BOOK
ABSTRACT
Páll Björnsson
Jón Sigurðsson´s Afterlife
Commemoration of a national hero from his demise to the present
(Jón Sigurðsson allur? Táknmyndir þjóðhetju frá andláti til samtíðar)
Reykjavik: Sögufélag, 2011
ISBN: 978-9979-9902-5-3
This is a study of the commemoration of Jon Sigurdsson from his death in
1879 to the bicentennial of his birth in 2011. He has long been recognized as a
unifying symbol, not only in Iceland but also among Icelandic immigrants in North
America. By focusing on a wide range of popular representations, the book offers an
extensive analysis of how Sigurdsson’s public images have been utilized to shape an
Icelandic national identity. As such, the book examines the process through which he
emerged as a national icon, both in its textual and performative dimensions. Based
on numerous and diverse sources, including archival, printed, and ethnographical
materials as well as oral accounts, material artifacts, photographs, souvenirs,
museum exhibitions and monuments, the work elucidates how the collective
memory of a singular figure played a formative role in the creation of a nation-state.
Around the middle of the 19th century, Jon Sigurdsson became the leader of
the Icelandic independence movement. From Copenhagen, where he spent most of
his life, he fought the Danish rule of Iceland by conducting historical research and
writing political essays. He was also a long-time speaker of the Icelandic Parliament,
which gathered every other summer in Reykjavik, an assembly that served as a
consultant body to the Danish authorities. By the end of his life, these various
undertakings had earned him the status of a national hero.
The study opens with the death of Jon Sigurdsson in Copenhagen. It considers
how his funeral in Reykjavik was transformed into a magnificent national festival in
which he was celebrated as the “founding father” of modern Iceland and the savior
of Icelandic nationhood. It should be noted, however, that an Icelandic nation-state
was only founded decades after his death, beginning with the concession of home
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rule from Denmark in 1904, the rights of sovereignty in 1918, and, finally, republican
status in 1944. The following chapters explore the exploitation of the images of Jon
Sigurdsson, both how he was portrayed as well as the way in which efforts to
(re)make an Icelandic national identity was constructed, based on his images.
The process of altering the date of the national holiday of Iceland represents
the strength of the image of Jon Sigurdsson. This holiday had once been the 2nd of
August, commemorating the adoption of a new constitution in 1874 and the
thousand-year settlement of Iceland. But it was changed in the 1910s to June 17th,
Sigurdsson´s birthday. This unusual process was fuelled by tension between new
nationalist movements, including associations of athletes, who began using Jon
Sigurdsson and his birthday as a vehicle for their politics in the early 20 th century. In
other words, this was a cultural and a social force emanating from the bottom, from
“below”. Moreover, in 1944, the republic was founded on Sigurdsson´s birthday and
in the wake of that decision, the authorities institutionalized the celebration of his
life, work, and images on a national level, an action taken from “above”.
The book focuses on various realms of memory through which Jon Sigurdsson
has gained the exposure needed for his consecration in the Icelandic public mind.
Indeed, he has been memorialized in a number of ways in the course of the 20th
century, for example through exhibitions, publications, including numerous
biographies and schoolbooks, stamps, coins, banknotes, artifacts, festivals, and
monuments. Things that belonged to Sigurdsson have also become sacred
ornaments, both in private homes and public places. Indeed, the popular penchant
to associate with Jon Sigurdsson has sometimes taken on curious forms. For
example, an analysis of Icelandic obituaries, written in the last decades,
demonstrates how many of Sigurdsson’s compatriots claim to be genealogically or
geographically related to him. Similar enthusiasm can be seen in the way families
have decorated the walls of their living rooms with photos of Sigurdsson.
Furthermore, his grave in the Old Reykjavik cemetery, his main dwellings, and his
birthplace, Hrafnseyri, an isolated farm in a remote fjord in North-Western Iceland,
have been organized as places of pilgrimage and sites of sacred ceremonies. The
same is true of the chief monument of Jon Sigurdsson, an oversized statue on a
mighty pedestal in the front of the parliament building in Reykjavik, where a large
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flower-wreath from the people of Iceland is laid by the head of state on his birthday
every year. Such ceremonies express the sacred character of these acts of
commemoration.
This book also investigates the ideological dispositions and political
configurations of the heritage of Jon Sigurdsson. It reveals that up to the present
day, he has regularly been referred to as if he were still alive, particularly in political
debates. Although his political views were rather typical for a 19th-century European
national-liberal, his images have been employed in the 20th century by individuals
from across a broad political spectrum, including conservatives and communists. In
attempts to gain public support for their respective political agendas, all of these
groups regarded themselves as genuine, ideological successors of Sigurdsson.
Frequent references to him in ongoing debates about possible membership of
Iceland in the European Union unveil how vibrant his image still is. All these various
attempts illuminate the ways in which different groups seek to shape the past to
their own ends.
This study demonstrates that the agents responsible for constructing the
images of Jon Sigurdsson were extremely diverse, private and public, including
individuals, families, associations, companies, politicians, and civil servants. In other
words, the images were constructed from “below” and from “above”. But despite
this variety, most of the players in this story were men. Focusing on the gender
aspect of the commemoration of Sigurdsson, the study also reveals that these
historical actors participated in the marginalization of women, particularly in the
decades following his death. For example, festivities were organized in ways that
would foster the active roles of men but consign women to passive positions.
In short, a cult which was formed around Jon Sigurdsson immediately after
he died has been maintained up to the present. A national poll, conducted for this
project in 2009 among Icelanders, age 18 to 80, shows that even though they are not
particularly knowledgeable about his work and contributions (e.g., almost one fifth
believed he was the first president of the republic), an overwhelming majority
thought it was important to further his commemoration. Therefore, Jon Sigurdsson
seems to have become an independent trademark, embraced by different kinds of
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people, and used as a model for the nationalist socialization of new and modern
Icelanders.
A note on the author:
Páll Björnsson studied history at the University of Iceland, Universitaet Göttingen,
and Universitaet Freiburg. Specializing in modern German history, he wrote his
Ph.D.-thesis at the University of Rochester (NY). He has been a research fellow at the
Institut fuer europaeische Geschichte in Mainz, the Center for Research in the
Humanities at the University of Iceland, and the Nordeuropa Institut at the
Humboldt Universitaet zu Berlin. He served as the chair of the Icelandic Historical
Association in 2000–2004, and he was an editor of SAGA, the main history journal in
Iceland in 2003–2008. Currently, he is Professor in the School of Humanities and
Social Sciences at the University of Akureyri in northern Iceland.
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