Further adventures in space and time

[shewhomust]

As with geography, so with history: I keep misreading Iceland.

It's easy to slip into thinking of Iceland as 'an old country' - as if this expression means anything. The presentation of Ieland to tourists - and that includes internal tourists - relies heavily on the sagas, and before them, on tales of the Age of Settlement. You are constantly invited to think of Iceland's history as starting with a First Settler in the ninth century, and recounted in the sagas of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; everything reminds you of the middle ages, which means: old.

Only, of course, not. The mere fact of being able to identify a First Settler (and for the purposes of this argument, it doesn't really matter whether Ingólfr Arnarson was really the first settler, or whether Iceland was actually settled by the Irish) indicates that the history of the country is all pretty recent.

There's an abandoned settlement called Sandfell just to the east of Skaftafell: turf banks which mark the site of a farm, a white fence enclosing the old graveyard, and a tree (you can't miss it, it's the only tree for miles). A noticeboard explains the history of the place, with reference to the sagas, which I would reproduce here if I could only remember which guide book I read it in. It's a peaceful, evocative place. But the farm was not actually abandoned until the 1940s - those memories of the remote past are actually overlaying the changes of a much more recent period, the time at which Iceland was at last and rather self-consciously becoming a modern independent nation.

Far from being an old country, Iceland is a very new one. Old buildings don't survive, but are constantly rebuilt. I am writing this tonight in the oldest hotel in Iceland: it dates back to 1884. It's like being in the US, where a house built in 1900 can be historic.

Something else which keeps misleading me: the elements of the Icelandic language which I recognise are often analogous to older English terms. All the place names, the Dales and the Wicks and the Burys: the wording on the map which reads
"Þú ert hérna" - thou art here.

Even the geology of Iceland is new: most places do geology first, then history, but not here - in Iceland, geology just keeps on happening.

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

It took me a while, as an American, to realize how new Iceland was--to me a thousand years of recorded history seemed pretty old, but then I remembered that compared to the rest of Europe, that's not old at all--and that more, being a new country seems to be part of the local identity (even aside from being an again-independent country being very recent indeed).

And the geology ... yeah, the newness of the physical land is mind-boggling, by any standards.

One of the more striking moments our last trip was standing at the site where Njal's farmhouse burned down a thousand years ago, and seeing out to the island of Surtsey, which isn't much older than I am.

[janni.livejournal.com]

And yeah, I didn't realize how fast turf houses decay--it's easy to miss many of their ruins, too, because they melt so quickly back into the earth.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

One of the more striking moments our last trip was standing at the site where Njal's farmhouse burned down a thousand years ago, and seeing out to the island of Surtsey, which isn't much older than I am.

Yes. That, exactly.

And it's not that I'm blasé about a thousand years of recorded history, a thousand years ago feels pretty old to me, too. And then I remember that that record isn't standing on top of any previous unrecorded history (as it is even in America!) and I come over all dizzy.

[janni.livejournal.com]

That's true--everything begins by the 8th or 9th century, without even any real ruins to excavate from before then to show signs of those who came before. Hadn't quite looked at it that way, but that is boggling.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

You do realise that after all your pictures and writings, I simply MUST visit Iceland. You should be getting kickbacks from their Tourism Board.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

You should be getting kickbacks from their Tourism Board.

If only! I accept payment in knitwear!

Seriously, I'm just glad you like!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Thanks for a really interesting post - right up my street!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

It's like being in the US, where a house built in 1900 can be historic.

Houses built in England in 1900 can be historic, though I know what you mean. In most of the places in the U.S. that's about as old as you get. (Not here in Philadelphia, of course, where we try to tear down the turn-of-the-century stuff to save the colonial and Federal, but most places.)

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's fair. I was generalising a bit. Nonetheless, some of that feeling of being a young country, very conscious that independence doesn't just happen, it has to be achieved - it does remind me of the US.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeed. My great-aunt could remember her great-grandfather, born in 1817 (and died in 1915, when she was 7) and who thus more than likely had first-hand memories of Revolutionary War veterans. Until she died a few years back, we could in theory have had Revolutionary War stories that were only thirdhand. Not an ancient country.