The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.2000, Qupperneq 24

Vol. 55 #4
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
322
open a major exhibition, which tells this story
in graphic detail. They have also published a
scholarly book with a collection of essays by
forty two experts from 12 countries, evaluating
this story in the light of recent scholarship. The
title is: Vikings - The North Atlantic Saga. It
will be followed up by films, documentaries,
CD-ROM discs and other educational material,
which gradually will seep through into the his-
torical texts of American schools. Perhaps it is
not too late, even after a thousand years, to do
justice to the historical roles played by pio-
neers like Leif the Lucky and Gu5rf5ur Lorb-
jarnardottir.
The scholars at the Smithsonian use mea-
sured words in assessing the significance of
this story. They point out that through histori-
cal times, mankind had spread out from Africa,
Europe and Asia to reach even the most distant
places on earth. But there was one barrier that
had proven to be insurmountable: The North
Atlantic. The historical role of Leif Eiriksson is
to have closed the circle. He did so half a mil-
lennium ahead of Christopher Columbus. He
therefore deserves a place in the first rank
among history is most illustrious pioneers in
the annals of navigation and exploration. And
by the way: His land of birth, Iceland, can
therefore justly claim to have the longest estab-
lished relationship between any European
country and North America. It is therefore not
entirely inappropriate that Iceland serves as the
Most Honoured Nation during the Azalea fes-
tival in the year 2000 - a millennium after our
ancestors made their first journey to these
shores.
The oldest democracy
It is tempting in this context and for an
American audience to draw a comparison
between the Viking-age settlement of Iceland
from Scandinavia, the British Isles and Ireland
and the settlement in N-America in the 17th
century from England and later other European
countries. In both cases people were escaping
the constriction of authority and seeking new
opportunities to exercise their freedom. Both
settler communities were fiercely individualis-
tic and more democratic in forms of gover-
nance than the societies from which they
emanated. But there are obvious differences.
Iceland was a virgin country, so the new set-
tlers didn’t have to use violence to subjugate
an indigenous population. And conditions in
Iceland were not conducive to slavery, which
led to the liberation of slaves already in the
10th century.
But there are also certain parallels in his-
torical developments. At a time when other
European tribes were being subjugated in feu-
dalistic autocracies the Icelandic settlers cre-
ated a society of free men, based on the rule
of law, upheld by the oldest known national
parliament in the world - the Aljnngi - found-
ed in the year 930. This was an experiment in
the exercise of civil liberty, based on the rule
of law, administered through democratic pro-
cedures, but without law enforcement by any
authority, kept alive for more than 300 years,
in a spirit of compromise between rugged
individualism and traditional Nordic egalitar-
ianism. In a sense, human nature being what it
is, it was too good to be true. And when
power came to be concentrated in the hands of
few powerful chieftains, who maintained
themselves above the law, the balance was
shattered in a civil war (in the 13 C) which
was finally settled by an external force (the
Norwegian king). It took us more than 600
years to restore the balance and regain inde-
pendence. But, as this story reveals, Iceland
not only makes the claim to have the oldest
established relationship with N-America. We
also celebrate a well founded and close coop-
eration in this century between the oldest
democracy in the World and the most power-
ful democracy on Earth.
Sweet land of liberty
In more recent times we can hardly find
any European nation which has not con-
tributed to the building of this great nation of
the United States of America, through the
massive waves of immigrants that reached
these shores in the 19th century - and in some
cases right up until this day. About a fifth of
the Icelandic nation emigrated to America,
Canada and the United States, in the late 19th
century up until the first World War. Today it
is questionable if there are more people of
Icelandic descent in the motherland or in N-
America. It is part of the job of the
Ambassador of Iceland to the United States
and Canada to cultivate the ties that bind new