Iceland and Images of the North

Monuments to Settlers of the North: A Means to Strengthen National Identity

Júlíana Gottskálksdóttir, “Monuments to Settlers of the North: A Means to Strengthen National Identity,” in Iceland and Images of the North, ed. Sumarliði R. Ísleifsson with the collaboration of Daniel Chartier, Québec: Presses de l’Université du Québec, “Droit au Pôle” series, and Reykjavík: ReykjavíkurAkademían, 2011. Monuments to Settlers of the North: A Means to Strengthen National Identity1 Júlíana Gottskálksdóttir Einar Jónsson Museum, Reykjavík (Iceland) Abstract – In this article two topics will be discussed: a) Icelanders’ proposal to erect a memorial to the country’s first settler, Ingólfur Arnarson, and the ensuing public debate and b) the background to the memorial to Thorfinnur Karlsefni, who is said to have settled in the New World shortly after 1000 AD, and the debate that took place in North America. The principal research questions concern the role of intellectuals in the 19th and 20th centuries in raising public support for the idea of erecting the memorials to the settlers, and what arguments were adduced to promote nationalistic sentiments among the public for that purpose. Keywords – Iceland, settler, Ingólfur Arnarson, monument, Einar Jónsson, pioneer, the New World, Thorfinnur Karlsefni, Norse Introduction One November day in 1875 a group of people gathered on Austurvöllur field in the middle of the little town of Reykjavík, where a statue was to be unveiled: a gift to the Icelanders from the Copenhagen City Council to mark the millennium in 1874 of the settlement of Iceland. The statue was a self-portrait by the renowned sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844), who was of half-Icelandic descent. Although presented on the occasion of the millennium, the statue did not serve to commemorate the settlement of Iceland. Some years earlier a debate had taken place about marking this national milestone by erecting a memorial to Ingólfur Arnarson, identified as Iceland’s first settler in the medieval Landnámabók (Book of Settlements). This discussion had, however, led to nothing, but the 1 Translated from Icelandic by Anna Yates. ICELAND AND IMAGES OF THE NORTH [ 206 ] proposal had given rise to a debate about the role of public art. The idea of a monument to Ingólfur Arnarson came up again in the first decade of the 20th century. The suggestion appeared in the Danish press as a response to the idea that the Danes should present the Icelanders with a bronze cast of Thorvaldsen’s figure of the Greek hero Jason, on the occasion of a visit to Denmark by Icelandic parliamentarians in 1906. In this article two topics will be discussed: a) the Icelanders’ proposal to erect a memorial to the country’s first settler, Ingólfur Arnarson, and the ensuing public debate and b) the background to the memorial to Thorfinnur Karlsefni, who is said to have settled in the New World shortly after 1000 AD, and the debate which took place in North America. The intention is to throw light on the ideas of opinion-makers in the later 19th and early 20th centuries about the role of the settler and their conceptions of works of art commemorating him, on the conflict between the artist and those who commissioned such works, and on how their views related to the image of the North. The principal research questions concern the role of intellectuals in the 19th and 20th centuries in raising public support for the memorials and what arguments were adduced in order to promote nationalistic sentiments among the public for that purpose; in addition, the expectation of what the monument’s message would be with respect to Nordic culture, and how an artist’s radical artistic philosophy relates to ideas of the character of the Norse, will also be discussed. A Thousand Years of Iceland: A Monumental Debate The idea of memorials to honour the memory of individuals, not for their descent or family but for their work in the interests of their nation, or even of humanity as a whole, arose from the Enlightenment, and it entailed putting across a certain message to the public.2 With the rise of nationalist consciousness in the 19th century—which led both to unification, in Germany, for instance, and demands for secession and autonomy—the erection of monuments in continental Europe increased. National monuments were erected, some of them on a large scale, in honour of national heroes—both 2 Berggren 1991: 22–23. [18.217.8...