Saga - 2007, Side 70

Abstract
g u ð m u n d u r h á l f d a n a r s o n
T Ó M A S S Æ M U N D S S O N — F A I T H , T R U T H ,
T H E F A T H E R L A N D
Nearly everyone discussing the intellectual history of 19th-century Iceland has
agreed on Tómas Sæmundsson having played a key role in shaping Icelandic
nationalism in the early part of the century, and has positioned him in the same
class as for instance Baldvin Einarsson and Jón Sigurðsson. Nevertheless, Tómas
has proved somewhat of a cipher to scholars, because his ideas on organising the
Althing sound rather peculiar today, and his religious ideas have been largely
forgotten. This article, however, argues that Sæmundsson’s religious ideas were
inextricably connected to his political aims. Had he lived long enough, there is
much to indicate that he would have ranked among the foremost leaders of what
the author of this article calls „nationalist conservatism“, the core of which
involved an emphasis on nurturing Christian virtues in Iceland, along with a
belief that urbanisation and seafaring would lead to moral degradation.
While Tómas Sæmundsson is often considered a major founder of the
Icelandic independence movement, his ideas on a religious upbringing and the
morally corrupting influence of towns did not have much influence over the long
term. Likewise, nationalist hero Jón Sigurðsson’s sarcastic criticism of
Sæmundsson’s proposals on organising the Althing resulted in their never being
taken seriously, and even in their leading to lowered opinions of him. That is not
entirely fair, because in his writings Sæmundsson confronted some of the fun-
damental questions that his contemporaries wrestled with, such as how to
achieve democratic participation by the general public, what content and goals
to assign to education, and what role to have the clergy play in society. Even
though he gave no definitive answers to these questions, his reflections provide
insight into the intellectual world of an unusually well informed and widely
travelled member of Iceland’s educated class at a crossroads in the country’s his-
tory, and therefore merit full attention.
guðmundur hálfdanarson70
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