The roots of Icelandic physical culture and sport in the Saga Age

Abstract

The Nordic model, including physical culture, did not surface in a historical vacuum. Physical culture in Iceland has emerged from diverse cultural traditions including global sports and local traditions of play and games. In this chapter we discuss the historical roots of the local inputs into this process and some of the possible mechanisms involved in their influences on the present. We argue that some of the characteristics of physical culture in Iceland, such as ‘sport for all’ and the belief that physical culture and sport may empower and emancipate people, are rooted in Old Norse culture and the organization of human labour and practical activity. We propose that cultural values like equality, freedom, and fame have characterized Icelandic cultures for a long time, but they have taken on different meanings in different social contexts. We also suggest that some of the old Icelandic cultural values that influenced early twentieth-century sport and physical culture did so through a revitalization triggered by the romantic movement in Iceland in the nineteenth century.