Njals Saga

Icelandic settlers first established regional assemblies to arbitrate disputes. However, as their population increased, they also created a larger, parliamentary body and gathering called the Althing. The Althing and the district assemblies were sites of judicial action—in Njal’s Saga, many lawsuits are initiated here—and also of legislation. Regional chieftains, or godis, oversaw much of the legislative action through the body called the Law Council. Freemen from across Iceland attended to hear the lawspeaker recite the code of law and hear public initiation of suits at the Law Rock, an elevated slope at the Althing site. The Althing, for instance, is the body that declared Christianity the religion of Iceland in 1000, as recounted in Njal’s Saga.

The Althing was also a major site of social occasions; the saga indicates that marriage arrangements were often made here, and alliances were built. For example, Gunnar negotiates his marriage to Hallgerd at the Althing. Conflicting parties also reached settlements at the Althing and prosecuted lawsuits. For instance, Njal and Gunnar negotiate compensation (in the form of a cash payment) at the Althing for various retaliatory slayings of their servants, orchestrated by their wives. It is also at the Althing that Gunnar is prosecuted for murder and made an outlaw; it is also where Flosi and his co-conspirators are prosecuted for Njal’s burning.

Cases at the Althing were judged in four “quarter courts,” based on the region. The chieftains appointed 36 officials to each court and their judgments required unanimity. Yet, at around 1005, the Fifth Court was created as an appeals court that heard cases left unsettled by the Quarter Courts. Njal’s Saga states that Njal developed and successfully promoted the concept of the Fifth Court. Other extant sources, however, dispute his role in its creation.

In June, an annual Althing meeting took place over a two-week period at a designated site with a natural amphitheater called Thingvellir (“Thing Fields” or “Thing Plains”), near modern Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik. Here, attendees encamped at temporary booths designated for specific kin groups. Archeologists have discovered the remnants of the walls of some of these booths at the site. Njal and his sons, as well as Gunnar and his family, for instance, are both reported in the saga to have booths at the gathering. The Icelanders banned fighting at the Althing, though a raging Battle of the Althing erupted in the aftermath of Njal’s burning, thus desecrating what was practically sacred ground.