“Many Icelanders do not want to solve the mystery”

The bones buried as those of Jónas Hallgrímsson have become the subject of an Icelandic mystery that some scholars now want to solve. A group of academics has asked the Þingvellir committee for permission to exhume the poet’s remains and establish whether they really belong to Jónas.

Jónas died in Copenhagen in 1845. His remains were later brought to Iceland and buried in the national burial ground at Þingvellir in 1946. For years, however, people have questioned whether the grave contains Jónas or another man’s bones.

Kári Stefánsson, founder of deCODE genetics and one of those seeking permission to take samples, said Jónas remains deeply embedded in Icelandic identity. “He has become part of the Icelandic soul, and he still is,” Stefánsson told AFP. He said Jónas had affected his emotions, and those of Icelanders generally.

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He has become part of the Icelandic soul, and he still is. What separates art from everything else in the world is the ability to appeal to your emotions. And he appealed very strongly to my emotions, and to Icelanders generally.

The exhumation may require a court ruling. Stefánsson said the request appeared to be trapped in extensive bureaucracy, with committees and lawyers now handling the matter, and predicted that it would take time.

Literature professor Jón Karl Helgason said bringing Jónas’s remains home had been highly symbolic because Iceland had recently gained independence from Denmark. He believes the bones are Jónas’s and called alternative theories an ugly rumor. Biographer Páll Valsson, who supports exhumation, offered a different explanation for the resistance: “Many Icelanders do not want to solve the mystery. Because we love mysteries, we do not want to solve them.”

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Many Icelanders do not want to solve the mystery. Because we love mysteries, we do not want to solve them.