Finnur Jónsson’s Image of Iceland:Writing History in Changing Conditions

This article charts the role of Finnur Jónsson’s Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiæ in the development and display of proto-nationalist ideas in eighteenth-century Iceland through the formation of a national identity based on an idealized past. The research presents an analysis of how contemporary ideas about science, freedom and the North came to be projected onto Iceland, a country that found itself in a state of dependency within the Danish realm, in order to constitute its identity within and across the boundaries of that realm. The study outlines the changing environment in which this could happen, the methods used to guarantee its acceptance, and the overwhelming acclaim the work received internationally, anchoring a positive image of Iceland for the next century.