Íslenzkt þjóðerni: Jón Jónsson Aðils’ Iceland and the road to the future
Abstract In the early twentieth century, historiography was used to further the cause of independence by profiling Iceland as a fully-fledged nation. The Icelandic historian Jón Jónsson Aðils was the man who would shape Iceland’s history, and the nation with it, in his work Icelandic Nationhood . Hi...
Published in: | European Journal of Scandinavian Studies |
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Main Author: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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Walter de Gruyter GmbH
2018
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ejss-2018-0013 http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/ejss.2018.48.issue-2/ejss-2018-0013/ejss-2018-0013.xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ejss-2018-0013/xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ejss-2018-0013/pdf |
Summary: | Abstract In the early twentieth century, historiography was used to further the cause of independence by profiling Iceland as a fully-fledged nation. The Icelandic historian Jón Jónsson Aðils was the man who would shape Iceland’s history, and the nation with it, in his work Icelandic Nationhood . His achievement was not self-evident; Iceland was part of the Danish realm and glorifying the past met with restrictions. This paper aims to illustrate how in this setting Aðils succeeded in constructing the Icelandic nation with the aid of existing Danish nationalist thought. I propose that using ideas of the famous Danish nationalist N.F.S. Grundtvig enabled Aðils to construct an Icelandic ’Golden Age’ specifically focused on culture and freedom that held future prospects. Finally, I will discuss the consequence of this focus as a decisive factor in the development of Icelandic self-awareness, aiming to contribute to the larger debate on the creation of national identities. |
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