Þingvellir

No traveller to Iceland goes without seeing Þingvellir (Thingvellir), a place of both geologic, historic and political importance and UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I will start with the historic. The painting is by the English artist W. G. Collingwood (from 1897) and gives you an impression of what took place here a thousand years ago. After the settlement of Iceland, they did not have a king or any other main ruler. Instead, they had chieftains (about 30-40) who came together yearly in a parliament, the Alþingi (Althing) where they decided on laws and held court trials. Such a parliament to govern a country was a complete singularity in the Medieval Age. The location of the Alþingi was here at Þingvellir, and so this is the very heart of Iceland as a legal body, and thus as a nation.

But the location is also of geological interest: A tectonic fault line runs through here, which has created several spectacular cracks in the landscape. Iceland lies just on the line where the American and the Eurasian plate drift apart; this is the reason for all the volcanic and other geothermal activity and is also the reason why Iceland as a land exists at all.

Iceland itself is tectonically divided: The west part lies on the American plate and the east part on the Eurasian plate. Here, at Þingvellir, is the visible border. The distance between the west and the east of Iceland grows every year by 2 cm. In 150 years, this is 3 metres.

I was overexcited to see the view from the top of the cliff down into the plain of the valley because Konrad had described this view in great detail and in excellent words in his travelogue, so that the reader can imagine it very well. I parked my car on the parking lot next to the upper of the two visitor centres and walked up to the cliff: there it was, the view, just as he had described it.

The church at Þingvellir marks the place where Konrad had stayed the night at the priest's house, but the church itself is dated from 1859, so it is newer by just one year.

I looked at the big lake Þingvallavatn lying to my right, then walked down the canyon of the Almannagjá, saw the Öxará river (whose name means Axe river) and its waterfall, Öxarárfoss. I walked past the clear water of the Nikulásargjá to the church Þingvallakirkja, then to the Lögberg (Law Rock) where the lawspeaker presided over the assembly. Today it is marked by an Icelandic flag.

When the ancient assembly took place here, the area must have looked like a kind of woodstock festival. Every chieftain would be accompanied by his men, women, children and horses. They built temporary shelters (búðin), brought food and and traded goods.

When Iceland finally became a fully independent nation in 1944, the republic was proclaimed here. The modern parliament of Iceland continues the name Althing, but has been moved from here to Reykjavik, which was a very wise decision. Not only logistically, but also because this way Þingvellir remained unspoilt nature without any big buildings. It's much better to feel and re-visualize the past this way.