Icelanders
Norse paganism, and Catholicism (c. 1000 – 1551). See Religion in Iceland | |
Related ethnic groups | |
---|---|
Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Faroe Islanders, Irish, Scottish | |
a Icelandic citizens |
Icelanders (
Icelanders established the country of Iceland in mid 930
History
Iceland is a geologically young land mass, having formed an estimated 20 million years ago due to
Initial migration and settlement
The first Viking to sight Iceland was
Following Ingólfur, and also in 874, another group of Norwegians set sail across the
The Icelandic Age of Settlement (Icelandic: Landnámsöld) is considered to have lasted from 874 to 930, at which point most of the island had been claimed and the Alþingi (Althing), the assembly of the Icelandic Commonwealth, was founded at Þingvellir.[18]
Hardship and conflict
In 930, on the
Iceland was under Norwegian leadership until 1380, when the
Unlike Norway, Denmark did not need Iceland's fish and homespun wool. This created a dramatic deficit in Iceland's trade, and no new ships were built as a result. In 1602, Iceland was forbidden to trade with other countries by order of the
In 1783–84,
In 1798–99, the Alþingi was discontinued for several decades, eventually being restored in 1844. It was moved to Reykjavík, the capital, after being held at Þingvellir for over nine centuries.
Independence and prosperity
The 19th century brought significant improvement in the Icelanders' situation. A protest movement was led by Jón Sigurðsson, a statesman, historian, and authority on Icelandic literature. Inspired by the romantic and nationalist currents from mainland Europe, Jón protested strongly, through political journals and self-publications, for 'a return to national consciousness' and for political and social changes to be made to help speed up Iceland's development.[23]
In 1854, the
Iceland gained full sovereignty and independence from Denmark in 1918 after World War I. It became the Kingdom of Iceland. The King of Denmark also served as the King of Iceland but Iceland retained only formal ties with the Danish Crown. On 17 June 1944 the monarchy was abolished and a republic was established on Jón Sigurðsson's 133rd birthday. This ended nearly six centuries of ties with Denmark.[23]
Demographics and society
Genetics
Due to their small founding population and history of relative isolation, Icelanders have often been considered highly genetically homogeneous as compared to other European populations. For this reason, along with the extensive genealogical records for much of the population that reach back to the settlement of Iceland, Icelanders have been the focus of considerable genomics research by both biotechnology companies and academic and medical researchers.[24][25] It was, for example, possible for researchers to reconstruct much of the maternal genome of Iceland's first known black inhabitant, Hans Jonatan, from the DNA of his present-day descendants partly because the distinctively African parts of his genome were unique in Iceland until very recent times.[26]
Genetic evidence shows that most DNA lineages found among Icelanders today can be traced to the settlement of Iceland, indicating that there has been relatively little immigration since. This evidence shows that the founder population of Iceland came from
Other studies have identified other ancestries, however. One study of
Icelanders also have an anomalously high Denisovan genetic heritage.[30]
Despite Iceland's historical isolation, the genetic makeup of Icelanders today is still quite different from the founding population, due to
Emigration
Greenland
The first Europeans to emigrate to and settle in Greenland were Icelanders who did so under the leadership of Erik the Red in the late 10th century and numbered around 500 people. Isolated fjords in this harsh land offered sufficient grazing to support cattle and sheep, though the climate was too cold for cereal crops. Royal trade ships from Norway occasionally went to Greenland to trade for walrus tusks and falcons. The population eventually reached a high point of perhaps 3,000 in two communities and developed independent institutions before fading away during the 15th century.[33] A papal legation was sent there as late as 1492, the year Columbus attempted to find a shorter spice route to Asia but instead encountered the Americas.
North America
According to the
A more recent instance of Icelandic emigration to North America occurred in 1855, when a small group settled in
Immigration
From the mid-1990s, Iceland experienced rising immigration. By 2017 the population of first-generation immigrants (defined as people born abroad with both parents foreign-born and all grandparents foreign-born) stood at 35,997 (10.6% of residents), and the population of second-generation immigrants at 4,473. Correspondingly, the numbers of foreign-born people acquiring Icelandic citizenship are markedly higher than in the 1990s, standing at 703 in 2016.[39][40] Correspondingly, Icelandic identity is gradually shifting towards a more multicultural form.[41]
Culture
Language and literature
Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is the official language of Iceland (de facto; the laws are silent about the issue). Icelandic has inflectional grammar comparable to Latin, Ancient Greek, more closely to Old English and practically identical to Old Norse.
Old
Written Icelandic has changed little since the 13th century. Because of this modern readers can understand the
The elder or
Religion
Iceland embraced
While Catholicism was supplanted by
Cuisine
Icelandic
Iceland has many traditional foods called Þorramatur. These foods include smoked and salted lamb, singed sheep heads, dried fish, smoked and pickled salmon, and cured shark. Andrew Zimmern, a chef who has traveled the world on his show Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, responded to the question "What's the most disgusting thing you've ever eaten?" with the response "That would have to be the fermented shark fin I had in Iceland". Fermented shark fin is a form of Þorramatur.[47]
Performance art
Many singers, groups, and forms of music have come from Iceland. Most Icelandic music contains vibrant folk and pop traditions. Some more recent groups and singers are Voces Thules, The Sugarcubes, Björk, Sigur Rós, and Of Monsters and Men.
The national anthem is "Ó Guð vors lands" (English: "Our Country's God"), written by Matthías Jochumsson, with music by Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson. The song was written in 1874, when Iceland celebrated its one thousandth anniversary of settlement on the island. It was originally published with the title A Hymn in Commemoration of Iceland's Thousand Years.[48]
Sports
Iceland's men's national football team participated in their first FIFA World Cup in 2018, after reaching the quarter finals of its first major international tournament, UEFA Euro 2016. The women's national football team has yet to reach a World Cup; its best result at a major international event was a quarterfinal finish in UEFA Women's Euro 2013. The country's first Olympic participation was in the 1912 Summer Olympics; however, they did not participate again until the 1936 Summer Olympics. Their first appearance at the Winter Games was at the 1948 Winter Olympics. In 1956, Vilhjálmur Einarsson won the Olympic silver medal for the triple jump.[49] The Icelandic national handball team has enjoyed relative success. The team received a silver medal at the 2008 Olympic Games and a 3rd place at the 2010 European Men's Handball Championship.
See also
Notes
- ^ "Icelander". Joshua Project. Archived from the original on 19 February 2017. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
- ^ "Population figures by country of citizenship". www.hagstofa.is. Statistics Iceland. Archived from the original on 17 April 2023. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
- Canada 2016 Census. Statistics Canada. Archivedfrom the original on 3 March 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
- ^ "Census 2000 ACS Ancestry" Archived 8 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Map Analyser". Statistikbanken (in Danish). Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h World Migration. Archived 3 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine. International organization for migration.
- ^ Erwin Dopf. "Présentation de l'Islande, Relations bilatérales". diplomatie.gouv.fr. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
- Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Archivedfrom the original on 28 February 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^ "United Nations Population Division | Department of Economic and Social Affairs". Archived from the original on 28 August 2021. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
- ^ "Populations by religious and life stance organizations 1998–2016". Reykjavík, Iceland: Statistics Iceland. Archived from the original on 13 September 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2017..
- ^ "Icelanders, a diverse bunch?". www.genomenewsnetwork.org. Archived from the original on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- PMID 10931763.
- ^ Jónsson et al., 1991, pp. 17–23
- ^ Þórðarson, c. 1200
- ^ Fiske et al., 1972, p. 4
- ^ "Icelandic Women are of Scots descent". Electricscotland.lcom. 4 March 2001. Archived from the original on 11 June 2010. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
- ^ "Why people in Iceland look just like us". irishtimes.com. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- ^ Þorgilsson, c. 1100
- ^ Byock, 1990
- ^ a b Fiske et al., 1972, p. 5
- ^ Global Volcanism Program, 2007
- ^ a b Stone, 2004
- ^ a b c d Fiske et al., 1972, p. 6
- PMID 10445931.
- ^ Gísli Pálsson, 'The Web of Kin: An Online Genealogical Machine', in Kinship and Beyond: The Genealogical Model Reconsidered, ed. by Sandra C. Bamford, James Leach, Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality, 15 (Berghahn Books, 2009), pp. 84–110 (pp. 100–103).
- S2CID 9685229.
- PMID 29853688..
- ^ Árnason et al., 2000
- PMID 21069749.
- S2CID 216076889.
- ^ Helgason et al., 2000
- PMID 29853688.. "[R]eproductive success among the earliest Icelanders was stratified by ancestry... [M]any settlers of Gaelic ancestry came to Iceland as slaves, whose survival and freedom to reproduce is likely to have been constrained... [Scandinavians] likely contributed more to the contemporary Icelandic gene pool than the other pre-Christians."
- ^ Tomasson, pp. 405–406.
- ^ Jackson, May 1925, pp. 680–681.
- ^ Jackson, May 1925, p. 681.
- ^ "Island History and Culture". Washington Island. 1996. Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
- ^ Library of Congress, 2004
- ^ Vanderhill, 1963
- .
- ^ 'Immigrants and persons with foreign background 2017' (16 June 2017).
- ^ Gunnarsson, Gunnar J.; Finnbogason, Gunnar E.; Ragnarsdóttir, Hanna; Jónsdóttir, Halla. "Friendship, Diversity and Fear: Young People's Life Views and Life Values in a Multicultural Society". Nordidactica: Journal of Humanities and Social Science Education. 2015: 94–113.
- ^ Lahelma et al., 1994–96
- ^ Lovgren, 2004, p. 2
- ^ Jochens, 1999, p. 621
- ^ Del Giudice, 2008
- ^ Roman Catholic Diocese of Reykjavík, 2005.
- ^ Beale et al., 2004
- ^ a b Fiske et al., 1972, p. 9
- ^ Fiske et al., 1972, p. 7
References
- Einar Árnasson; Hlynur Sigurgíslasson; Eiríkur Benedikz (2000). "Genetic homogeneity of Icelanders: fact or fiction?". Nature Genetics. 25 (4): 373–374. S2CID 28507476.
- Beale, Lewis, Daily, Laura (2004). "Food: Confessions of a celebrity chef". USA Today. Archived from the original on 8 February 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2007.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Byock, Jesse L. (1990). Medieval Iceland. Society, Sagas, and Power. United States: University of California Press.
- Del Giudice, Marguerite (March 2008). "Power Struggle". National Geographic.
- Fiske, John; Rolvaag, Karl (1972). Lands and Peoples: Iceland. United States: Grolier.
- Global Volcanism Program (GVP), Smithsonian Institution (2007). "Grímsvötn". Archived from the original on 23 June 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2007.
- Agnar Helgason; Sigrún Sigurðardóttir; Jeffrey R. Gulcher; Ryk Ward; Kári Stefánsson (February 2000). "mtDNA and the Origin of the Icelanders: Deciphering Signals of Recent Population History". American Journal of Human Genetics. 66 (3): 999–1016. PMID 10712214.
- Jackson, Thorstina (May 1925). "Icelandic Communities in America: Cultural Backgrounds and Early Settlements". Journal of Social Forces. 3 (4): 680–686. S2CID 147332269.
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- Jochens, Jenny (1999). "Late and Peaceful: Iceland's Conversion Through Arbitration in 1000". Speculum. 74 (3): 621–655. S2CID 162464020.
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- Lovgren, Stefan (7 May 2004). ""Sagas" Portray Iceland's Viking History". National Geographic.
- Marcus, G. J. (1957). "The Norse Traffic with Iceland". The Economic History Review. 9 (3): 408–419. .
- Roman Catholic Diocese of Reykjavík (2005). "Statistical Report for Iceland: 2000-2001". Archived from the original on 17 June 2008. Retrieved 3 July 2008.
- Simpson, Bob (2000). "Imagined Genetic Communities: Ethnicity and Essentialism in the Twenty-First Century". Anthropology Today. 16 (3): 3–6. .
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- Stone, George (2005). "48 Hours Reykjavík: The Best of a City in Two Days". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 6 December 2003. Retrieved 16 April 2007.
- Tomasson, Richard F. (1977). "A Millennium of Misery: The Demography of the Icelanders". Population Studies. 31 (3): 405–427. PMID 11630504.
- Vanderhill, Burke G.; David E. Christensen (1963). "The Settlement of New Iceland". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 53 (3): 350–363. .
External links