''Land, þjóð og tunga'' (rendered by Gaston Dorren as 'land, folk and tongue' and by Finnur Friðriksson as 'country, nation, language') is an important phrase in

Icelandic nationalism is the Icelandic term for nationalism; ''nationmindedness'' is a rough translation of the term. Its use was instrumental in the Icelandic movement for independence from Denmark, led by Jón Sigurðsson. Icelandic nationalism or is based upon ...

. It encapsulates the concept that these three factors (which might be broadly be glossed as geography, genes, and culture) define Iceland as a

nation-state A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group. A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may inc ...

. 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 (though possibly first in a Canadian-Icelandic publication, the Winnipeg-based newspaper ''Heimskringla''). 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 Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (; born 15 April 1930) is an Icelandic politician who served as the fourth president of Iceland from 1980 to 1996. She was the world's first woman who was democratically elected as president. With a presidency of exactl ...

(president of Iceland 1980–96). 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' ('March 1949') in reference to the

1949 anti-NATO riot in Iceland The anti-NATO riot in Iceland of 30 March 1949 was prompted by the decision of the Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament, to join the newly formed NATO, thereby involving Iceland directly in the Cold War, opposing the Soviet Union and re-militari ...

. The first quatrain runs: (Unlike ''you'', which can be singular or plural, the Icelandic word ''þú'' used in the poem is the second person singular, emphasising the unity of the land, people, and language.) 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 The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

as supporting the centrality of the

Church of Iceland The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland ( is, Hin evangelíska lúterska kirkja), also called the National Church ( is, Þjóðkirkjan), is the officially established Christian church in Iceland. The church professes the Lutheran faith an ...

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.Adda María Jóhannsdóttir,
"Land, þjóð og tunga – þrenning sönn og ein“. Þjóðerni og sjálfsmynd á tímum hnattvæðingar
(unpublished MA thesis, University of Iceland, 2010.

References

{{reflist Icelandic language Political history of Iceland Icelandic nationalism