Islenzkt pjooerni:Jon Jonsson Aoils' Iceland and the road to the future

• Published in: European Journal of Scandinavian Studies
• Main Author: Middel, Kim
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/11370/7775a9f8-56c7-4246-beca-1802c35d4030; https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/7775a9f8-56c7-4246-beca-1802c35d4030; https://doi.org/10.1515/ejss-2018-0013; https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/77511759/_European_Journal_of_Scandinavian_Studies_slenzkt_jerni_Jn_Jnsson_Ails_Iceland_and_the_road_to_the_future.pdf

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 Jon Jonsson Aoils was the man who would shape Iceland's history, and the nation with it, in his work Icelandic Nationhood. His achievement was not selfevident; Iceland was part of the Danish realm and glorifying the past met with restrictions. This paper aims to illustrate how in this setting Aoils 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 Aoils 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.