Land, þjóð og tunga


Land, þjóð og tunga is an important phrase in Icelandic nationalism. It encapsulates the concept that these three factors define Iceland as a nation-state. The phrase is particularly noted for the prominence it gives to language in defining Icelandicness, which is not present in all other nationalisms.

History

The phrase seems to be first attested in Icelandic-language newspapers in the 1930s. The phrase seems to have been particularly popular in the 1950s, in the wake of Icelandic independence, but remains in widespread use, not least by Vigdís Finnbogadóttir.
However, the most famous instance of the phrase comes in a widely reprinted sonnet by Snorri Hjartason, first published in Tímarit Máls og menningar in the spring of 1949 under the title 'Land þjóð og tunga' but later also printed under the title 'Marz 1949' in reference to the 1949 anti-NATO riot in Iceland. The first quatrain runs:
While Snorri's opening line can be read quite metaphorically, some scholarship and political commentary has taken it quite literally, even seeing its allusion to the Holy Trinity as supporting the centrality of the Church of Iceland to Icelandic identity.
Recent research has noted that in the twenty-first century the validity of land, þjóð og tunga as a way of defining the Icelandic nation is increasingly open to question as Iceland becomes a multi-racial and multi-lingual society.