place when Þorgnýr the Lawspeaker told the Swedish king Olof Skötkonung that it was the people that held power in Sweden and not the king. The king realized that he was powerless against the thing and gave in.

The island of Gotland, as an example, had in late medieval time twenty things, each represented at the island-thing called landsting by its elected judge. New laws were decided at the landsting, which also took other decisions regarding the island as a whole. The landsting's authority was successively eroded after the island was occupied by the Teutonic Order in 1398. In late medieval times the thing-court consisted of twelve representatives for the farmers, free-holders or tenants.

The assembly of the thing was typically held at a specially designated place, often a field or common, like þingvellir, the old location of the Icelandic Thing. The parliament of the Isle of Man is still named after the meeting place of the thing, Tynwald, which etymologically is the same word as "þingvellir". Other equivalent placenames can be found across northern Europe; in the United Kingdom, there is Dingwall in Ross-shire; Tingwall, occurring both in Orkney and Shetland; and Thingwall on the Wirral. Similarly in Sweden, there are several places named Tingvalla, which is the modern Swedish form of "þingvellir".

In the Yorkshire and former Danelaw areas of England, which were subject to much Norse invasion and settlement, wapentakes (another name for the same institution) were, until recently, still used in public records. Several places ending in the "by"(village) placename suffix originally possessed their own law (bylaw) and jurisdiction subject to the wapentake in which they served, which often extended over a surrounding ground called a "thorpe" (hamlet). If there was a riding surrounding the wapentake, the wapentake would merely be a local assembly coordinating the power of the Riding, which in Jorvik's case, would be under the king's command at what is now King's Square in York. The Kingdom of East Anglia was in control of the Danelaw which had been organised as the Five Boroughs. Those Five were martial law fortresses defending land against Wessex, or against the Vikings, depending on who ruled there; together with Lindsey, which was divided into three ridings like Yorkshire.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Viking and medieval society", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki