From the European Migration Period (400-600 AD) there were small local countryside societies in Norway which were headed by chieftains. These societies needed laws and rules, just as we do today, but there was no national state as we now have.

The freeholder farmer was, therefore, much like a king overseeing his domain. However, the families in the small countryside societies had many common interests, and they met at the local Thing when these interests needed to be discussed.

Unlike Denmark and parts of today's southern Sweden, which formed a kingdom early in the 8th century, Norway was forcibly united by Harald Finehair and was called a kingdom only from 900 onwards.

Vikings who fled Harald's reign settled in Iceland, and formed a democracy under the so-called Althing, a gathering of all free men.