Talk:Thing (assembly)

old comments
AFAIK, scandinavian "ting" shares the same origin as english "thing"(object). This could be added to the page. (added by 195.198.149.230 on 16 Nov 2004)

It would be good, if someone has the time, to produce a complete list of "thing vollr" place names in UK and other Northern European countries, with links to Wikipedia articles, in turn linked to local community/historical websites. --PeterR 12:12, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

The article doesn't mention the Sámediggis of the Sami people of Northern Scandinavia. AFAIK 'diggi' is a borrowing of the word 'ting'; and the Norwegian name for Sámediggi is Sametinget (links to Norwegian wikipedia article).

Move?
Should this not be under Thing (assembly) as the established English word for the institution? Septentrionalis 19:01, 23 May 2005 (UTC)


 * Neither is in my dictionary, which is usually pretty good. Personally, I'd rather see it at Ting (assembly) if both are acceptable?  What are the reasons for preferring Thing over Ting?  Regards, Ben Aveling 10:27, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

ting is just the modern Scandinavian form. The English is obviously thing, but it has become unfamiliar in the historic sense because the word in its current meaning of course has a much more general scope. I note we have a folkmoot article, discussing essentially the same thing. --dab (𒁳) 15:47, 4 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Pun intended?  Sky 6t  12:07, 26 March 2016 (UTC)

Additons needed
Williamborg 03:32, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Gulating
 * Lagting
 * Løgting
 * Frostating
 * Eidsivating


 * But those are already in the article. //Big Adamsky 06:52, 18 March 2006 (UTC)


 * My note was too short. Yes most of them are already in the article. The note’s intent was to serve as a reminder of my thoughts when this article reaches the top of my personal priority list&mdash;the article is already excellent and in no urgent need of improvement&mdash;but I suspect it may be asymmetric in its treatment of the Germanic/Nordic countries & I intend to propose some enhancements later. Williamborg 18:48, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Riksdag
Maybe the "riksdag" remark should be removed, since that is a borrowing from a Low or High German word similar to reichstag. 惑乱 分からん 16:54, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Husting
I was wondering if a mention of husting should be included in this article; or perhaps the articles should even be merged, for that matter... — Chris (blather • contribs •  e )  23:36, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Citation needed
I'm going to add a Citation Needed tag for "like þingvellir, the old location of the Icelandic Thing. The parliament of the Isle of Man is still named after the meeting place of the thing, Tynwald, which etymologically is the same word as "þingvellir"." I don't see how this could be the case, considering that Icelandic is a language isolate. Seems to me that that would mean it can't have a word which is 'etymologically is the same word' as something from another (and thus unrelated) language. But since I'm not an expert, I thought I'd just put the tag on it, rather than remove it. Hopefully someone can prove me wrong on this,. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Hegar (talk • contribs) 09:32, 25 December 2006 (UTC).
 * Because it isn't; all the North Germanic languages are related, including the Scandinavian tongues, Icelandic, and Manx. signature and time


 * Strictly speaking Manx is a Celtic language related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic. But Tynwald is a loanword from Old Norse, close to modern Icelandic and related to Old English. --Rumping 09:23, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Tingslag
Tingslag redirects to here, but no mention of it is made in the article, so it should be added to the article. signature and time

i feel insulted by the way the writer of this page has translated wrong. ting = can mean either thing or a meting there a cild would be acepted by the clan or new laws made. there would also be figths betwen men for insulting each other. there are three diferent ting møter(court/asembly of menn. no women were alowed ecepept if they were to be punished) folke ting (evry man could come) æte ting (only men from the same clan could come. the king is an exeption) råds ting (normaly a emergency meting between the king and the jarls and clan leaders.

Magic
Isn't "ting" short for "beating" in Magic? I'm pretty sure the word for a lucky draw is "mise." 74.74.140.229 (talk) 02:59, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

Etymology
Although the facts of the etymology is pretty clearly explained, it would be nice to have some expert opinions as to how a term for a legal event could become a generic term for any object. Apparently, according to this article, it has happened at least two different times (once in Germanic languages and once in Romance languages), but it seems like such a drastic switch in meaning.69.95.232.41 (talk) 15:06, 22 February 2008 (UTC)


 * As far as I can tell, the "thing" about this is that it's related! :) It essentially means a "matter", as in a case or situation, if you see what I mean. So, really, the meaning has retained much of the original meaning over time, if in a different sense. However, I will insert a more extensive etymology since you've brought this up. bloodofox: (talk) 00:52, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I've since inserted a solid English etymology that offers some explanations. Enjoy! bloodofox: (talk) 01:05, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

OED has to say the following: With the semantic development of the English word and its cognates, compare that of German Sache, Dutch zaak "affair, thing", originally "strife, dispute, lawsuit, cause, charge, crime" (see sake), and French chose, Italian cosa, Spanish cosa "thing" < classical Latin causa "judicial process, lawsuit, cause" (see cause); compare also classical Latin res "affair, thing", also "a case in law, lawsuit, cause"

this is a perfectly unremarkable development. Any term for a legal or formal "affair" may be weakened by being applied to random and everyday "affairs" or "things". --dab (𒁳) 15:51, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

"Parliaments" section
the section on "National parliaments and current institutions" in essence just points out that ting has become the standard term for "parliament" in Scandinavian usage. It has nothing to do with the article topic. If this article is to have a "current institutions" section, that section should examine the further development of the custom of plenary meetings of regional populations (which a parliament of elected representatives is not), e.g. in the Swiss Landsgemeinde or other instances of direct democracy. --dab (𒁳) 15:54, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

I would just like that 'ting' is not the standard term for parliament in scandinavian languages. it is used only for the specific parliament of one's country, and almost always with the appropriate prefix, such as in danish - 'folketing'. When referring to other parliaments around the world, we word 'parliament' is simply used (or 'parlament' in danish). Of course, if referring to a another country with a more specific name for their parliament, this term may be used as well, such as 'reichstag' for the german parliament. --217.157.160.83 (talk) 09:27, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

Situation in Finnland / Estonia
Shouldn't there be written some comment about the Finnish käräjät and the Estonian kärajad, which apparently denote quite similiar things, if not the same? I noted that the article used to start with A thing or ting (Old Norse, Old English and Icelandic: ting; other modern Scandinavian languages: ting, in Finland: käräjät).

JRaue (talk) 09:42, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Having assemblies was not unique to Scandinavians and other Germanic speaking peoples. The best thing would be to write an article on the Finnish-Estonian popular assemblies, like there  is one on the Slavic veche.--Berig (talk) 09:46, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Thingstead
I created a redirect of thingstead to this article and added a mention of the term to the introductory paragraph here. Are there other names for the place where a thing met? If so, we should probably add those, too. Peter Chastain (talk) 07:30, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

nordic ting reinstalled
I have undone the removal of this section. The article is about "TINGS". And so the Nordic Ting is relevant to that. The other tings are not removed just because there happen to be other parliaments in other parts of the world. Although there is much similar with RAINBOW GATHERINGS its not a rainbow gathering and did not come from the Rainbows. In 2010 there were both rainbow and ting gatherings that were separate events. The links given explain this. If you log into the Ting website there is a lot of very clear info on the history that documents it as a notable phenomenon in its own right. It has a longer pedigree than many other collective events included in wikipedia.

Of course it would be nice to have a wikipedia article on Ting - but I don't like to waste time writing articles just adding little fixes :)

yours only wanting wikipedia to be comprehensive ¨¨¨¨ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.231.182.113 (talk) 07:20, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Of course
I have removed the words "of course" from the sentence "In reality the thing was of course dominated by the most influential members of the community, the heads of clans and wealthy families, but in theory one-man one-vote was the rule." in the "Viking and Medieval society" section.

My reaction on reading that was an immediate "why 'of course'?" It feels like a demeaning value judgement implying that the people/society were so obviously corrupt that they couldn't deliver a one-man one-vote assembly in practice, unlike today's superior society. It really didn't feel like an NPOV statement. Thryduulf (talk) 22:11, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

"Confusing" tag
I tried to read this article and was pretty confused. First it said that it was a governing assembly for Germanic Societies and some Celtic (but not when, or which), and in the remainder of the article talked about Scandinavia. Also, why is the folkmoot included here? I assume they derived from a similar place (Denmark, I think where angles and saxons came from?) I am sure my narrow American history doesn't help, but could someone put some geographical and temporal ties between all these things? And "governing assembly" is not much to sink one's teeth into - it did mention "balancing" murders and the like, but did they vary in different places? Was it just to judge, or did they set laws, oral or written..etc. Thanks to anyone who has more of a clue than I do! Peacedance (talk) 01:35, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

Incomplete Information
When looking through this Wikipedia article, I noticed that much of the claims being made about the origins, development, and functions of Thing sites seems to lack citations. At the same time, there are huge gaps in the information provided about said origins, development, and functions. Much of the information available on the Gulathing and Althing sites have not yet made it into this section, and it was with these reasons in mind that I decided to add some of the missing information and the links to key Scandinavian sources discussing the topic of Thing sites in Scandinavia. Because there is a growing body of scholarly research aimed at better understanding the workings of viking society in a more nuanced and less stereotypical way, it is important that the article reflects contesting views and do not simply present one perspective that can easily be contested through a myriad of books and articles as the truth. There is an attempt at addressing confusions in the Unanswered Questions section, but the article in itself can also be updated to reflect current historical evidence. This evidence is particularly important when we want to understand origins and developments of democratic institutions in Europe. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Martineohra (talk • contribs) 14:32, 16 April 2019 (UTC)