The lögsögumaður (pl. lögsögumenn, Old Norse lǫgsǫgumaðr, -menn) was the sole government official of the mediaeval Icelandic Republic. He was elected for a term of three years and was supposed to declaim the law at Alþingi, a third of it each summer. In fact, Grímur Svertingsson's term was cut short, not because of incompetence or illness, but because his voice was too weak for the job. Apart from his function as a lawsayer and chairman of the court, the lögsögumaður had no formal power, but he would often be appointed as an arbitrator in the frequently arising disputes. The office lingered on for a few years in the transitional period after 1262, after which it was replaced with a lögmaður. The traditional date for the founding of Alþingi is 930 with Úlfljótur appearing as a founding figure and the original author of the laws. Scholars are understandably suspicious of the fact, that his first two successors have been assigned a period in office of exactly 20 summers each, but from Þorkell máni on, the chronology is probably correct. Names are given in their modern Icelandic form.