Thing (assembly)
![Germanic thing, drawn after the depiction in a relief of the Column of Marcus Aurelius (AD 193)](/Images/godic/202501/13/Germanische-ratsversammlung_1-1250x7153743.jpg")
![The Icelandic Althing in session, as imagined in the 1890s by British artist W. G. Collingwood.[4]](/Images/godic/202501/13/Law_speaker3743.jpg")
![Þorgnýr the Lawspeaker showing the power of his office to the King of Sweden at Gamla Uppsala, 1018. The lawspeaker forced King Olof Skötkonung not only to accept peace with his enemy, King Olaf the Stout of Norway, but also to give his daughter to him in marriage. Illustration by C. Krogh.](/Images/godic/202501/13/Olav_den_helliges_saga_CK53743.jpg")
A thing (Old Norse, Old English and Icelandic: þing; German, Dutch: ding; modern Scandinavian languages: ting) was the governing assembly of a Germanic society, made up of the free people of the community presided over by lawspeakers. Its meeting-place was called a thingstead.