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Caroline Shenton

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Parliament Buildings of the World: No 10 – Iceland

4 August 2018 By Caroline Shenton

Although I left Westminster last year, I still can’t resist exploring Parliamentary sites when I’m on holiday. This summer I’m in Iceland for a few days and that brings me to the great-grandmother of all legislative locations: Thingvellir.

The ancient Icelandic Parliament, the Althingi, arose here in 930CE and met every summer until the thirteenth century; it continued as a court of law until 1798. That makes it the oldest Parliament in the world, and many of Iceland’s most momentous political events took place here, including the adoption of Christianity in 1000, and the declaration of Icelandic independence in 1944. In 2004, Thingvellir became a World Heritage Site.

The site was no doubt chosen as a gathering place because of its unforgettable appearance, in a country of amazing geological formations. It would have been easy to describe to anyone who was planning to attend because it most obviously (as analysed in modern times) marks the spot on the mid-Atlantic Ridge where the North American tectonic plate is diverging from the European one. That is what makes Iceland a country of active volcanoes, hot springs, sulphurous gases, and explosive geysers.

The several miles of rift between the two plates are a no-man’s land, belonging to neither continent, now filled with shallow lakes and marshland between the rocks. No trace of any Parliament building survives from those early times but there is archaeological evidence of rock booths or shacks where attendees at Parliament would have lodged during their weeks of summer attendance. There is also the natural amphitheatre created by the rock fissures, and a memory of the mysterious ‘law rock’ or the Lögberg. Nobody can say for certain where this was, but it was the stone upon which existing laws were recited at each annual session and where new laws were enacted.

Here is a very evident reminder that landscape and history are inextricably linked, and of the huge symbolism incorporated from their surroundings by many Parliamentary sites.

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Filed Under: Parliaments of the World

About Caroline Shenton

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives in London, and before that was a senior archivist at the National Archives. Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013 and Mary Beard called it 'microhistory at its absolute best' while Dan Jones considered it 'glorious'. Its acclaimed sequel, Mr Barryís War, about the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, was a Book of the Year in 2016 for The Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine and was described by Lucy Worsley as 'a real jewel, finely wrought and beautiful'. During 2017 Caroline was Political Writer in Residence at Gladstone's Library.

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About Caroline

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013. Read More…

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