A ting, also þing or thing, was the governing assembly in Germanic societies, made up of the free men of the community. Today the term lives on in the official names of national legislatures, political and judicial institutions in the North-Germanic countries. The German Tag (day, as in Bundestag the German parliament or Tagung) is called so because tings were held at daylight and often lasted all day.
Viking and medieval society
In the pre-Christian clan-culture of Scandinavia the members of a clan were obliged to avenge injuries against their dead and mutilated relatives. A balancing structure was necessary to reduce tribal feuds and avoid social anarchy. We know from the North-Germanic cultures the balancing institution as the ting although similar assemblies are reported also from other Germanic peoples.
The ting was the assembly of the free men of a wapentake or hundred (hundare/härad/herred). Hierarchies of tings could exist, so that the local tings were represented at the ting for a larger area, for a province or land. At the ting, disputes were solved and political decisions were made. The place for the ting was often also the place for public religious rites and for commerce.
The ting met at regular intervals, legislated, elected chieftains, and judged according to the law, memorized and recited by the "law speaker" (the judge). The ting's negotiations were presided over by the law speaker or the chieftain. In reality the ting was of course dominated by the most influential members of the community, the heads of clans and wealthy families, but in theory one-man one-vote was the rule.
The island of Gotland, as an example, had in late medieval time twenty tings, each represented at the island-ting called landsting by its elected judge. New laws were decided at the landsting, which also took other decisions regarding the island as a whole. The landsting's authority was successively eroded after the island was occupied by the Teutonic Order in 1398. In late medieval time the ting-court consisted of twelve representatives for the farmers, free-holders or tenants.
The assembly of the ting was typically held at a specially designated place, often a field or common, like þingvellir , the old place of the Icelandic Ting. The parliament of the Isle of Man, is still named after meeting place of the ting, Tynwald, which etymologically is the same word as "þingvellir". Other equivalent UK placenames include Thingwall (Wirral), Dingwall (Highland), and Tingwall (occurring both in Orkney and Shetland). In Sweden there are several places named Tingvalla , which is the modern Swedish form of "þingvellir".
In Yorkshire and the Danelaw, wapentakes had been in archaic, public records use until recently. Several of the homes ending in the "by"(village) placename suffix originally possessed their own law(bylaw) and jurisdiction under the auspices of the wapentake in which they served, often over a surrounding ground called a "thorpe"(hamlet). If there was a riding surrounding the wapentake, the wapentake would merely be a local assembly coordinating the power of the Riding, which in Jorvik's case, would be under the king's command at what is now King's Square in York. The Kingdom of East Anglia was in control of the Danelaw which had been organised as the Five Boroughs. Those Five were martial law fortresses defending land against Wessex, with Lindsey having its own share of three ridings akin to Yorkshire.
National parliaments and current institutions
The national parliaments of Iceland, Norway and Denmark all have names that incorporates ting into their names.
The parliaments of the self governing territories of Åland, Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Isle of Man also have names that refer to ting.
The Swedish national parliament, since medieval times, carries a differently styled name, Riksdag, which is identical to the old name of the German national assembly, Reichstag. In Sweden ting is however used to name the subnational county councils, which are called Landsting. That name was also used in medieval times for the tings that governed the historical Landskap provinces, that were superseded by the Counties in the 17th century. The name ting is also found in the names of the first level instances of the Swedish and Finnish court system, which are called Tingsrätt (Finnish: käräjäoikeus), the Court of the Ting.
Folkting is also the name of the Swedish Assembly of Finland, a semi-official body representing the Swedish-speaking population.
See also
Related articles
References
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Nordic FAQ of soc.culture.nordic (with permission)
Last updated: 06-02-2005 03:44:24
