Iceland deforestation before Norwegians arrived
example ·
retold in 4 talks
Iceland was completely forested before Norse settlers arrived around the 8th century; deforestation was a pre-modern ecological catastrophe. Used to counter the romanticisation of pre-modern ecological harmony.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 4
“before Norwegians moved there... Iceland was totally forested. So catastrophe already happened there.”
“when Norwegians came there in 7th century, it was one big forest. Now there are literally... just a couple thousand trees.”
“when the stupid Vikings arrived there in 7th, 8th century, it was full of forests. In years it was gone, building their stupid Viking boats”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 1 jobsuses
nature doesn't exist
×2
Its cast and sources
populated by
Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais1Hardt and Negri1Bong Joon-ho1Remi Adekoya1Heinrich Heine1Kristen Stewart1Jon Ronson1Heraclitus1
alongside works
Every retelling 4
Iceland was completely forested before Norse settlers arrived around the 8th century; deforestation was a pre-modern ecological catastrophe. Used to counter the romanticisation of pre-modern ecological harmony., illustrating ecology / no natural balance,anti-deep ecology
When Norwegians arrived in Iceland it was one big forest; now there are only a couple of thousand trees. The point: pre-modern peoples were not harmonious stewards, ecological destruction predates capitalism and modernity., illustrating nature doesn't exist
Žižek notes that when Vikings arrived in Iceland in the 7th-8th century it was covered in forests; they stripped it bare in years for their boats, proof that ecological destruction long predates modernity., illustrating pre-modern ecological destruction,critique of anti-modernist ecology
Before Vikings arrived from Norway, Iceland was covered with forests; they destroyed everything. Used to debunk the idealization of pre-modern peoples living in harmony with nature., illustrating critique of pre-modern ecology myth,nature is not benign