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Althing
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Wide view of the first Viking parliament meeting site in Iceland, showing red-roofed buildings, a winding river, green fields, and distant mountains with snow patches.
Quick Facts
Icelandic:
Alþingi
Also spelled:
Althingi
Date:
1845 - present
c. 930 - 1798
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External Websites
Wide view of the first Viking parliament meeting site in Iceland, showing red-roofed buildings, a winding river, green fields, and distant mountains with snow patches.
Thingvellir Thingvellir, the historical site of the first Althing (Icelandic parliament), is now part of a national park near Reykjavík.

Althing

Icelandic government
Also known as: Althingi
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

Althing, unicameral legislature of Iceland. Founded at Thingvellir in southwestern Iceland c. 930, the Althing is one of the oldest national parliaments in the world.

While things, representative assemblies of freemen, were widespread throughout medieval Scandinavia, the Althing represented the first such body to exercise legislative power at the national level. The Althing met at Thingvellir from c. 930 to 1798, but it was abolished by decree of the Danish crown in 1800. The Althing was reconvened in Reykjavík in 1845, and it remained there, with the exception of a special session in Thingvellir that proclaimed the establishment of the Icelandic republic on June 17, 1944.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Jeff Wallenfeldt.