Gripla - 20.12.2009, Blaðsíða 88
GRIPLA88
visàvis goðar. the peculiar development of the Icelandic court system
seems to be a consequence of a shortlived attempt to establish quarter
þings, one in each quarter of the country. thereby, the judicial power of the
alþing was moved away from it, and when the quarter þings were aban
doned, perhaps because they did not prove practical, they were succeeded
by quarter courts at the alþing. this is my interpretation of the process,
admittedly based on rather little evidence, but that is the best I can offer.23
vI
The last point I wish to discuss here is the question of democracy. Is it true
that the Icelandic commonwealth was a democratic society? And, if so, was
this democracy invented in Iceland? It is easy to give a negative answer: the
commonwealth was of course not what we call a democracy nowadays.
only a limited group of men could inherit a goðorð. the right of farmers to
choose between goðar was seriously restricted. Only male farmers had this
right, no women and no male farmhands had any formal say in the choice.
But it seems to me more fruitful to look at the question of democracy in a
different way. Long ago, the Austrian-English historian Walter Ullmann
wrote that the history of political ideas in the Middle Ages was to a large
extent about two conflicting theories of government: the ascending one,
which maintained that original power was located in the people, and the
descending one, which saw the original power as located in a supreme
being. the ascending theory is the earlier one according to ullmann.24 It
seems to me fruitful to look at the question of democracy in the light of
this distinction and to call all ascending power an indication of democracy,
however small and imperfect. Seen in that way, there is no doubt that there
were conflicting forces of democratic and anti-democratic traits operative
in the Icelandic commonwealth. It seems tempting to believe that there
was somewhat more freedom in Iceland than in Europe in general, when
royal power gained increased control in European kingdoms, although
there too, royal power differed greatly from one district and one time to
another. Anyway, if there was more democracy in Iceland there is no rea
23 Gunnar karlsson, Goðamenning, 121–128.
24 Walter ullmann, Medieval Political Thought (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975), 12–13.