Bertrand Jouanne - Stunning Iceland: The Hedonists Guide

Iceland is situated just south of the Arctic Circle, between North America and continental Europe, a location many would describe as the edge of the world. Puzzling and paradoxical, this remote island of just over thirty-eight thousand square miles (one hundred thousand square kilometers) was created from the convergence of the mid-Atlantic ridge, and an enormous amount of magma erupting from its rift onto the sea floor, beginning about twenty million years ago. The last eruption happened in March of 2021 and lasted for more than six months, becoming the longest eruption in the country in the past fifty years.

As Homo sapiens began wandering about seventy thousand years ago, Iceland was one of their last conquests: Discovered in the seventh century by Irish monks, the island was not sustainably exploited until the ninth century by settlers from Norway, the Vikings, bringing along their Celtic slaves and livestock. These first inhabitants called it Snland (Land of Snow) before definitively naming it Iceland (Land of Ice). Starting with them, Iceland entered into history, although recent discoveries have shown that the Greek navigator Pytheas had landed on the island in the fourth century BC.

In AD 930, several farmers on the island created an assembly of free men, the Althing, which met in the open air in ingvellir to establish laws and settle disputes. It is to them that the country owes the establishment of the jveldisld, the Icelandic Commonwealth, and the adoption of Christianity as the official religion in the year one thousand. But the bad soils, barely twelve thousand years old, and the struggle with an inhospitable land of ice and snow quickly overshadowed this independence. A rapid deterioration in living conditions instigated feuds among great families who eventually passed the island to the control of the king of Norway in 1262. A century later, in 1380, Iceland and Norway became part of Denmark. Subject to the absolute power of the Danish rulers, who gradually took over the monopoly of trade with the island, Iceland eventually sank into a dark period of isolation spanning seven centuries, during which the Commonwealth disintegrated and Icelanders turned inward toward themselves, living more than ever at the edge of the world. From that point forward, Icelandic history can be summed up as a relentless struggle against natural disasters, epidemics, and famine.

Despite this economic decline and misery, Iceland was a land of exceptional literary activity. The first settlers had brought poetry with them, which was ideal for oral transmission. Then came the age of writing and the beginnings of the Icelandic miracle stories. The first handbook of grammar of the Icelandic language was written in the twelfth century, followed by the Landnmabk, the Book of Settlements, and the Grgs, a collection of laws. Next followed the era of sagas, a literary genre that appeared at the turn of the thirteenth century, which combined historical reality and fiction from oral traditions. By the time these began to be recorded, the golden age of the Icelandic Commonwealth had come to an end. The novelist Patrick Chamoiseau nevertheless notes their importance, indicating that their language and stories allowed the Icelanders to survive through the centuries and to continue to open themselves up to the world, even during the countrys worst moments. These sagas were, in short, their treasure, connecting them to each other.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, Iceland struggled for independence under the leadership of Jn Sigursson, now a national hero. In 1843, the Althing was restored. The island peacefully gained autonomy in 1874 to control their internal affairs, then gained independence in 1944. Undoubtedly, none of this could have been accomplished without the development of the fishing industry. For a thousand years, Iceland had remained a sheepherding civilization. During this period, fishing, which was a very risky venture, had changed very little. The arrival of Norwegian and Danish shipowners, however, allowed the country to gradually modernize and build a powerful fishing industry. During the Second World War, the arrival of the British and then the Americans definitively initiated the countrys recovery and anchored it to the modern world, allowing it to develop an impressive educational, health, and social system.

The rebirth of the island during the twentieth century coincided with its second golden age of literature as well as the emergence of other forms of artistic expression, the foundation of modern Icelands cultural life. In this respect, the famous singer Bjrk became the islands most memorable ambassador. Managing an ancient yet young nation, Icelanders resolutely looked toward the future, influenced by both its past and present.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Iceland had a prosperous economy, but the global financial crisis of 2008 hit it hard, forcing the country to nationalize its three largest banks and to seek help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Icelanders had to contend with a series of drastic events: layoffs, wage cuts, and significant reductions in social budgets, all leading to massive emigration of its youth. Worsening the situation, the eruption of Eyjafjll in March 2010 caused several ripple effects on European and world air travel. It was then that the tourism industry, until this point still in its infancy in Iceland, became a lifeline. Playing on its status as a land of adventure, the country developed a welcoming infrastructure. In 2012, six hundred seventy-two thousand tourists ventured into the land of the Vikings, doubling the population of the country! Since then, the numbers have continued to grow, to the point that tourism has now become one of the pillars of the Icelandic economy.

Now that Iceland is a hyperconnected country returning to growth, many questions arise about the future of this independent nation of three hundred fifty-five thousand inhabitants. What will be the effects of climate change on its landscape? How will Icelandic authorities cope with the influx of tourists (two million in 2017!) to avoid disastrous consequences to the environment? What will happen to a language spoken by only three hundred thirty-five thousand people, with a bilingual youth that has abandoned its traditional sagas and literature in favor of Netflix and video games in English? What will become of the island the day public authorities deem it too costly to defend? And finally, what will the Icelandic society of tomorrow look like?

Thirty years ago, foreigners accounted for just over one percent of the population, compared with twelve percent today. The majority come from eastern European countries, with the Polish accounting for almost forty percent. Iceland has become an El Dorado for many, situated on the edge of the world. Foreigners now occupy almost twenty percent of jobs. Icelanders welcome them and are not surprised that their island has become a land of immigration after having been a land of emigration for a long time. The explanation is quite simple. Long left to their own devices and isolated for a very long period of time, Icelanders knew to seize, with great enthusiasm, the opportunity that was offered to them at the turn of the twentieth century to leave behind their indigent past. They are a people who love to work, and anyone who comes looking for a job is welcome. They move forward resolutely and never question technical progress or modernity, because they are aware of how far they have come in a century. It is never easy to grasp the soul of a people. But it is without question possible to say that to be Icelandic today, apart from speaking the same language, is to be resolutely individualistic within a specific framework, where the sense of community is important to maintain the upper hand over a capricious and unstable natural environment where nothing is assured. And if there is a sense of collective anguish, it would be the fear of returning back to isolation.