Allsherjargoði (, '' All-

People A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of proper ...

Chieftain A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribe The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia. Tribal societies are sometimes categorized as ...

''; plural ''-goðar'' ) was an office in the

Icelandic Commonwealth The Icelandic Commonwealth, also known as the Icelandic Free State, was the political unit existing in Iceland between the establishment of the Althing in 930 and the pledge of fealty to the Norwegian king with the Old Covenant in 1262. With th ...

, held by the goði who held the ''goðorð'' of the descendants of

Ingólfr Arnarson Ingólfr Arnarson, in some sources named Bjǫrnólfsson, ( – ) is commonly recognized as the first permanent Norse settler of Iceland, together with his wife and foster brother Hjörleifr Hróðmarsson. According to tradition, they settled ...

, the first settler of Iceland. The role of the ''allsherjargoði'' was to sanctify the

Althing The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (" thing fields" or "assem ...

as it began every year. Þorsteinn Ingólfsson, son of Ingólfr Arnarson, was a ''goði'' when the Althing was founded in 930 and became the first ''allsherjargoði''. His son, Þorkell máni Þorsteinsson, inherited the office ca. 945 while at the same time being

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 Scandinavi ...

. He was succeeded by his son Þormóðr Þorkelsson, who held office from 984 to 1020. His son, Hamall Þormóðsson held office until 1055. Hamall had three sons, Þormóðr, Torfi and Már but it is not known who of the three inherited the office and for the following century it is not known who held the office. In 1160, Guðmundr gríss Ámundason, presumably a descendant of Hamall, was in office as ''allsherjargoði''. He held the office until his death in 1197 when his son, Magnús góði Guðmundarson, took over. Magnús held office until 1234. He had no sons and it is unknown who inherited the office after this. One theory holds that Árni óreiða Magnússon, nephew of Guðmundr gríss and son-in-law of

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

, inherited the office and became the last ''allsherjargoði''. The Icelandic Commonwealth came to an end in 1262 when the ''goðar'' pledged fealty to the Norwegian king.

List of allsherjargoðar

Years may be approximate.

Literature

* Gunnar Karlsson, Goðamenning. Investigation of the role of the goðar (chieftains) in the Old Commonwealth period. . ISK 4990. (2004) {{DEFAULTSORT:Allsherjargodi Noble titles Icelandic culture Medieval Iceland

List of allsherjargoðar

See also

Literature