The Icelandic Commonwealth, Icelandic Free State, or Republic of Iceland (Icelandic: Þjóðveldið) was the state existing in Iceland between the establishment of the Althing in 930 and the pledge of fealty to the Norwegian king with the Old Covenant in 1262. With the possible exception of Papar, Iceland was an uninhabited island until around 870, when immigrants fleeing from the unification of Norway under King Harald Fairhair began the Norse settlement in Iceland.
Read more about Icelandic Commonwealth: Goðorð System, Court System, Warfare, Decline and Fall
Famous quotes containing the word commonwealth:
“I’the commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service, none; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
No occupation; all men idle, all,
And women too, but innocent and pure.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)