Þingvellir: Commodifying the “heart” of Iceland

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the Þingvellir National Park and its changing meanings in the present. Þingvellir has been an important nationalistic symbol for Iceland, the site of numerous festivals celebrating the nation, and a space for recreation and leisure. This chapter interrogates the multiple meanings of Þingvellir from a postcolonial perspective, paying particular attention to its more recent position as one of Iceland’s major tourist sites. The chapter critically addresses what happens when symbolic places are commercialised within current neoliberal economies and become components of a global heritage. In particular, it questions the potency of Þingvellir’s image as a gateway between continents as well as its commodifi cation within a universalised humanity.