Heritage and hate in Iceland: speculations about white supremacy, Viking imagery, museums, and care in a changing world

In late 2020, a photo of a policewoman appeared on an established Icelandic news website. The police officer in question is depicted casually reaching for something in the boot of her police vehicle and used as a stock photo for a regular newspaper featuring some of the incidents the police have recently attended. Three patches were exposed on the officer's security vest. Those depicted the Icelandic flag, the Icelandic flag with the Thin Blue Line symbol, and the Vinland flag with an added picture of the Punisher symbol. The resentment could have revolved around her use of the Icelandic flag, a clear violation of the legislation. Nevertheless, the outrage that ensued was instead directed at the remaining symbols, long connected with police brutality and negative views within police forces towards minority groups, particularly people of African American descent. The image that caught public attention was the Vinland Flag, which closely resembles the Icelandic and Norwegian flags. It engages with Nordic heritage as Vinland is the name Norse (Viking) explorers gave North America when they settled there early in the second millennium. The Goth metal band Vinland designed the flag in the 1990s. Inevitably, it has different meanings for different groups of people. Still, its most notable appropriation is by right-wing populist groups such as white supremacists, who have claimed it as a symbol of their core ideals of white power and white supremacy.