The Danish historian, archaeologist and politician J.J. Worsaae wrote the following in 1852: “The name of the village of Thingwall in Cheshire affords a remarkable memorial of the assizes, or Thing, which the Northmen generally held in conjunction with their sacrifices to the gods. It lies, in conjunction with several other villages with Scandinavian names, on the small tongue of land that projects between the mouths of the rivers Dee and Mersey. At that time, they generally chose for the holding of the thing , or assizes, a place in some degree safe from surprise. The chief ancient thing place for Iceland was called, like this Thingwall, namely Thingvalla, originally þingvöllr, þingvellir (pl) of the thing-fields .” The local administration that Worsaae is referring to in his 1852 book “An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland” is the Thing at Thingwall in Wirral (ON Þingvöllr , from þing =assembly and völlr =field, “Assembly Field”)...
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