Þingvellir - the parliament plain where continents collide – Monday 24 June

I rented a car and drove us out to the most important historic site in Iceland. The AlÞingi or Althing, the Icelandic parliament begun in 930, met at this stunning natural amphitheatre, formed at the meeting point of the North American and European/Asian tectonic plates. The Summer AlÞingi was a two week gathering at the time of the Solstice.  At it all law cases were heard and decided upon by a Law Speaker, a man charged to learn and recite all the laws. He recited one third of them each year, and used his knowledge to judge the innumerable disputes brought before him. Not that his word was Law in all instances; there was plenty of bloodshed at the Þingvellir as well. But generally Icelanders, having early decided they would have no king (they escaped Norway to get away from one) and wishing have the Law above all men, were successful in creating an early republic. 

It was at Þingvellir in the year 999 or 1000 that the Law Speaker Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði decreed, after arising from a trance state, that Iceland should accept Christianity and forsake the Old Gods. (It must be understood that this was a decision not made without duress. The King of Norway, Olafr Tryggvason, a violently zealous convert, was threatening to murder or mutilate a large number of young Icelandic men held as hostages in Norway if the country refused to convert.) The decision to accept Christianity was made by Þorgeir and accepted by the massed attendants. Two exceptions to the general Christian rule were allowed, however: Icelanders could continue to eat horsemeat, and continue to practice infant exposure. Both of these practices can be traced to the hardships of survival, and the eating of horsemeat might also relate to the worship of the mighty fertility God Freyr who had many ardent followers in Iceland and who was closely associated with horses.