University of Groningen
The search for self-awareness Middel, Kim Peronne
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Publication date: 2018
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Middel, K. P. (2018). The search for self-awareness: The road to national identity on Iceland, sæc. xiii-xx. University of Groningen.
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Postscriptum
A brief postscriptum is called for. In the preface, I provided an example of how Icelandic self-awareness, relying as it does on language, its mediaeval literature and its supposed traditions reaching back to the Middle Ages, can manifest itself. The example that I mentioned concerned the naming of Icelandic horses and the use of farm names in the Icelandic language. As I stated, this specific case, where the same arguments that were held valid in one instance were deemed invalid in another, made it clear that there are two opposing forces at work – global recognition and insular protectionism – that make for an uncertain outcome in matters concerning things Icelandic.
To underline this last statement, it is only fair to add the fact that four years after this specific event, the tables had turned. Following the hard work of an Icelandic colleague who advocated that the alleged Icelandic naming tradition be honoured, an international agreement was made on giving Icelandic horses only Icelandic names, thus honouring the alleged Icelandic tradition. Yet at the same time, in the same agreement, the use of Icelandic farm names and/or the Icelandic preposition frá was no longer considered objectionable, and the sense of appropriation by foreigners had given way to its opposite: the supposed tradition that requires international deference.
Did this mean that harmony now existed between the two opposing forces of the global and the insular, that the eternal rift between the two was finally closed? Hardly, because in both cases the global was still viewed as something that can be all right, providing it adheres to a national invented tradition or characteristic that has little historical foundation. The outcome therefore was and will remain a matter of arbitrariness: it depends on whether someone comes along who possesses the skills to invent or shape a tradition or national characteristic in such a way that it will convince international parties of its validity. Likewise, it depends on whether the latter can successfully counter the arguments of the former (whilst assuring them that this is no violation of said tradition). Throughout the centuries Iceland has proven itself most adept in profiling itself internationally by convincing foreigners of its characteristics, traditions and uniqueness, which always hark back to the Middle Ages, and it has succeeded in doing this in many ways, as I have sought to show with this research. Whatever outcome depends on the craft of the person doing the profiling, and this particular instance is no exception. Or to quote Chuck Berry: it goes to show you never can tell.
