Althing | Tales from the Hutt

Monday, 13-May-2024, a bit of Tuesday, 14-May-2024, and a little bit more on Friday, 17-May-2024

Silfra Fissure isn’t the only thing to see in Þingvellir park.

I know, shocker right?

After my friends had headed out to get checked into their hotel, I took a bit of time to wander around and take in the scenery of Þingvellir. I walked the nature trails, looked at signs, and appreciated the views and the lovely (absolutely staggeringly lovely) weather. It was cool (but not cold) and sunny (but not overly bright), and thankfully there weren’t too many tourists clogging the trails.

I’ll let the placards speak for themselves, but the summary is this: Þingvellir means “Assembly area” in Icelandic. Which makes sense, since it’s where the Icelandic chieftains would assembly for their annual parlament, the Alþingi. Pronounced, vaguely, “Allthingy”.

I’ll include a wikipedia link at the bottom, but the short summary that I learned is that the Chieftains would convene for as long as it took to discuss laws, review cases where laws had been broken, and pass judgement. They’d trade during that time, or their followers would, and they’d reside in smallish houses that they’d build each year for that express purpose.

Not even considering the history, it’s an absolutely beautiful park. Adding that history in, and… well, that’s really cool.

(Yes, I was able to fly the drone around a bit! Drone flights are limited to before 9am and after 6pm, though, so… thanks to Iceland for forcing me to fly at golden hour!)