The Ambivalence of Iceland

ABSTRACT: This essay will address the ambivalence of Iceland. What kind of a country was/is it, and what kind of people lived/live there? The essay relates to the present author's research on the discourse about Iceland and the Icelanders in foreign writings from the Middle Ages to the present time, which explores how the outside world saw this distant island in the Far North. The essay will consider the doubts that apply to Iceland's position in the world, both from home and abroad, so to speak. Such doubts have been manifested in the discourse on Iceland in past centuries, and until the present day, and in this essay, questions will be posed about the basis of those doubts. What were the principal concepts applied to describing Iceland and the Icelanders, and what impact did outsiders' attitudes and doubts have on Icelanders' own perception of themselves and their place in the world? Following this, the question is asked whether such doubts persist today, and, if so, why? Is the outside world still asking what kind of a country Iceland is—whether it is a typical part of affluent western Europe or of the Global North—or would it perhaps be legitimate to define the country in some other way, as part of the Global South? As for the Icelanders themselves: Do they, too, have doubts about their position within the contemporary world order?