The Way It Was

If you have read any Norse sagas you have come across "thing meets," the periodic gatherings of landowners that addressed neighborhood problems and dispensed rugged justice. Norwegian emigres to Iceland brought the concept to their new home, and most of us know Iceland's Althing is the oldest parliamentary body in Europe. But those same emigres left Norway to escape the depredations of kings, jarls, hersirs, and judges of all kinds. Quite intentionally, they refused to give their Althing enforcement powers. People unable to settle their own disputes were welcome to bring a problem to the Althing for judgement. Decisions might involve substantial fines, banishment, and even declarations of outlawry, but executing any decision was left to the party who brought the matter to court in the first place. And that might involve significant effort and risk.

Could this kind of justice really work? Iceland's unique Althing lasted almost four hundred years because it accepted extra-judicial activity as unavoidable and, to some extent, necessary for effective governance. The short sagas in this collection illustrate how the system functioned from the earliest days of the commonwealth until its incorporation within the Norwegian kingdom in the thirteenth century.