The Almost Nearly Perfect People

In recent years Iceland has held its head high in the Nordic-exceptionalism stakes as the most developed country in the world according to the United Nations Human Development Index, as well as the fourth most productive country per capita in Europe. It ranked highly, too, on the Index of Economic Freedom; per capita gross national income had long been higher than the UK’s; and at one point it was the fifth richest country in the OECD. Iceland had the highest birth rate in Europe, and has long been a model of gender equality. It was the first country in the world to have a female president, and a single mother to boot – Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, elected in 1980. Icelandic men live longer than any other men in the world, with an average life expectancy of 78.9 years, but the women are even more durable, living, on average, to the age of 82.8 years. Also, the Icelanders buy more books per capita than anyone else in the world, which has to be a good thing

Early Iceland was a lawless, irreligious place peopled with Norwegian outlaws and their Scottish and Irish companions. Human sacrifices to appease the terrible forces that raged just beneath the surface of their meagre soil were not unknown. There was no executive authority, no king and no army, just a ragbag of laws mostly concerned with the apparently pressing issue of incest. In the thirteenth century, unable to control themselves, the Icelanders finally asked the Norwegians to intervene. King Olaf of Norway somehow managed to convert the Icelanders to Christianity, but theirs was always a half-hearted observance, at best.

Proper, deep, enduring joy usually requires a remarkable facility for denial