Thing (assembly)
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A thing (Old Norse and Icelandic: þing; other modern Scandinavian: ting) was the governing assembly in Germanic societies, made up of the free men of the community and presided by lawspeakers. Today the term lives on in the official names of national legislatures, political and judicial institutions in the North-Germanic countries. The English word 'thing', meaning "object" is also derived from this; the evolution having been roughly "assembly" → "court" → "case" → "business" → "purpose" → "object". The German Tag (day, as in Bundestag the German parliament or Tagung) is called so because things were held at daylight and often lasted all day.
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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 as the thing although similar assemblies are reported also from other Germanic peoples.
The thing was the assembly of the free men of a wapentake or hundred (hundare/härad/herred). Hierarchies of things could exist, 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 judged according to the law, memorized and recited by the "law speaker" (the judge). The thing's negotiations were presided over by the law speaker or the chieftain. 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.
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 time 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 Scotland, there is Dingwall in Highland and Tingwall, occurring both in Orkney and Shetland. 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.
National parliaments and current institutions
The national parliaments of Iceland, Norway and Denmark all have names that incorporate thing:
- Alþingi - The Icelandic General Thing
- Folketing - The Danish People's Thing
- Storting - The Norwegian Great Thing
The parliaments of the self-governing territories of Åland, Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Isle of Man also have names that refer to thing.
- Lagting - The Åland Law Thing
- Løgting - The Faroese Law Thing
- Landsting - The Green Land Thing
- Tynwald - The Manx Thing
The Swedish national parliament, since medieval times, has borne a different style, Riksdag, which is cognate to the old name of the German national assembly, Reichstag. In Sweden ting is however used to name the subnational county councils, which are called Landsting. That name was also used in medieval times for the tings that governed the historical Landskap provinces, that were superseded by the Counties in the 17th century. The name ting is also found in the names of the first level instances of the Swedish and Finnish court system, which are called Tingsrätt (Finnish: käräjäoikeus), the Court of the Thing.
Folkting is also the name of the Swedish Assembly of Finland, a semi-official body representing the Swedish-speaking population.
See also
- Politics of Denmark
- Politics of Iceland
- Politics of Norway
- Politics of Sweden
- Politics of Finland
- Politics of Åland
- Politics of the Faroe Islands
- Politics of Greenland
- Politics of the Isle of Man
Related articles
References
- Nordic FAQ (http://www.lysator.liu.se/nordic/scn/faq727.html) of soc.culture.nordic (with permission)de:Thing