Ritmennt - 01.01.2004, Page 98

INGI SIGURÐSSON
RITMENNT
Summary
The Impact of the Ideology of Grundtvig on the Icelandic People. This article
deals with the impact of the ideology of the Danish ecclesiastic N.F.S. Grundt-
vig (1783-1872) on the Icelanders.
Grundtvig had a remarkablc career. Hc was a leading figure in Danish culture.
He served for decades as parson, especially prominent as a hymn-writer, but he
was also a poet, a theologian, an historian, a politician and an ideologue behind
the Danish Folk High School Movement, which was very influential in Den-
mark and which spread to the other Nordic countries. The impact of his ideol-
ogy was felt in various fields among the Icelanders. They had limited personal
contact with Grundtvig, but they wrote a good deal about him both in his life-
time and afterwards.
Grundtvig's teachings regarding religion were well known in Iceland, but his
influence on the religious outlook was limited.
Many Icelanders attended Folk High Schools in Denmark as well as in Norway
and Sweden and their stay at these schools no doubt influenced them. Some
schools were founded in Iceland which were to a considerable extent based on the
model of the Danish Folk High Schools. Thcir irnpact was also marked in some
farming colleges and schools of domestic science. Taken as a whole, Grundtvig's
teachings had much effect on the development of education in Iceland.
The Youth Societies Movement in Iceland, which became prominent from
1907 onwards, was largely inspired by the so-called Liberal Youth Societies
Movement (den frílyndte ungdomsrorsla) in Norway, which in turn was
inspired by the Danish Folk High School Movement and Grundtvigian ideology
in particular. The aims and activities of the Icelandic youth societies were in
many ways quite similar to those of the Norwegian ones. Their ideology was
highly nationalistic, and there was much emphasis on the national heritage and
on popular education. The youth societies played a prominent role in the culture
and social life of young people in many regions, especially in the countryside.
Various men who had been active in the youth societies movement became
prominent in politics.
Nationalistic attitudes among the Icelanders can be traced a long way back,
but their tenor changed at the beginning of the twentieth century. These changes
were distinctly seen in Icelandic historical writings. In this respect the influence
of the historians of the Danish Folk High School Movement, such as A.D.
Jorgensen, on the Icelanders was without doubt very considerable. It was, for
instance, displayed in the writings of two of the most prominent Icelandic his-
torians in the early twentieth century, Bogi Th. Melsteð and Jón J. Aðils, who
were deeply influenced by the movement. This emerges, for instance, in Jón J.
Aðils' popular series of lectures on the history of Iceland intended for the gen-
eral public, which were published in book form. The influence of the Grundt-
vigian ideology, partly transmitted through the Folk High Schools, is seen in a
more intense kind of nationalism than had been common before and a more
emotional mode of expression than had been evident in earlier historical writ-
ing. At the same time, ideas of historical progress which can also be found in the
historical works connected with the Danish Folk High School Movement con-
tinued to be prominent.
All things considered, the impact of Grundtvig's ideology on the Icelandic
people was very considerable and it was particularly strongly felt in the first
three decades of the twentieth century.
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