Grímur Geitskör (Grímur Goatshoe or Goatbeard) was responsible for establishing the Icelandic parliament
Althing
The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Parliament, national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ('Thing (assembly), thing ...
in what is now called the Assembly Plains or
Þingvellir
Þingvellir (, anglicised as ThingvellirThe spelling ''Pingvellir'' is sometimes seen, although the letter "p" is unrelated to the letter thorn (letter), "þ" (thorn), which is pronounced as "th".) was the site of the Althing, Alþing, the annual ...
. In around 927-930 he made tour of Iceland and searched for the most appropriate place for the parliament. The place he chose was Bláskógar (the former name of Þingvellir) on the eastern edge of
Þorsteinn Ingólfsson's estate. The location with its elevated cliff (part of the Atlantic ridge) and lake was chosen not only for its position with respect to important settlements but also because its owner had been found guilty of murder and had his land declared public. Grímur was the foster or half brother of
Úlfljótr Úlfljótr (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ) brought law to Iceland and is regarded by some as Iceland's first ''lawspeaker''. In around 927–930 AD Úlfljótr was sent to Norway by a group of chieftains to study law and culture and bring back to ...
.
[Parnell, Fran and Brandon Presser (2010) Lonely Planet Iceland, Footscray, Vic: Lonely Planet.]
References
Other sources
* Benediktsson, Jakob (1974) “Landnám og upphaf allsherjarríkis,” Saga Íslands 1, Reykjavík
*
Wikisource:Íslendingabók: Section 3. On the establishment of the Alþingi (Accessed Feb 2011)
* Sigurður Líndal: “Sendiför Úlfljóts”, i Skírnir 143, 1969, s. 5–26
* Sveinbjörn Rafnsson: Studier i Landnámsbók. Kritiska bidrag till den isländska fristatens historia, Lund 1974
* H. Magerøy: biografi i NBL1, bd. 17, 1975
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grimur geitskor
10th-century Icelandic people