Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.09.2016, Side 12

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14 — 2016
12
Writing in ‘A Defence of Iceland’ in
1593, Arngrímur the Learned argued
that “we are seriously to consider,
what things, and how true, writers
have reported of Iceland.” Made up of
nearly thirty chapters, the document
attempts to dispel foreign myths about
Iceland by essentially shit-talking Eu-
ropean countries and bigging the is-
land up in order to convince foreigners
of Iceland’s physical and cultural prox-
imity with the so-called “civilised”
world.
Today, this inferiority complex en-
dures, a hangover of 1,000 years of
colonial rule by the Norwegians and
later, the Danes, the British, and the
Americans. While the Danes could
hardly be said to have been oppressors,
the fact that the Kingdom of Denmark
“inherited” de facto rule over Iceland
after the death of Olav IV in 1380, and
later, stripped Iceland of its political
and economic autonomy in 1660 under
Frederick III, was pivotal in stimulat-
ing the independence movement. Ask
many Icelanders back home about what
they think of the Danes, and you’ll be
lucky if they don’t spit at you. Danish
is, after all, still taught as a second
language in Icelandic schools.
The idea of a distinctive Icelandic
national “community” is much older,
however—as Arngrímur’s text attests.
Like many other nationalisms, it was
from the beginning linked to a my-
thologised concept of an enduring, dis-
tinct Icelandic population. Arngrímur
the Learned, then, fired the first shot
in the centuries-long PR campaign to
put Iceland on the map as a cultured,
Western civilisation—and the likes of
Inspired By Iceland and the tourism
board owe him much more today than
they might think.
Icelanders on display
W hen burgeon ing independence
movements began to spring up—with
mixed success—across Europe and
the so-called New World in the late
19th century, this idea of a distinct
Icelandic identity was supercharged
by the ideas of home rule and popular
sovereignty. Much of the literature of
the time attempts—with some suc-
cess—to enhance popular perception
of Iceland.
Like the Irish, the Greeks, or the
French, Icelanders of the independence
movement believed their people had
enough golden ages, foreign oppres-
sors, and unique heritage to justify
being seen as their own nation. Ice-
landers at the time—but in particular
the academics, polemicists, and art-
ists living in Denmark—went to great
lengths to demonstrate that they were
civilized Europeans deserving of a
unique nation-state among those of
mainland Europe.
It’s tempting to view this fight for
a national identity in purely political
terms—but, of course, no 19th century
nationalism was complete without its
corresponding ethnic component.
Strøget, Copenhagen’s tourist-
packed central shopping street, is dis-
similar from Reykjavík’s Laugavegur
perhaps only in scale and price. Ice-
landers frequently fly to Copenhagen
just to shop here—with cheap flights
and better retail offers ensuring that a
2135 km journey remains a more entic-
ing option than driving to Kringlan.
Walk far enough down Strøget, and
you will eventually arrive at Tivoli Gar-
dens: Denmark’s most popular tour-
ist attraction and the second oldest
amusement park in the world—and one
with a particularly sinister connection
to the history of Icelandic nationalism.
In the late 19th century, “colonial
exhibitions” were very popular among
the Danish public, and in 1905, Tivoli
was to play host to one of these exhi-
bitions of colonised people and arte-
facts—with “live exhibits” of people
from Greenland, Iceland, and the West
Indies. At the time, the announcement
of the event was met with ferocious
opposition from Icelandic intellectu-
als, leading to large protests across
Copenhagen.
The protests were not aimed at the
colonial exhibition as such, nor the
humiliation faced by the people being
“exhibited” in cages for the pleasure of
the jeering Danish crowds. Far from it.
In fact, the protestors were most upset
about the fact that Icelanders would
be exhibited with those they saw as
“savages” (in their own words). These
protests spoke to a deep anxiety about
Iceland being classified alongside non-
European, racialised Others.
Inside Iceland's complicated
relationship with the Danes
Kingdom
Come
ANALYSIS
Words
CIARÁN DALY
Art
LÓA HLÍN
HJÁLMTÝS-
DÓTTIR
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GPV.IS/DK14
“Arngrímur the Learned,
then, fired the first shot in
the centuries-long PR
campaign to put Iceland on
the map as a cultured,
Western civilisation—and
the likes of Inspired By Iceland
and the tourism board owe
him much more today than
they might think.”