National Folklore, National Drama and The Creation of Visual National Identity: The Case of Jón Árnason, Sigurður Guðmundsson and Indriði Einarsson in Iceland

Abstract

Iceland is a republic, and earlier accounts of Icelandic folk belief say little about the Icelandic alfar or huldufolk ever being ruled by kings and queens. The background of these costumed traditions are the transformation of folk culture into national culture in the form of national heritage, and simultaneously a direct result of the intimate interface between the collection of folk culture and the creation of ‘national’ drama and ‘national’ theatre forms. Jon Arnason gives his ideas about the way that folktales reflect not only the national spirit, but the national “art” better than anything else. Sigurður Guðmundsson had pointed to the use of national history and folklore. Indriði Einarsson summed up the thoughts of many in the fledgling new nations of the nineteenth century, for whom the establishment of a national theatre represented one of the necessary crowning achievements of nationhood. Keywords:Iceland; Indriði Einarsson; Jon Arnason; national drama; national folklore; Sigurður Guðmundsson