Thingvellir National Park, Iceland

The Origins of the Remote Viking Democracy


Towards Democracy
The Oxará River flows between the Icelandic prime minister's current holiday home and the hillside on which the Althingi, considered the first parliament in the world, was installed.
Guardians of Thingvellir
The permanent residents of the Oxará River and Thingvallavatn Lake to whom the Thingvellir landscape remains most of the time.
Solfar: The Sun Voyager
Sculpture by Jón Gunnar Árnason, a boat ode to the sun installed in Sæbraut, on the outskirts of Reykjavik.
Current “viking” settlement
Reykjavik townhouse seen from the air with the cathedral of the Icelandic capital highlighted.
Eriksson, the settler
Reykjavik's homage to one of its pioneer settlers, the Viking Leif Eriksson.
Icelandic sunset
Sun sets in the last hours of a June day and adds color to Thingvellir's scenery.
Lake arms
Geological faults create rock slits in which Lake Thingvallavatn stretches.
flag below
Official removes the Icelandic flag from a pole in front of Reykjavik Cathedral.
Almanaja
Marco C. Pereira and Sara Wong on one of the characteristic geological faults of PN Thingvellir and that prove the slow separation of the North American plate from the Eurasian plate.
Monument to the unknown bureaucrat
Statue of Magnús Tomásson in the center of Reykjavik.
Thingvallabaer
The Prime Minister's Summer Residence of Iceland.
Thingvallabaer
The Prime Minister's Summer Residence of Iceland.
Thingvallakirja
The Lutheran church which, with the adjoining cemetery, completes the set of structures created by the man of PN Thingvellir.
Cleft Almannagj
The tectonic fissure in which political meetings and community religious proceedings were carried out.
The foundations of popular government that come to mind are the Hellenic ones. But what is believed to have been the world's first parliament was inaugurated in the middle of the XNUMXth century, in Iceland's icy interior.

In the wake of the 2008-2012 financial crisis, the world and especially its more left-wing politically sensitive tenants have once again praised the Fire and Ice Island.

This time, the reason was not the rough, mountainous, frigid and volcanic sceneries.

Such popular apology was due to the way the Icelandic government handled the failure of its Glitnir, Kaupthing and Landsbanki banks which, among other commercial mischief, offered deposits with interest rates above 8% that attracted not only Icelandic but Dutch customers, British and other nationalities.

Its assets totaled eleven times the nation's GDP. But these same banks also made the country's external debt increase up to seven times the Iceland's GDP 2007. They caused their own disruption and the failure of the national financial system.

When the same happened with several other North American, European and global financial institutions, until then with structures that were thought to be unshakable (Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Lehman Brothers) in the USA and European countries, governments deprived top managers of responsibility.

Thingvelir, Origins of Iceland Democracy, Monument to the Unknown Bureaucrat

Statue of Magnús Tomásson in the center of Reykjavik.

They favored rescue operations based on taxpayer taxation. In Iceland, by contrast, pressure from the people and their relative intimacy with the government forced them to let the banks fail and to give back what they could to Icelandic depositors.

The Icelandic parliament has also decreed a criminal investigation. The finance minister and several presidents, bank directors and managers, businessmen and lawyers were sentenced to prison terms. The prime minister in power during this crisis admitted his responsibility and resigned.

Shortly thereafter, the Icelandic people elected a new government that, even with its blemishes, wasted no time in pulling the nation out of the quagmire it had plunged into.

In Search of the World's First Parliament, the Althing

The real genesis of democracy centers on Ancient Greece but, even if more recent, the tradition of conscience and popular intervention for justice in destinations Iceland is millenary and equally pioneering.

It officially began in AD 930, with the inaugural session of what is considered the world's first parliament, the Althing.

After circling the island departing and returning to the capital Reykjavik, we detoured from the Ring Road onto the Golden Circle route and headed for Thingvellir National Park.

After almost an hour of driving, we found ourselves in the depths of a wide valley flanked by mountain ranges of moderate altitudes for what we had already seen, yet with the summits covered with snow.

The flat expanse we were following was dotted with lakes and ponds interconnected by geological faults filled by canals or streams.

Thingvelir, Origins Democracy Iceland, Oxará

The Oxará River flows between the Icelandic prime minister's current holiday home and the hillside on which Althing, considered the first parliament in the world, was installed.

A considerable cloud cover flew over us at great speed and, at intervals, let the sun's rays from the almost setting sun caress the scenery browned by the cold.

By the time we left the car to walk, we no longer saw a soul. Erma as it was, that also strange landscape fascinated us on the double.

How has long fascinated Icelanders.

The Viking History in the Genesis of the Founding of Althing

The Book of the Colonization of the Nordic Peoples narrates that the village of Iceland was inaugurated at the end of the ninth century and that, since then, several inhabitants of Viking and Celtic origin have settled on the island, often refugees from disagreements or persecutions dictated by the royalty or by the more powerful clans of the territories in which they lived.

Eriksson

Reykjavik's homage to one of its pioneer settlers, the Viking Leif Eriksson.

After seeing the conditions that the new domain offered, many did not want to go back. Instead, they created district assemblies.

As the population increased and the descendants of the pioneer chief of colonization of the island, Ingólfur Arnarson conquered supremacy over other families, rival chiefs demanded the establishment of an assembly that would limit their power.

Between 927 and 930, a man named Grímur Geitskör (Goat-bearded Grímur) was tasked with touring Iceland and choosing the most suitable place for a draft parliament.

It didn't take long to see the chosen place. It was selected by him due to its privileged position on the shores of the island's largest lake, Thingvallavatn, at the base of a prominent rock fault and with an unobstructed view.

Thingvelir, Origins of Iceland Democracy, Thingvallavatn

Geological faults create rock slits in which Lake Thingvallavatn stretches.

Also contributing to the choice was the desirability that the previous owner, Thorsteinn Ingólfsson, was convicted of murder and that Bláskógar, his land, was declared public.

This was a mature communal and judicial decision considering that we were in the first third of the dark ages and still taking into account the eccentricity of the geographic coordinates – read almost arctic and mid-Atlantic – in which the episode took place.

The Mystical Desolation of Thingvellir National Park

We still don't see any sign of people. On the other hand, ducks abound. His indifference, pride and even aggressiveness make us feel like the invaders we are.

A pair of birds that slumber on the gorse-lined ground do not move their feet from the narrow, walled path because we are supposed to move forward.

When we try to get around them, we are pecked in such a way that the hypothesis comes to mind that they are winged Viking reincarnations.

Thingvelir, Origins Democracy Iceland, duck

The permanent residents of the Oxará River and Thingvallavatn Lake to whom the Thingvellir landscape remains most of the time.

The animals force us to climb the small wall, detour along the edge of the Canyon de Silfra and cross the bridge over the Oxará river.

Thingvallabaer and Thingvallakirja, the Buildings Now Standing Out from Thingvelir

We then came upon a complex of white wooden buildings with steep roofs and realized that it was the Thingvallabaer – the official summer residence of the Icelandic Prime Minister.

Thingvelir, Origins Democracy Iceland, Thingvallabaer

The Prime Minister's Summer Residence of Iceland.

And Thingvallakirja, a church that replaced the original from the XNUMXth century.

Both were erected in 1930 to commemorate the inaugural millennium of Althing, as a complement to the constitution of Iceland's first national park, PN Thingvellir, which we continued to unveil.

We examine the buildings and the small cemetery in which two contemporary poets of Icelandic independence are buried.

Thingvelir, Origins Democracy Iceland, Thingvallakirja

The Lutheran church which, with the adjoining cemetery, completes the set of structures created by the man of PN Thingvellir.

Also from that angle, we were confronted with the high wall of solidified lava that anticipated the horizon to the northwest.

We are on our way to your heights.

The Slope Foot That Housed the Viking Parliament Althing

With that ascent, we finally converged on the Lögberg (Rock of Law), the exact place where Althing met annually. It was there, between two deep cracks, that the lögsögumadur recited the laws to the assembly.

After the Christianization of Iceland, this site moved to the foot of other cliffs that revealed an acoustic more favorable to spread the speeches through the crowd coming from the four corners of the island.

Some of the chiefs arrived after seventeen days of travel, the maximum foreseen for those coming from its eastern end, in which successive mountains and icelandic glaciers they proved far more complicated to transpose.

We have no difficulty finding this other place at the foot, marked by a flagpole.

Thingvelir, Origins of Iceland Democracy, Thingvallavatn

Sun sets in the last hours of a June day and adds color to Thingvellir's scenery.

It is hard to imagine where the Nedrivellir (the Low Fields) would be located, the flat area housed on a lower level, facing the cliffs.

There it is believed that the Lögrétta – a juridical council made up of 48 voting members, 96 councilors and two bishops – debated until reaching crucial decisions for the future of the growing community.

In the vicinity, we still find several budders, stone and peat shelters where the participants in the assemblies camped, others that served as food and drink stands, much like what happens nowadays during music festivals.

In those times, as today, one of the most traded products was beer. Food and veils, among others, were also sold and bought.

Almannagjá, the Fissure in the Border between the North American and European Plates

We place a foot on each side of one of the narrowed extensions of the Almannagjá fissure, in a symbolic but precarious balance over a depth of black lava.

Thingvelir, Origins of Democracy Iceland, Almannagja

Marco C. Pereira and Sara Wong on one of the characteristic geological faults of PN Thingvellir and that prove the slow separation of the North American plate from the Eurasian plate.

Even so, we laugh at the curiosity of the participating Viking and Celtic settlers encamping, legislating and consolidating the future Icelandic nationality, while North America and Europe were separated even if only a few millimeters a year.

This tectonic back-turn has long left its mark on the Thingvellir plain.

Not only the Almannagjá rift, but also other smaller geological expressions such as the Brennugjá (the Burning Abyss).

Thingvellir, Origins of Democracy Iceland, Almannagj

The tectonic fissure in which political meetings and community religious proceedings were carried out.

During the XNUMXth century, nine men accused of witchcraft were burned there and Drekkingarhylur, where the waterfall of Öxararfoss, used to drown women accused of infanticide, adultery or other crimes, precipitates.

These days, the Icelandic authorities are a little more forgiving.

However, out of respect for the antiquity and historical pragmatism of its democracy, contrary to what happens all over the place, there are few authors of crimes that escape the will of the people and the law.

That's how it was seen with the actual prison sentences of the several responsible for the frauds that aggravated the Icelandic financial crisis of 2008-11.

All decided on the successor to the original Althing, now housed in a gray stone building in the capital Reykjavik.

Thingvelir, Origins Democracy Iceland, Reykjavik

Reykjavik townhouse seen from the air with the cathedral of the Icelandic capital highlighted.

Jökursarlón Lagoon, Vatnajökull Glacier, Iceland

The Faltering of Europe's King Glacier

Only in Greenland and Antarctica are glaciers comparable to Vatnajökull, the supreme glacier of the old continent. And yet, even this colossus that gives more meaning to the term ice land is surrendering to the relentless siege of global warming.
Husavik a Myvatn, Iceland

Endless Snow on the Island of Fire

When, in mid-May, Iceland already enjoys some sun warmth but the cold and snow persist, the inhabitants give in to an intriguing summer anxiety.
Kirkjubour, streymoy, Faroe Islands

Where the Faroese Christianity Washed Ashore

A mere year into the first millennium, a Viking missionary named Sigmundur Brestisson brought the Christian faith to the Faroe Islands. Kirkjubour became the shelter and episcopal seat of the new religion.
Iceland

The Geothermal Coziness of the Ice Island

Most visitors value Iceland's volcanic scenery for its beauty. Icelanders also draw from them heat and energy crucial to the life they lead to the Arctic gates.
Tórshavn, Faroe Islands

Thor's Faroese Port

It has been the main settlement in the Faroe Islands since at least 850 AD, the year in which Viking settlers established a parliament there. Tórshavn remains one of the smallest capitals in Europe and the divine shelter of about a third of the Faroese population.
Seydisfjordur, Iceland

From the Art of Fishing to the Fishing of Art

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Tongatapu, Tonga

The Last Polynesian Monarchy

From New Zealand to Easter Island and Hawaii, no other monarchy has resisted the arrival of European discoverers and modernity. For Tonga, for several decades, the challenge was to resist the monarchy.
Kalsoy, Faroe Islands

A Lighthouse at the End of the Faroese World

Kalsoy is one of the most isolated islands in the Faroe archipelago. Also known as “the flute” due to its long shape and the many tunnels that serve it, a mere 75 inhabitants inhabit it. Much less than the outsiders who visit it every year, attracted by the boreal wonder of its Kallur lighthouse.
Mykines, Faroe Islands

In the Faeroes FarWest

Mykines establishes the western threshold of the Faroe archipelago. It housed 179 people but the harshness of the retreat got the better of it. Today, only nine souls survive there. When we visit it, we find the island given over to its thousand sheep and the restless colonies of puffins.
Iceland

The Island of Fire, Ice and Waterfalls

Europe's supreme cascade rushes into Iceland. But it's not the only one. On this boreal island, with constant rain or snow and in the midst of battle between volcanoes and glaciers, endless torrents crash.
Jok​ülsárlón Lagoon, Iceland

The Chant and the Ice

Created by water from the Arctic Ocean and the melting of Europe's largest glacier, Jokülsárlón forms a frigid and imposing domain. Icelanders revere her and pay her surprising tributes.
Harare, Zimbabwewe

The Last Rales of Surreal Mugabué

In 2015, Zimbabwe's first lady Grace Mugabe said the 91-year-old president would rule until the age of 100 in a special wheelchair. Shortly thereafter, it began to insinuate itself into his succession. But in recent days, the generals have finally precipitated the removal of Robert Mugabe, who has replaced him with former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
South of Iceland

South Iceland vs North Atlantic: a Monumental Battle

Volcano slopes and lava flows, glaciers and immense rivers all hang and flow from the high interior of the Land of Fire and Ice to the frigid and often angry ocean. For all these and many other reasons of Nature, the Southland It is the most disputed region in Iceland.
Believers greet each other in the Bukhara region.
City
Bukhara, Uzbequistan

Among the Minarets of Old Turkestan

Situated on the ancient Silk Road, Bukhara has developed for at least two thousand years as an essential commercial, cultural and religious hub in Central Asia. It was Buddhist and then Muslim. It was part of the great Arab empire and that of Genghis Khan, the Turko-Mongol kingdoms and the Soviet Union, until it settled in the still young and peculiar Uzbekistan.
Host Wezi points out something in the distance
Beaches
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The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

During a tour from the bottom to the top of Lake Malawi, we find ourselves on the island of Likoma, an hour by boat from Nkwichi Lodge, the solitary base of this inland coast of Mozambique. On the Mozambican side, the lake is known as Niassa. Whatever its name, there we discover some of the most stunning and unspoilt scenery in south-east Africa.
Hippopotamus moves in the flooded expanse of the Elephant Plain.
safari
Maputo National Park, Mozambique

The Wild Mozambique between the Maputo River and the Indian Ocean

The abundance of animals, especially elephants, led to the creation of a Hunting Reserve in 1932. After the hardships of the Mozambican Civil War, the Maputo PN protects prodigious ecosystems in which fauna proliferates. With emphasis on the pachyderms that have recently become too many.
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 5th - Ngawal a BragaNepal

Towards the Nepalese Braga

We spent another morning of glorious weather discovering Ngawal. There is a short journey towards Manang, the main town on the way to the zenith of the Annapurna circuit. We stayed for Braga (Braka). The hamlet would soon prove to be one of its most unforgettable places.
Traditional houses, Bergen, Norway.
Architecture & Design
Bergen, Norway

The Great Hanseatic Port of Norway

Already populated in the early 1830th century, Bergen became the capital, monopolized northern Norwegian commerce and, until XNUMX, remained one of the largest cities in Scandinavia. Today, Oslo leads the nation. Bergen continues to stand out for its architectural, urban and historical exuberance.
Totems, Botko Village, Malekula, Vanuatu
Aventura
Malekula, Vanuatu

Meat and Bone Cannibalism

Until the early XNUMXth century, man-eaters still feasted on the Vanuatu archipelago. In the village of Botko we find out why European settlers were so afraid of the island of Malekula.
Indigenous Crowned
Ceremonies and Festivities
Pueblos del Sur, Venezuela

Behind the Venezuela Andes. Fiesta Time.

In 1619, the authorities of Mérida dictated the settlement of the surrounding territory. The order resulted in 19 remote villages that we found dedicated to commemorations with caretos and local pauliteiros.
St. Augustine, City of Florida, USA, the Bridge of Lions
Cities
Saint Augustine, Florida, USA

Back to the Beginnings of Hispanic Florida

The dissemination of tourist attractions of questionable taste becomes superficial if we take into account the historical depth in question. This is the longest inhabited city in the contiguous US. Ever since Spanish explorers founded it in 1565, St. Augustine resists almost anything.
Tsukiji fish market, Tokyo, Japan
Lunch time
Tokyo, Japan

The Fish Market That Lost its Freshness

In a year, each Japanese eats more than their weight in fish and shellfish. Since 1935, a considerable part was processed and sold in the largest fish market in the world. Tsukiji was terminated in October 2018, and replaced by Toyosu's.
Jingkieng Wahsurah, Nongblai Village Roots Bridge, Meghalaya, India
Culture
Meghalaya, India

The Bridges of the Peoples that Create Roots

The unpredictability of rivers in the wettest region on Earth never deterred the Khasi and the Jaintia. Faced with the abundance of trees elastic fig tree in their valleys, these ethnic groups got used to molding their branches and strains. From their time-lost tradition, they have bequeathed hundreds of dazzling root bridges to future generations.
4th of July Fireworks-Seward, Alaska, United States
Sport
Seward, Alaska

The Longest 4th of July

The independence of the United States is celebrated, in Seward, Alaska, in a modest way. Even so, the 4th of July and its celebration seem to have no end.
Fruit sellers, Swarm, Mozambique
Traveling
Enxame Mozambique

Mozambican Fashion Service Area

It is repeated at almost all stops in towns of Mozambique worthy of appearing on maps. The machimbombo (bus) stops and is surrounded by a crowd of eager "businessmen". The products offered can be universal such as water or biscuits or typical of the area. In this region, a few kilometers from Nampula, fruit sales suceeded, in each and every case, quite intense.
Drums and Tattoos
Ethnic
Tahiti, French Polynesia

Tahiti Beyond the Cliché

Neighbors Bora Bora and Maupiti have superior scenery but Tahiti has long been known as paradise and there is more life on the largest and most populous island of French Polynesia, its ancient cultural heart.
Rainbow in the Grand Canyon, an example of prodigious photographic light
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
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And Light was made on Earth. Know how to use it.

The theme of light in photography is inexhaustible. In this article, we give you some basic notions about your behavior, to start with, just and only in terms of geolocation, the time of day and the time of year.
Tabatô, Guinea Bissau, tabanca Mandingo musicians. Baidi
History
Tabato, Guinea Bissau

The Tabanca of Mandinga Poets Musicians

In 1870, a community of traveling Mandingo musicians settled next to the current city of Bafatá. From the Tabatô they founded, their culture and, in particular, their prodigious balaphonists, dazzle the world.
Solovetsky, Islands, Archipelago, Russia, Autumn, UAZ, Autumn road
Islands
Bolshoi Solovetsky, Russia

A Celebration of the Russian Autumn of Life

At the edge of the Arctic Ocean, in mid-September, the boreal foliage glows golden. Welcomed by generous cicerones, we praise the new human times of Bolshoi Solovetsky, famous for having hosted the first of the Soviet Gulag prison camps.
St. Trinity Church, Kazbegi, Georgia, Caucasus
Winter White
Kazbegi, Georgia

God in the Caucasus Heights

In the 4000th century, Orthodox religious took their inspiration from a hermitage that a monk had erected at an altitude of 5047 m and perched a church between the summit of Mount Kazbek (XNUMXm) and the village at the foot. More and more visitors flock to these mystical stops on the edge of Russia. Like them, to get there, we submit to the whims of the reckless Georgia Military Road.
Baie d'Oro, Île des Pins, New Caledonia
Literature
Île-des-Pins, New Caledonia

The Island that Leaned against Paradise

In 1964, Katsura Morimura delighted the Japan with a turquoise novel set in Ouvéa. But the neighboring Île-des-Pins has taken over the title "The Nearest Island to Paradise" and thrills its visitors.
Cape cross seal colony, cape cross seals, Namibia
Nature
Cape Cross, Namíbia

The Most Turbulent of the African Colonies

Diogo Cão landed in this cape of Africa in 1486, installed a pattern and turned around. The immediate coastline to the north and south was German, South African, and finally Namibian. Indifferent to successive transfers of nationality, one of the largest seal colonies in the world has maintained its hold there and animates it with deafening marine barks and endless tantrums.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Fluvial coming and going
Natural Parks
Iriomote, Japan

The Small Tropical Japanese Amazon of Iriomote

Impenetrable rainforests and mangroves fill Iriomote under a pressure cooker climate. Here, foreign visitors are as rare as the yamaneko, an elusive endemic lynx.
Registration Square, Silk Road, Samarkand, Uzbekistan
UNESCO World Heritage
Samarkand, Uzbequistan

A Monumental Legacy of the Silk Road

In Samarkand, cotton is the most traded commodity and Ladas and Chevrolets have replaced camels. Today, instead of caravans, Marco Polo would find Uzbekistan's worst drivers.
Visitors to Ernest Hemingway's Home, Key West, Florida, United States
Characters
Key West, United States

Hemingway's Caribbean Playground

Effusive as ever, Ernest Hemingway called Key West "the best place I've ever been...". In the tropical depths of the contiguous US, he found evasion and crazy, drunken fun. And the inspiration to write with intensity to match.
Varela Guinea Bissau, Nhiquim beach
Beaches
Varela, Guinea Bissau

Dazzling, Deserted Coastline, all the way to Senegal

Somewhat remote, with challenging access, the peaceful fishing village of Varela compensates those who reach it with the friendliness of its people and one of the stunning, but at risk, coastlines in Guinea Bissau.
shadow vs light
Religion
Kyoto, Japan

The Kyoto Temple Reborn from the Ashes

The Golden Pavilion has been spared destruction several times throughout history, including that of US-dropped bombs, but it did not withstand the mental disturbance of Hayashi Yoken. When we admired him, he looked like never before.
Flam Railway composition below a waterfall, Norway.
On Rails
Nesbyen to Flam, Norway

Flam Railway: Sublime Norway from the First to the Last Station

By road and aboard the Flam Railway, on one of the steepest railway routes in the world, we reach Flam and the entrance to the Sognefjord, the largest, deepest and most revered of the Scandinavian fjords. From the starting point to the last station, this monumental Norway that we have unveiled is confirmed.
Police intervention, ultra-Orthodox Jews, Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel
Society
Jaffa, Israel

Unorthodox protests

A building in Jaffa, Tel Aviv, threatened to desecrate what ultra-Orthodox Jews thought were remnants of their ancestors. And even the revelation that they were pagan tombs did not deter them from the contestation.
the projectionist
Daily life
Sainte-Luce, Martinique

The Nostalgic Projectionist

From 1954 to 1983, Gérard Pierre screened many of the famous films arriving in Martinique. 30 years after the closing of the room in which he worked, it was still difficult for this nostalgic native to change his reel.
Juvenile lions on a sandy arm of the Shire River
Wildlife
Liwonde National Park, Malawi

The Prodigious Resuscitation of Liwonde NP

For a long time, widespread neglect and widespread poaching had plagued this wildlife reserve. In 2015, African Parks stepped in. Soon, also benefiting from the abundant water of Lake Malombe and the Shire River, Liwonde National Park became one of the most vibrant and lush parks in Malawi.
Napali Coast and Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii Wrinkles
Scenic Flights
napali coast, Hawaii

Hawaii's Dazzling Wrinkles

Kauai is the greenest and rainiest island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is also the oldest. As we explore its Napalo Coast by land, sea and air, we are amazed to see how the passage of millennia has only favored it.