Talk:Althing

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This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Move

Moved because links on Ting point to the native names, for example folketing, Løgting and others. --Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 14:59, 2004 Jun 22 (UTC)

Shouldn't we use the English name? WhisperToMe 09:35, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Never mind. WhisperToMe 19:16, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)

But there is no (established) English word for folketing - 'folkthing' would be natural, but the OED does not list it. Althing has existed since the late nineteenth century (and isn't it closer to the Old Norse?).

This also appears to be Wikipedia policy, as I read Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English). Comments? Septentrionalis 22:30, 22 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

High Court 1800-1845

Someone please check my work. There was a reference to "this same royal decree" but no prior reference to a decree. I puzzled over the Icelandic Alþingi article and I think I got it right. It's been 20 years since I studied the language. -- Alarob 22:13, 18 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Oldest still-acting Parliament in the world"

Them's mighty big words, especially compared to the established claim later in the article that the Althing is the oldest Parliament in Europe. The Manx Tynwald has a documented claim to have been in continuous action since 979. Does anyone have a source? - mholland 18:18, 13 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The Althing was established in 930 and has existed continuously since then. --D. Webb 20:43, 13 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"The Althing was disbanded by royal decree in 1800" (this article); "The modern parliament, called "Alþingi" (English: Althing), was founded in 1845 as an advisory body to the Danish king." (from Iceland). From what I understand, the current body is an establishment in the spirit of the original (and making a claim of authority based on that tradition), but in no real sense directly connected. Isn't it a bit of a POV stretch to say that it's the oldest still-acting Parliament in the world? - mholland 22:47, 13 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No POV pushing at all. Althing has always been a parliament and is generally regarded as the oldest one in the world, despite the few decades when it was discontinued. Few sources in English:

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0002850.html http://www.danstopicals.com/iceland.htm http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761570543/Althing.html http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,763855,00.html http://www.interedu.com/include.php3?file=mbacia00

Regards, Introgressive 01:30, 28 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It has not existed continuously; and most of the time under the Danes it was an appointed High Court of Justice. But its claim to be the oldest is both traditional and defensible. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 21:37, 14 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I believe the Faroese Løgting predates it. 212.242.233.106 (talk) 15:23, 7 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Althing versus Althingi

Just noting that "Althing" isn't necessarily the only English rendition. Iceland's embassy in the U.S. uses Althingi on its English-language FAQ. The U.S. State Department's background notes on Iceland also uses Althingi, as does the National Geographic Society, though the CIA World Factbook uses Althing. — OtherDave

But Althing is by far the most common, and more common in English than Alþing; we should be accessible to our readers. As to the general question of Icelandic names, I think a doctrinaire adherence to thorn to be both unwise and unhelpful; but they are a far more difficult question than this established name. I have therefore returned this article to the name it bore until it was unwarrantedly moved last March, but I will go no further. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 21:40, 14 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Under Alþingi, Icelandic Online Dictionary has "Althing (the Icelandic legislative assembly)". To change the topic slightly, I'm curious about the statement that alþing was the Old Norse form. Fritzner's Old Norse dictionary only has alþingi, and Cleasby / Vigfússon calls alþing a "mod(ern) form" of alþingi and doesn't even give alþing a separate entry of its own. I don't remember ever seeing alþing in Old Norse, however most of my reading experience has been with texts that use normalised Old Norse orthography, and in some cases modernised orthography. A search of the Orðabók Háskólans text database produces just one example of alþing in a medieval text, namely Bjarnar saga Hítdælakappa, albeit in modernised spelling, as against 25 examples of alþing in Modern Icelandic. It offers many examples, however, of alþingi in Old Norse texts. (But note that most, though not all, of these examples are ambiguous, since alþing is identical to alþingi in oblique cases.) These texts too use modern spelling, and may have been assimilated to the modern language on minor points such as slight variants in word form. The O.H. "Database of the Written Language" contains examples of each variant from Modern Icelandic; and the texts in this database are recorded in the original spelling. Provisional conclusion: both alþing and alþingi have been used in post-medieval Icelandic, and alþingi seems to have been the norm in Old Norse too. Whether alþing was used in the medieval language as well, and, if so, to what extent and from how early, I'm not sure. Dependent Variable 15:53, 19 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Alþingi" is the accusative case. The nominative is "alþing." Foreign words are normally Anglicized from the nominative, not from other cases. 69.196.154.168 (talk) 10:14, 28 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

That's impossible because both Alþingi and Alþing are neuter nouns, which never distinguish between nominative and accuative forms in Icelandic (or, indeed, Indo-European languages in general). See Wiktionary. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 21:48, 22 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Leader of the Opposition

hwo is the Leader of the Opposition at alþingi and can you make a list of them ?

There is no such formal or even informal position and no form of address. Steingrímur J. Sigfússon is currently the head of the largest opposition party but I've never heard him referred to as "leader of the opposition". Haukur 10:42, 20 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

References in popular culture

Is it possible that the Allthing in Dan Simmons Hyperion novels is a reference to this topic? It is basically a parliment consisting of the entire internet (or what the internet has evolved into by the time the novel takes place). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.203.6.145 (talk) 06:52, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Really out of date

This article is in dire need of updating, as Hannesson is no longer Prime Minister for one thing. --94.169.164.191 (talk) 03:13, 20 March 2009 (UTC) (Actually Veratien)[reply]

Female electorate?

The article as written makes no mention of when Iceland a Female electorate or Women's suffrage.--Pawyilee (talk) 13:15, 29 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Speaking in rhyme

In Pico Iyer's book Falling off the Map, he writes, "[...] Marshall Brement, who has written beautifully of how Icelanders were the great European poets of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and how, even now, on one night a year, every member of Parliament must speak in rhyme."

I've been trying to find further evidence of this idea, but am not having any success. I've tried searching for the 3 books of poetry that Marshall Brement translated, and a few sets of keywords in google, and am not sure what to try next. Can anyone here provide pointers/RSs for corroboration? Or if it's a myth/mistruth then any background information on that? Thanks. –Quiddity (talk) 22:47, 28 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Deleting "literal" translation

You can't say it's "literally" translated as "all"-"thing" because those words are both used here in senses that are extinct in Modern English. And it's not appropriate to give a translation into Old English in a Modern English encyclopedia. What for? Work a reference to thing (assembly) into the lede perhaps, but otherwise, skip it. The "literal translation" would be "general assembly", but that's not significantly different from the definition given, "national parliament". Wegesrand (talk) 11:43, 28 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Not an expert on this, but agreed that the translation "all"-"thing" sounds bizarre and inaccurate. Snooganssnoogans (talk) 11:47, 28 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 24 June 2017

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Not moved — Amakuru (talk) 14:02, 30 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Althing → Alþingi – WP:COMMONNAME, https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=Al%C3%BEingi,Althing,Althingi,Al%C3%BEing ArniDagur (talk) 01:20, 24 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose. Media outlets in the English-speaking world use "Althing". Here is The New York Times, here is The Guardian and here is The Sydney Morning Herald. There are many more such examples. —Roman Spinner (talk)(contribs) 02:49, 24 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. Media sources will drop unusual characters for the convenience of copy editors working on deadline. But that should not be true of reference works. Oxford Reference has one entry for Althingi, one for Alþingi, and 32 for Althing. The most authoritative of the books listed, Oxford Dictionary of English and New Oxford American Dictionary, both use Althing. Whiff of greatness (talk) 04:28, 24 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. The common word in English sources is Althing. -- Necrothesp (talk) 16:23, 27 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

External links modified

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Color legend error

Infobox color legend for "Centre Party" does not match "Current Structure of the Iceland Parliament" image that it is describing (see web address below for source image). The correct color in the image is a shade of teal on 9 seats, close to the right side.

wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Althing_2019.svg

I tried to change this myself (it's currently a dark blue), but it's some kind of metadata I don't know how to edit. Here's the spot:

Centre Party (9) CaedMcG (talk) 16:59, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

As you can see, the box color is currently dark blue, not teal. I don't know how to change the "Centre Party (Iceland)/meta/color" CaedMcG (talk) 17:04, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I've just rolled back the change that User:JackWilfred made to Template:Centre Party (Iceland)/meta/color (which is the template you couldn't find, CaedMcG). I assume that Jack changed it because the dark blue is the colour the party uses — either we had it wrong or the party changed their branding — but if we're changing the colour for a party, it needs to happen across all wikis that use graphics including that colour. — OwenBlacker (he/him; Talk; please {{ping}} me in replies) 20:49, 14 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

Althingi.svg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 19:33, 24 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Where did the 930 CE date come from?

In all my research looking into this I have not seen anyone cite a single source for where the date of foundation of the Althingi (930 CE) comes from. I see a lot of “it’s generally accepted” or “it is said to have been” without any evidence to show where that number came from. I don’t want to burst any bubbles, but it seems there’s a lot of things claimed about the early history of this assembly that is simply accepted in good faith without any further investigation. Can anyone speak further on this or direct me to the original source that this 930 date came from? I would love to add a proper citation to this article as the two sources currently cited are not at all adequate or authoritative. Both articles simply make the claim of the 930 founding date and don’t speak any further on the subject. Can we please cite this properly? Sirjohnnysmall (talk) 17:32, 18 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Book of Icelanders includes a chronology which historians rely on to work out various dates of events. I possess an edition which shows in the prologue how the 930 date is derived and I suspect that most decent editions contain such information in their prologues. Stefán Örvar Sigmundsson (talk) 19:02, 18 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Unicameral or Tricameral

There is a detailed description of the Icelandic parliament in the article about Tricameralism#Icelandic_tricameralism. The Althing is listed as unicameral here which is correct? Ej159 (talk) 08:39, 7 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's been unicameral since 1991. Describing the earlier arrangement as tricameralism rathee than bicameralism feels like original research to me, note the lack of sources in that section. Bjarki (talk) 10:18, 7 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]