ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the administrative systems and some of the major assembly sites established as a result of the Norse expansion and settlement in the colonised lands west of Scandinavia. In terms of administrative and assembly functions, Iceland during the Commonwealth Period has the richest written legacy, ranging from the detailed laws of Gragasto ‘The Book of Settlements’ (Landnamabok) and the sagas. In this chapter Thorsteinsson’s work has been used in conjunction with the 17th-century court books, as well as place-names and archaeological and landscape features to try to examine the earlier sites. The identification of assembly sites in the Danelaw proceeds from place-name identification, both for documented venues of assembly and assembly-attesting toponyms. The broad geographic approach of The Assembly Project has made it possible to compare the assembly systems known in Scandinavia, to those identified in Iceland, Faroe Islands, Northern Isles, and in the northern Danelaw in Yorkshire.
