Read aloud by your device's voice. It sounds different on each device.
The Althing
The Althing met at Þingvellir from 930 until 1798
Þingvellir was the site of the Alþing, the annual parliament of Iceland, from the year 930 until the last session held there in 1798. The name means assembly fields. Since 1881 the parliament has been in Reykjavík.
Law Rock
The Lawspeaker recited the law from the Law Rock for three summers
The Lögberg, or Law Rock, was the focal point of the Alþingi and a natural platform for speeches. The Lawspeaker, elected for three years, presided and recited the law of the land. Before the law was written down, he recited it from memory.
Two weeks
For two weeks the fields filled with temporary dwellings of turf and rock
People came from all over the country, sometimes thousands, and stayed in dwellings with walls of turf and rock and roofs of homespun cloth. Merchants, sword-sharpeners and tanners sold their goods, entertainers performed and ale-makers brewed for the guests.
The rift
The assembly met in a rift valley between two tectonic plates
The park lies in a rift valley at the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, on the boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates. The largest of the cracks that cross it is Almannagjá, a veritable canyon.
National park
In 1928 the site became the first national park in Iceland
Legislation passed in 1928 protected the remains of the parliament site, creating the first national park in Iceland. The park was founded in 1930, on the 1000th anniversary of the Althing, and became a World Heritage Site in 2004.
“...a protected national shrine for all Icelanders, the perpetual property of the Icelandic nation under the preservation of parliament, never to be sold or mortgaged”
The 1928 decree on the site
Day 3, morning
Next is Geysir.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Þingvellir, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.