| Summary: | 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.
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