Merlin’s definitely not right for Britain. You would say that “Merlin is a character in the Arthur stories”, but you would never say that “Arthur is a character in the Merlin stories”. And you can have a story about Arthur without Merlin, but not the other way around.
How about Odysseus for Greece, and Aeneas for Italy?
You could have a Merlin story without Arthur but everyone would be asking “Where’s Poochie Arthur?”
Aeneas was a Trojan though; wouldn’t that make him a Greek today?
He’s a character created in Italy, and representative of the nation that was founded in Italy: I think that’s enough. Calling him Trojan is like calling Washington British. I mean, the founder of any nation (real or legendary) must necessarily have originally been from some other nation.
And in any event, being Trojan would make him Turkish today, not Greek.
Tim, on the other hand, could carry a story all on his own.
Ireland: Gulliver from Gulliver’s Travels (Full Title: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships
Sweden: Pippi Longstocking?
The Little Tramp (or Mickey Mouse) may be famous American characters. But I don’t feel they’re iconic.
That’s why I suggested Superman. Superman represents the way America wants to see itself; possessing of overwhelming power that gives us the ability to do anything but also having a code of virtue that prevents the misuse of all of that power.
See post #43 
.
That’s who I was going to nominate.
Before that - Dame Edna Everage. But maybe not famous enough outside of Australia?
I can’t think of anyone more iconic than Mickey Mouse. IMHO Mickey Mouse is the icon of iconicness. But Superman is easily the second-best suggestion for the US I’ve seen in this thread.
Or Popeye
Set in Australia, but both creators are English. (Both from Sussex, actually.)
France - Joan of Arc
Britain - Winston Churchill
Ivory Coast - Didier Drogba
Finland - Tom
Canada - originally was gonna go with Don Cherry unitl he went shitty, so - Tommy Douglas
Sweden - Ingmar Bergman (ha - liked Death, Dropo!)
Argentina - Eva Peron
Costa Rica - Keylor Navas
India - Mahatma Gandhi
US - either Pepe the Frog or Niel Hamburger
Egypt - Cleopatra / Mohamed Salah
Norway - Knut Hamsen
Philippines - Efren Reyes
Tibet - Dalai Lama
South Africa - Nelson Mandela
Italy - Leonardo da Vinci
I was looking for fictional characters that have been embraced by the popular culture of the country where they were created.
Ah, right. (headslap emoji)
New Zealand: Dog
I should have got that one! My wife who grew up in the UK has all the books and I’ve read them all.
Great Britain: Andy Capp.
I think the problem with the US is there are plenty of characters to go around: Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, Ronald McDonald, Uncle Sam, Tom Sawyer, Bart Simpson, Captain Kirk, Hulk Hogan, Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Garfield, Rambo, Perry Mason, Dorothy and Toto.