''Two Against the Ice'' is a non-fiction book authored by

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

explorer

Ejnar Mikkelsen Ejnar Mikkelsen (December 23, 1880 – May 1, 1971) was a Danish polar explorer and author. He is most known for his expeditions to Greenland. Biography Mikkelsen was born in Vester Brønderslev, Jutland. He served in the Georg Carl Amdrup exp ...

. The book details the author's exploration into

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...

, a journey made with his compatriot Iver P. Iversen in 1910. The book was originally published in Danish (1955) and later translated into English by Maurice Michael (first published in 1957).

Summary

Mikkelsen recounts his round-trip 2,500 mile sledge journey from

Shannon Island Shannon Island ( da, Shannon Ø) is a large island in Northeast Greenland National Park in eastern Greenland, to the east of Hochstetter Foreland, with an area of . It was named by Douglas Charles Clavering on his 1823 expedition for the Royal N ...

to Danmark Fjord. A task which soon became a battle for survival as rations ran low, and the sled dogs began to starve to death, or were intentionally shot in order to provide food for the other dogs. The two adventurers became so hungry that they began to hallucinate. In a notable moment that typifies the hunger pains that the men were suffering, Iversen no longer wished to carry his rifle out of a fear he may be compelled to shoot Mikkelsen. The purpose of their travels was to locate the maps and journals of previous explorer Mylius Erichsen of the ill-fated

Danmark Expedition The Denmark expedition ( da, Danmark-ekspeditionen), also known as the Denmark Expedition to Greenland's Northeast Coast, and as the Danmark Expedition after the ship, was an expedition to the northeast of Greenland in 1906–1908. Despite being ...

. They found these articles in a cairn. Taking the journals with them they eventually made it back to their ship, only to find it crushed in pack ice, and with no sign of the other members of their expedition. The pair waited for two years in a small hut until finally being rescued by a sealing vessel.

Historical relevance

Journals

The journals that were recovered by Mikkelsen included Brønlund’s diary and Hagen’s cartographic drawings, which helped settle the question of whether

Peary Land Peary Land is a peninsula in northern Greenland, extending into the Arctic Ocean. It reaches from Victoria Fjord in the west to Independence Fjord in the south and southeast, and to the Arctic Ocean in the north, with Cape Morris Jesup, the nort ...

—a vast area explored by American Robert E. Peary for the first time around 1892—was a peninsula or an island. In showing that it was peninsula, the expedition affirmed Denmark’s claim to the land, rather than, potentially, America’s.

Adaptation

A film adaptation, '' Against the Ice'', was released on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

on March 2, 2022. The film was watched for 30.73 million hours in its first five days, placing second on Netflix's top ten.{{Cite web , title=Global: February 28 - March 6, 2022, url=https://top10.netflix.com/films/2022-03-06 , access-date=2022-04-11 , website=Netflix Top 10

References

Non-fiction books Arctic expeditions Exploration