Lögberg, the Law Rock

Lögberg, the Law Rock, is the spot at Þingvellir National Park where Iceland's medieval parliament, the Alþing, heard its laws, its news and its arguments, and it sits halfway along the Almannagjá gorge on the first stop of the Golden Circle. A flagpole on a rocky ledge marks the traditional site today, with a viewing platform below it looking out over the old assembly plain.

There is no rock to touch and no ruin to walk around. What you visit is a place, and the honest truth that nobody knows exactly where in that place the Law Rock stood. Most Golden Circle stops at Þingvellir, including our Golden Circle day with Secret Lagoon, walk the gorge path that passes it.

What was Lögberg?

Lögberg was the centre of the Alþing during the Icelandic Commonwealth, from about 930 to 1262. For two weeks every summer it was the place where the assembly was opened and closed, where the Law Council's decisions were announced, where the calendar was confirmed and where legal actions were formally proclaimed.

It was also open to everyone. Anyone attending the assembly could step up to Lögberg and present their case or speak their mind on matters of importance. In a country with no king, no army and no capital, this ledge was the closest thing Iceland had to a seat of government.

The Law Speaker

The central figure at Lögberg was the Law Speaker, lögsögumaður, who recited the laws of the Commonwealth aloud. Nothing was written down at first, so he held the whole legal code in his memory. Over his three-year term he recited all of it in instalments, and every summer he had to go over the rules of procedure.

The Law Council, Lögrétta, chose him, and he was the only paid official the Commonwealth had. During the assembly he was arguably the most powerful person in Iceland. For the rest of the year he had no formal power at all, though his standing carried weight.

Laws were first written down in the winter of 1117–18, and the Commonwealth code later became known as Grágás. Even then, the Law Speaker kept his role at Lögberg until the Commonwealth ended.

What happened at Lögberg

The best-known day at Lögberg came in the summer of 1000. The assembly had split into pagan and Christian camps, each with its own Law Speaker and each refusing to accept the other's laws. Njáls saga describes the two sides naming witnesses at Lögberg and shouting each other down until nobody could hear a word.

The way out was a compromise. Both sides agreed that the pagan Law Speaker, Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði, would decide. He withdrew for a night and a day, then walked to Lögberg and announced that all Icelanders would be Christian, while pagans could still worship in private. Iceland changed religion without a war.

Nearly a thousand years later, Lögberg was chosen again for a turning point. When the Republic of Iceland was founded in 1944, the declaration was made at Lögberg. Þingvellir has since hosted the great national festivals of 1974, 1994 and 2000.

Why nobody knows where the Law Rock was

Lögberg lost its purpose in 1262, when Icelanders accepted the authority of the Norwegian king under the covenant known as Gamli sáttmáli. The Alþing carried on as a court until 1798, but the Law Council became its only body, and the Law Rock fell out of use. Within a few generations, people were no longer sure exactly where it had been.

The landscape has not stood still either. The valley floor has sunk by almost 4 metres since 930, the river Öxará has shifted its course and laid down silt, and earthquakes have reshaped the edges of the fissures. The ledge people stood on in the 10th century may not look the same, or be in quite the same position, today.

The candidate sites

The national park names two locations as the most likely:

• The flat ledge at the top of the slope called Hallurinn, north of the Hamraskarð pass, where the flagpole stands today
• Inside the Almannagjá fault itself, up against the higher western wall

Other ideas have come and gone. In the 18th and much of the 19th century, people identified Lögberg with Spöngin, the long spit of lava between the branches of the Flosagjá fissure east of the river, which is still sometimes called the Heathen Law Rock or the Old Law Rock. A site in the Hestagjá ravine has also been proposed. Archaeology may narrow it down one day, but the park itself doubts the spot will ever be pinned down for certain.

Lögberg and the Law Council

Lögberg did not work alone. A short distance away, the Law Council, Lögrétta, met in a ring of benches: 48 chieftains on a central platform, each with two advisers, plus the bishops once Iceland had them. They made and amended the laws and settled disputes, then announced the results at Lögberg so that the whole assembly heard them.

After 1262 the balance flipped. With the Law Rock redundant, Lögrétta became the whole Alþing, a court with limited powers that met in a small building west of the river from 1594 until the last session in 1798.

What you see at Lögberg today

The path through Almannagjá passes right below the flagpole. Steps lead up to a viewing platform on the Hallurinn slope with information panels, and from there you look east over the assembly plain, the river and the church. If the flagpole site is right, this is the view the speakers had, give or take a few metres of subsidence.

Look down at the grassy plain and you can pick out the low outlines of booths, the turf-walled shelters where people lived during the assembly. Right next to Lögberg is Snorrabúð, one of the larger booth sites, which may have belonged to the chieftain Snorri goði and later to his descendant Snorri Sturluson, himself a Law Speaker and the author of the Prose Edda.

The 19th-century English artist W. G. Collingwood painted Lögberg during his travels in Iceland, and his pictures still shape how people imagine the scene. The national park's history of Lögberg shows one of his paintings.

How to get to Lögberg

Lögberg is inside Þingvellir National Park, about 40 km north-east of Reykjavík on Route 36. Park at P1 Hakið, at the upper end of Almannagjá, and walk down into the gorge from the viewing platform by the visitor centre. The flagpole is an easy 10 to 15 minutes along the path.

The parking fee is 1,000 ISK for a passenger car with five seats or fewer, and one payment covers P1, P2 and P5 for the day. You can also walk up to Lögberg from P5 Valhöll near the church, across the river and up through the Hamraskarð pass.

For the full walk through the gorge and what else you pass on the way, see our guide to Almannagjá gorge and its path.

How long to spend at Lögberg

Fifteen to twenty minutes is enough to read the panels, take in the view and picture the assembly below. Most people fold Lögberg into a one-hour loop from Hakið through the gorge and back, or a two-to-three-hour walk that adds Öxarárfoss, the booth ruins and the church.

Best time to visit Lögberg

The site is open all year. The platform gets crowded in the middle of the day in summer, when several coach groups can arrive at once, so early morning or after 17:00 is calmer. In summer the free English ranger walk from the Hakið visitor centre at 14:00 covers the assembly's history, which is the best way to hear it told on the spot.

In winter the path and steps can be icy, so wear boots with good grip.

Things to do near Lögberg

Lögberg sits in the middle of the historic area, so everything else is close. North along the gorge is Öxarárfoss, the waterfall the river makes after it was diverted into Almannagjá. Below the gorge, across the Öxará, you reach the booth ruins, Peningagjá and the church.

The small church and the farmhouse beside it carry the story on from where Lögberg leaves off, with churches on that spot since 1017. Our page on Þingvallakirkja and the farmhouse covers what is inside and when it is open.

Silfra, the snorkelling fissure, is a few minutes' walk beyond the church near the P5 car park, and Þingvallavatn, Iceland's largest natural lake, stretches away to the south.

For parking, visitor centre hours and the rest of the park, start with our Þingvellir National Park guide.

Photo: Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons