Pingvellir National Park

First, haven’t downloaded the Icelandic keyboard, but the English P has the hump too high up the stick…if you can picture the hump only halfway up the stick (or look at the photo below) then you get the Icelandic P which actually sounds like “th”…

But that’s a huge digression from the importance of this national park. 

It was here that the first form of representative government took place, in 930 AD, when the ruling  chiefs from around the island gathered to discuss laws and policies for the entire population. When a law was agreed upon, it would be recited each successive year by the Law Speaker for everyone’s recollection (first attorneys?!).

Amazing to realize that on this very ground the first discussions about laws for a civilization that weren’t  by royal decree occurred. Also amazing that the day after we’re done fishing was the first day flags weren’t snapping and at full display in the wind!😔

It’s very interesting that over 1,000 years ago the people decided to meet at the very place where the planet’s crust was diverging, the North American plate moving west, the European plate east, and the rift was actually where rifts were discussed and settled. 

Granted, the “representatives” were the most powerful chieftains, land owners, exclusively men, some slave holders, and yet that initial imperfection may divulge part of the chemistry that makes democracy so challenging, messy, and imperfect, yet the best system of governance. 

If one stops taking photos and just kinda tunes into the historical ties between a people and their environment, it’s also incredible that a millennia ago these folks gathered on a very active, possibly even mystical place to them, to have these somber discussions and religious ceremonies. Not terribly dissimilar from the Incas at Machu Picchu a few centuries later (?!).

Except the Icelandic folks had methods of “writing” their history and laws down, instead of tying knots in strings as the Incas did. 

All in all “Thingvellir” is a magical, mystical, beautiful, historical place!

Didn’t every civilization include fisherman, pondering their next catch, even in restricted waters?

…and explorers, some of whom may not have made it back.