The Thing of all Geats (Swedish: ''Alla götars ting'') was the

thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuse ...

(general assembly) which was held from pre-historic times to the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

Skara Skara is a locality and the seat of Skara Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 18,580 inhabitants in 2013. Despite its small size, it is one of the oldest cities in Sweden, and has a long educational and ecclesiastical history. O ...

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Väs ...

.The article ''Landsting'', at the official site of the Museum of National Antiquities, Sweden
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060930053606/http://www.historiska.se/histvarld/artikel.asp?id=20990 , date=2006-09-30 . Although its name suggests that it comprised all

Geat The Geats ( ; ang, gēatas ; non, gautar ; sv, götar ), sometimes called ''Goths'', were a large North Germanic tribe who inhabited ("land of the Geats") in modern southern Sweden from antiquity until the late Middle Ages. They are one of th ...

s, it concerned those living in

and

Dalsland Dalsland () is a Swedish traditional province, or ''landskap'', situated in Götaland in southern Sweden. Lying to the west of Lake Vänern, it is bordered by Värmland to the north, Västergötland to the southeast, Bohuslän to the west, and ...

, and it is described in the Westrogothic law. According to

Ostrogothic law The Ostrogoths ( la, Ostrogothi, Austrogothi) were a Roman-era Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Gothic kingdoms within the Roman Empire, based upon the large Gothic populations wh ...

(Östgötalagen), ''

Lionga thing Lionga thing was the general assembly of the people of Östergötland in medieval Sweden. Lionga thing is mentioned in Östgötalagen and was held in Linköping in the Middle Ages. Its original location is unknown. The first known mention of Lionga ...

'' was a similar assembly in Östergötland, held in

Linköping Linköping () is a city in southern Sweden, with around 105,000 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Church ...

in the Middle Ages and somewhere in its vicinity earlier. All free men living in the legislature and who were able to wield a weapon had the right to participate, and the assembly was led by the

lawspeaker A lawspeaker or lawman ( Swedish: ''lagman'', Old Swedish: ''laghmaþer'' or ''laghman'', Danish: ''lovsigemand'', Norwegian: ''lagmann'', Icelandic: , Faroese: '' løgmaður'', Finnish: ''laamanni'', kl, inatsitinuk) is a unique Scandina ...

. It had a Swedish counterpart in

Gamla Uppsala Gamla, alt. sp. Gamala ( he, גַּמְלָא, The Camel) was an ancient Jewish city on the Golan Heights. It is believed to have been founded as a Seleucid fort during the Syrian Wars which was turned into a city under Hasmonean rule in 81 B ...

named the ''

Thing of all Swedes The Thing of all Swedes (''allra Svía þing'', ''Þing allra Svía'', ''Disaþing'',The article ''Distingen'', in the encyclopedia ''Nationalencyklopedin''. or ''Kyndilþing''

''.

Notes

Scandinavia Thing (assembly) Defunct unicameral legislatures Geats