Reykjavík Grapevine - 17.07.2015, Blaðsíða 24

24 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 10 — 2015
Iceland was one of the poorest and least developed
countries in Europe until the latter half of the 20th
century, a fact that was well relayed by visitors who
often described in detail the squalor that they had
encountered on their visits. These negative accounts
did not sit well with Icelanders, as anthropologists
E. Paul Durrenberger and Gísli Pálsson point out,
and this in turn motivated them to correct what they
perceived as misperceptions of their country.
One such attempt is Sigurður Nordal’s book
Íslenzk Menning (“Icelandic Culture”), published in
1942. Nordal, an influential Icelandic scholar, explic-
itly wanted to write a new Crymogaea, a Latin text
written in 1609 by Árngrímur Jónsson, who sought
to “defend his fatherland against ignorance and de-
ceit, to prove to the larger world that even though
Iceland is ‘neither Italy nor Greece,’ it belongs to the
society of Christians and not that of ‘pagan barbar-
ians.’”
In his 41-page preface, Nordal explains that he
originally intended to publish his book for a foreign
audience after having lived in Denmark and encoun-
tered so many people who knew little about Iceland.
He references an old Icelandic adage, “glöggt sé gests
augað” (“The guest has a sharp eye”), to explain that
it would have been ideal to have a foreigner write
such a comprehensive text about Icelanders, but that
Iceland had unfortunately received little attention
from abroad and what little had been written about
Iceland was often downright harmful.
While he originally aimed to inform foreigners
that Iceland was a great country worthy of their at-
tention, he also saw this book as an important text
for Icelanders themselves. After all, he pointed out,
it’s difficult to convince people of something that one
doesn’t believe oneself. One of a number of similarly
nationalistic books used for many years in class-
rooms, Íslenzk Menning seems to reveal Icelanders’
insecurities about being a little-known country, and
their desire to prove their greatness to the world.
Iceland’s need to prove itself to
the world
Two years after Íslenzk Menning was published,
Icelanders achieved independence from Denmark.
Some argue, however, that the independence strug-
gle didn’t end in 1944, but that Icelanders have con-
tinued to struggle for recognition from the greater
world.
This was particularly apparent in Iceland’s fi-
nancial boom and subsequent bust in October 2008,
and has been written about in a number of books
that were published in its wake. As anthropologist
Kristín Loftsdóttir points out in her essay "Vikings
Invade Present-day Iceland,” the boom, or “The
Manic Millennium” which began at the turn of the
century, “reflects the old anxiety of Icelanders that
foreigners have a misconception of them and don’t
see their uniqueness or specialness.”
University of Bifröst Professor Eirikur Berg-
mann goes into greater depth in his book Iceland and
the International Financial Crisis: Boom, Bust and
Recovery (2014). “The new business elite were hero-
ically branded outvasion Vikings (Útrásarvíkingur),
referring to Iceland’s Golden Age of the settlement
society in the 9th and 10th centuries, when Iceland-
ers were still free, before falling prey to foreign op-
pression,” Bergmann writes. “In linking the new
outvasion Vikings with this particular memory of
the past, based on a collective myth created during
Iceland’s struggle for independence from Denmark
in the 19th century, the discourse on the economic
boom was framed and explained through collective
nationalistic sentiments, which spoke directly to the
people’s postcolonial political identity.” Thus, he ex-
plains:
“In only a few years, Icelandic businessmen had
acquired the two largest and most majestic Danish
downtown department stores (Magasin du Nord and
Illum), the country’s second-largest airline (Ster-
ling) and its most prestigious hotel (D’Angleterre),
and their real estate companies not only held large
shares of the main shopping streets but also many
key government buildings. Many of these can be
considered trophy investments rather than coldly
calculated business deals, each acquisition perhaps
a statement by the former poor colony that it had
grown up and should be taken seriously on the world
stage. ”
Even from the perspective of the former CEO of
Kaupthing Bank’s UK operation, Ármann Þorvalds-
son, Iceland’s financial crisis can be traced in part
to Icelanders’ desire to be recognized by the greater
world. In his book Frozen Assets: How I lived Ice-
land’s boom and bust (2009), he argues that the na-
tion’s desire to seek fame abroad may have to do with
its small population:
“We are used to hearing jokes about the size
of the population. One story goes that on a visit to
China, ex-president Vigdís Finnbogadóttir met
with the Chinese president who, upon hearing the
population size, asked: “why didn’t you bring them
all with you!?” Ignorance about our tiny country is
also common. When shopping in a mall in Boston,
my wife Thordis was asked by a woman where she
had bought the shoes she was wearing. Upon [my
wife] responding “in Iceland,” the puzzled shopper
asked “is that on the fourth floor?” Because of these
regular insults, we Icelanders feel we need to prove
that we matter abroad. We even have a saying that
goes “recognition comes from abroad.” The Beatle
Ringo Starr came to visit Iceland for the first time
in 1984. Journalists were waiting when his private
jet landed in Reykjavík airport. As he was walking
down the steps from his aircraft an eager reporter
anxiously asked “How do you like Iceland?” Starr
of course calmly pointed out that his feet hadn’t
even touched Icelandic ground. The question be-
came a humorous saying in Iceland, but the story
gives a good insight into Icelanders’ yearning for
approval from foreigners. ”
The media’s role as the nation’s
cheerleader
In the Icelandic parliament’s Special Investigative
Commission’s report on the financial crisis, it came
to light that the media failed to report critically on
the financial sector in the years leading up to the
crisis. In addition, the media is said to have played a
role in cheerleading Iceland’s successes abroad. “Of
particular interest is how the economic expansion
was interpreted in highly nationalistic terms by the
media and leading politicians and became incorpo-
rated into Icelandic social discourses,” Loftsdóttir
writes. “Tabloids reported glowingly on the conspic-
uous lifestyles of the Business Vikings (Mixa 2009)
and gave regular updates on the intermingling of
prominent Icelanders with international superstars
(Durrenberger 1996; Pálsson 1989).”
Bergmann, too, notes the media’s role: “[…] many
Viking Capitalists were focused on Copenhagen,
Iceland’s old colonial capital. London was always
the main hub of their adventures but acquisitions
in Copenhagen were hailed in the Icelandic me-
dia – and by the Viking Capitalists themselves – as
the greatest conquests.” Meanwhile, foreign crit-
ics who spoke up via the international media after
Iceland’s first mini crisis in 2006 were dismissed:
“The criticism directly countered our postcolonial
national identity, which can explain why such words
of caution were almost categorically dismissed as
the ill-willed interference of foreign oppressors,”
Bergmann writes. “We were living in a financial fai-
rytale told through thick nationalistic rhetoric. The
anxiety many Icelanders felt over the misrepresen-
tation abroad after The Crash derives from the same
origin.”
As anthropologist Tinna Grétarsdóttir and
her artist colleagues Ásmundur Ásmundsson and
Hannes Lárusson point out in their piece “Creativ-
ity and Crisis,” “One of the conclusions in the report
of the Special Investigation Commission established
by the Icelandic Parliament in the wake of the eco-
nomic meltdown was that Icelanders should be en-
couraged to develop more ‘realistic, responsible, and
moderate identit(ies) and to engage in critical think-
ing and media literacy in order to resist the hollow
propaganda of marketing and branding masters.”
Perhaps, then, the Icelandic media should consider
the ramifications of perpetuating an image that is
not based in reality.
Iceland’s insecurities as a small island nation and former colony, and its
resulting preoccupation with being known and liked by the outside world,
have been well documented through the years.
A Faraway
And
Misunderstood
Island Words by Anna Andersen Illustrations by Bobby Breiðholt