Gulating

Gulating (Old Norse: Gulaþing) is the name of both one of the first Norwegian legislative assemblies or things and one of the present-day law courts of western Norway.

The Gulaþing was an annual parliamentary assembly which took place in Gulen, on the west coast of Norway north of Bergen, from approximately 900 to 1300 AD and was one of the oldest and largest parliamentary assemblies in medieval Norway. The Gulatinget Millennium Site is a symbol of the history of this Norwegian representative form of parliament, with traditions reaching over a thousand years back in time.

Initially farmers from Western Norway met at Gulen to discuss political matters, things like taxation, the building of roads and churches, and military service. The assembly also passed judgements in civil disputes and criminal cases. Special legislation, Gulatingslova (the Gulaþing law), was drafted to aid the discussions. A fairly complete manuscript of the legislation from around 1250 has survived, Codex Ranzovianus at the University of Copenhagen; however, the text represents all the laws adopted and amended by the farmers at the thing over several centuries.

The assembly site was established early in the 10th century and the original legislative area covered the regions of Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane. Initially the Gulaþing was an 'allthing' or common assembly, where all free farmers had the right to participate. Snorri Sturlason’s Heimskringla recounts that Håkon the Good (935–961) took an active part in the parliamentary assemblies at Gulen, and under his rule the regions of Rogaland, Agder and Sunnmøre were brought into the area covered by the thing, with Valdres and Hallingdal also being incorporated later.

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