Saga - 1992, Page 80

78
ADOLF FRIÐRIKSSON OG ORRI VÉSTEINSSON
Summary
Description of ancient monuments in Iceland has to a large extent relied on
toponymic tales. Such explanations have found their way into antiquarian-
ism and archaeology and now form the basis of understanding of a wide
variety of archaeological features. Among these are the so-called court circles
(dómhringar) and law courts (lögréttur). Both are mentioned in medieval lit-
erature, the latter only as the law giving body of the Alþing, but the former
can be understood to have been a construction of some sort, traditionally
regarded as being the setting for the discussions of a panel of judges.
Antiquarian interest in court circles can be traced back to the beginning of
the 19th century and much of our information on these ruins is derived frorn
surveys commencing in 1817 and in 1839. In both cases questionnaires were
circulated to parish priests, who were asked, among other things, to record
and describe court circles. It is clear from the answers that the priests were
eager to fulfill their task, but did not have a very clear idea what court circles
were supposed to be or what their characteristics were. Also many of the
identifications made are simply speculations or based on tenous links with
tales of human sacrifice, trials and executions. Later in the 19th century his-
torians, philologists and antiquarians were undertaking systematic research
on the „Golden Age" of Iceland, the Commonwealth period 930-1262. This
can be linked directly to growing national awareness and the struggle for
independence from Denmark. An important aspect of this research was the
reconstruction of the institutions of the Commonwealth. From the antiquar-
ians' point of view that meant mainly locating spring assembly sites, both
those mentioned in the medieval literature and others which the antiquar-
ians calculated must have existed. Most of these sites were identified with
the help of place names or simply by poetic insight. Assembly sites were re-
garded as consisting of booths and court circles, and the latter were consi-
stently looked for as a necessary feature for positive identification. Although
no criteria were established as to the characteristics of court circles, or indeed
spring assemblies, the fruits of the antiquarians' tremendous labours in the
last decades of the 19th century still form the background to current scholar-
ly thinking regarding the structure and institutions of the Commonwealth.
Ideas on the numbers and boundaries of chieftaincies and jurisdictions are
directly and indirectly based on the 19th century antiquarians' „confirma-
tions" of locations of assembly sites.
In this article the authors set out to examine the validity and origins of the
concept court circle in Icelandic history and archaeology. The point of depar-
ture was to study the medieval literature. In short, the evidence is confusing
and meager in quantity, but it seems that in the 13th century the concept was
understood in two distinct ways. On the one hand it meant a panel of judges
sitting in a circle, i.e. not a construction, and on the other a circle of stones
within which heathen sacrifices took place. Neither of the two definitions
justifies the use of the concept in the 19th and 20th centuries, but the possi-
bility remained that the ruins themselves and the names attached to them