Historical Overview
The main noteworthy things in Icelandic history that come to mind are:
Thingvellir - the world's first parliament,
Viking stories, Icelandic Sagas, Norse mythology, Iceland's independence from
Denmark and lastly famous and historical Icelanders - including the Western
world's first female president and the Nobel laureate Halldor
Laxness.
Thingvellir is covered elsewhere and so are famous and historical Icelanders, under their respective categories. Norse mythology I will not go into at this point, but will probably in the future, but the Vikings, religion and our independence I will cover slightly, along with some other tidbits.
Also, for another nice overview of Iceland and some of it's history click here.
The Vikings
The Viking settlers that originally inhabited Iceland in 874 are believed
to have been mostly Norwegian outlaws. Fleeing from their punishments in Norway,
or just the general rule of the Norwegian king, they settled in Icelandic
places they believed the god Thor had chosen for them.
This is covered better under the "Vikings" category, but here is a little bit on their…
…mythology, religion and beliefs
The first heathen Vikings, believing in the Norse gods, arrived in Iceland
in 874. Less than 130 years later, Christianity was adopted. In Iceland today
the national religion is a Lutheran-protestant one, but many other religions
flourish and Iceland caters for Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Catholics and
more.
In previous times, religion was very closely related to the actions of nature,
as there were volcanic eruptions and all the geothermal energy, not to mention
the Northern Lights and more. All of this had to be explained somehow and
before science found a logical explanation for all of it, it was all attributed
to some higher beings.
As an example, volcanic eruptions were usually linked with hell or the wrath
of god/the gods and the Northern Lights were the gods travelling in the sky.
For more on these natural phenomena check out the "geography" section but for more on the religion and related material check out some of these books and these DVD's at amazon.com
The story of our independence
Ever since the settling of Iceland in 874 and to this day, Iceland has had
an Independence battle of some sort. To begin with, it was about defining
our own identity, but then we had to live under the reign of Norwegian and
Danish royalty and the battle turned towards getting away from that reign
(which was part of the whole reason of moving to Iceland in the first place).
Even in the 1500's when the Danish King decreed a change of religion (from
Catholicism, to the protestant Lutheran way) that was regarded by many as
an attack at our independence. (You have to bear in mind that, despite being
under the rule of a foreign monarch, we still had our Althing; we were in
many ways left alone to our decisions - to some extent at least - and have
always been very independent and even rebellious people.)
This, however, also meant that we were not as well protected as we should
have been and had foreign poachers and Algerian barbarians (incorrectly noted
in our history books as Turks), which not only pillaged our belongings, but
also abducted and killed a lot of people.
Then in 1662, the Icelandic "rulers" were forced to sign an agreement, which granted the Danish King absolute monarchy.
Around 1850 the Icelandic Jon Sigurdsson fought for a special constitution
for Iceland, but lost. He was, however, to go on fighting for the rights of
Iceland and is regarded an important historical figure. In fact Jon Sigurdsson
can rightly be dubbed the main character in the play that was Iceland's battle
for independence.
(As a side note, he can currently be found on our 500kr. bank notes.)
The battle went on, however and our rights gradually increased. Our fishing zones were extended; women were getting some rights (such as being allowed to have possessions of their own and later limited election rights); we got a new constitution on the 1000-year anniversary of the Icelandic settlement; Hannes Hafstein, an Icelandic lawyer and Sheriff, was appointed the first Minister of Iceland in 1904 when we got our Home Rule under Denmark.
In this last century things have been moving fast. In 1917 the post of Minister of Iceland, was changed to Prime Minister, we got a whole cabinet instead of only one minister!
Iceland got its first bank in 1886 and started developing political parties
and the rights of women and non-possession holding men kept on increasing
with election rights in 1915.
In 1918 Iceland was recognised as a sovereign state.
In 1940 British troops arrive, as Germany had just taken over Denmark and
the British don't want them taking Iceland as well. At that point we had to
take foreign affairs into our own hands. A year later, the U.S. troops arrive
instead to defend us from the Germans (part of the German's desire to seize
Iceland was that we are strategically a good point between Europe and America,
not to mention the strange Nazi belief of Icelanders' purity).
Then in 1944 we take the opportunity to form a republic and cut all ties with
the King of Denmark.
Today, U.S. troops still handle Icelandic defences and we have a very good relationship with the Danish people and government.
The main historical events of the last 60 years since our independence include:
Joining the United Nations and NATO, extending our fishery zones to 200 miles
and fighting a "Cod-War" with British fishermen, having the first
democratically elected female president (Vigdís
Finnbogadóttir), hosting the cold-war world leader summit of Reagan
and Gorbachev, joining EEA, joining the International Whaling commission and
more.
Lastly, Iceland's presidents from 1944 to date, in the correct order, are:
Sveinn Björnsson (1944-1952)
Ásgeir Ásgeirsson (1952-1968)
Kristján Eldjárn
(1968-1980)
Vigdís
Finnbogadóttir (1980-1996)
Ólafur Grímsson (1996- to date)
Addition:
Öskjuhlíð and Nautholsvik
In the middle of Reykjavik, you will find a nature reserve known as Öskjuhlíð.
This contains a cemetery, Fossvogskirkjugarður, an artificial geyser and
a restaurant/café/viewpoint built on top of hot water tanks, Perlan.
If you acquire some knowledge of the place, you will hear of Nautholsvik,
which is a beach and you will notice some remains from World War II - mainly
bomb shelters and such.
These places therefore obviously bear some historical significance in Iceland and I have therefore included a small bit on Nautholsvik - which also stands true for Öskjuhlíð itself - from a piece not written by me:
"Nauthólsvík saw lots of action during the war. A pier was built and used by a Norwegian air force unit, based in Nauthólsvík. The pier was also used for offloading British aeroboats. After the war Danish and English glaciologists used the pier before and after exploring glaciers in Greenland. Iceland, too, had some aeroboats, mostly used for domestic airline flights, and those were stored in Nauthólsvík.
In the years of the war a Transit camp was built near Nauthólsvík, housing pilots and others passing through Reykjavík airport. After the war the 'Flight Hotel' operated for a number of years on behalf of the Flight council. Some of the camp buildings are still standing.
Nauthólsvík used to be Reykjavík's one and only beach where inhabitants could bathe in sun and sea. People started frequenting the place some time before WWII. In 1948 the City general doctor proposed bathing facilities in Nauthólsvík, and his proposition was repeated in 1962 and 1967. In the 1950's the beach was very popular. Four retreats for sunbathers were prepared in the grown land in the west end of Nauthólsvík. A few dozen people could bathe there at a time. Places where aeroboats had been stored in the war were also used by sunbathers as shelters from the storm. Around 1960, various measures were taken to improve the facilities considerably. Yellow sand and seashells were dumped on the beach and in the sea. Sea temperature was also on the up after the District heating decided to pump superfluous geothermal waters from its tanks on Öskjuhlíð hills into the sea."
By Yngvi Þór Loftsson - Provided by the Reykjavik Tourist Information Centre
Final Words
I hope this very brief glimpse into Iceland's history has been enough
to get you interested or perhaps quench some thirst for knowledge that you
might have had.
More text might appear here in the future, so if there is anything in particular
that you are interested in, by all means let
me know.
Some other bits and bobs of historical facts can be found here and there around this site, but if you're looking for something more than that, try:
[LINKS]
Here is a
german website in English, that certainly was a good, indirect source
of memory refreshment for some of the material here.
And two other very good sites on Iceland and its history are:
http://www.lysator.liu.se/nordic/scn/faq51.html
and
http://www.geographia.com/iceland/history.htm
as well as my links page.
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