The Viking Way

From all the reading I've have done regarding Vikings and their Scandinavian Culture their appears to have been a fair amount of democratic processes regarding governance.

The Vikings developed like many of the related Germanic cultures of northern Europe what is titled "THING" or "TING".  There are various titles to this institution.  Depending on if it covered the entire country or land like in Iceland it would be called "ALLTHING". Regional bodies used just "THING" or some variant there of.

The "THING" basically acted like a legislative body that constituted all free men. This assembly meet on a semi-regular basis and discussed all the current laws and issues of the day.  Even disputes could be settled at the meeting of the local "THING".  Generally speaking the more influential or wealthy families controlled things.

The "THING" had so much power that in at least one Scandinavian country the selection of the new king had to be ratified by the "THING".   This in some respects is like the current system of using the United States Senate to ratify the decision a replacement Justice of the Supreme Court.  The other similarity is the use of a "Law Speaker"  that had memorized the law and lead the preceding in most cases.   Since the early Germanic peoples did not have a written language much like the early Celts the Laws, History, and Culture had to memorized.   The Celtic people had the Filid (Brehon Law) and the Vikings the Law Speaker.  These people had a high place in society and were in fact just below the aristocracy or Nobles.  Could this be why for some reason we place so much prestige on Lawyers and Elected public officials?


Many of the general assemblies we now have are based on the idea of the "THING".
One great example is the Isle of Man.  They have had a version of a "THING" for over 1000 years.  There are even locations that still retain the name referring to a distant "THING" that met there.
In an age that was dominated by Kings and Nobility this was a very forward thinking institution.
Just think of some now long forgot person taking a critical vote in his local "THING".   Unfortunately at this time we have little details of the persons that participate in these assemblies.  Unless, a "Lawspeaker" or a Nobleman rare a name was recorded.


Here a few selections of books for further study on the topic.  All are a bit sketchy at best since we have a few details of the inner workings of the "THING".  Remember that the literacy rate during the Viking age was very small.  Mostly it boiled down to a few aristocrats and clergy.  And the Celtic and Scandinavian peoples did not have much of a written language at this point as well.  There was Ogham from the Irish and the Runes for the Germanic peoples but this did not facilitate larges texts.  To be learned at one point was to know Latin.