Iceland - Royal Standard

Island

Last modified: 2002-12-20 by rob raeside
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• Royal standard
• Regent's flag

See also:

• Iceland
• Historic flags of Iceland
• Coat of arms of Iceland
• Governmental flags of Iceland

The royal standard of Iceland was established by Royal Resolution No. 23 of 5 July 1921, in which the flag is described as follows (in my translation of the Icelandic original): "The Royal flag is sky blue, and in it the white Icelandic falcon, crowned with the Icelandic crown, and facing the hoist. The relationship between the breadth and the length of the flag is 18:25." (Source: Lagasafn. Gildandi lög íslenzk 1931, Reykjavík: Bókadeild Menningarsjóđs, 1932, p. 1617). Apparently, the Royal flag was only used once during the visit of King Christian X to his kingdom of Iceland in 1921 and no model drawing or real flag has survived [see Birgir Thorlacius: "Fáni Íslands og skjaldarmerki, Andvari, 6 (NS), 1964, p. 49]. However, the flag is illustrated in some contemporary sources, cigarette card albums among them.
Jan Oskar Engene, 2 February 2002

Blue and white were considered to be the proper colours of Iceland. As early as 1874, Sigurdur Gudmundsson had made a flag with a blue field and a white falcon with wings stretched out. He flew it during a Royal visit. The perched white falcon on blue was later officially the Royal standard of Iceland. In the Flaggenbuch of the German Navy (1939), the proportions of the royal standard are given as 18:2