In this article I examine the role of gender in nationalist discourse in terms both of how nations represent themselves and of how national identity is created. Specifically, I describe the centrality of notions of “the feminine” and Iceland‐as‐mother in Icelandic nationalist discourse, examine the historical contexts in which these notions were forged, and illustrate the significance of their symbolic elaboration in the political arena. [gender, nationalism, ideology, Iceland, Europe]