Iceland’s Alþingi, one of the world’s oldest surviving parliaments, was established in 930.
The assembly was founded at Þingvellir during Iceland’s Commonwealth period, after Norse settlers had created a society without a single permanent king. Representatives and local leaders gathered to debate laws, settle disputes, and make important public decisions. The law speaker recited the law aloud, since the legal tradition was primarily oral.
Þingvellir became the principal meeting place because of its accessible location and distinctive landscape. The Alþingi was not a modern parliament with political parties and universal representation, but it was a major institution of Icelandic governance and law.
A common mix-up concerns the year 1000. At a famous Alþingi meeting that year, Iceland traditionally adopted Christianity, while the assembly itself had already been founded about seventy years earlier. The institution later moved to Reykjavík in 1845 and remains Iceland’s national legislature.