Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen (; 7 June 1879 – 21 December 1933) was a Greenlandic–Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the "father of
Eskimology
Eskimology or Inuitology is a complex of humanities and sciences studying the languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of the speakers of Eskimo–Aleut languages and Inuit, Yupik and Aleut (or Unangam), sometimes collect ...
" (now often known as Inuit Studies or Greenlandic and Arctic Studies) and was the first European to cross the
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arct ...
via
dog sled
A dog sled or dog sleigh is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for dog sled racing. Traditionally in Greenland and the e ...
.
He remains well known in Greenland, Denmark and among Canadian
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
.
[Elizabeth Cruwys, 2003.]
Early years
Rasmussen was born in
Jakobshavn, Greenland, the son of a Danish missionary, the vicar Christian Rasmussen, and an
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
–Danish mother, Lovise Rasmussen (née Fleischer). He had two siblings.
Rasmussen spent his early years in Greenland among the
Kalaallit
Kalaallit make up the largest group of the Greenlandic Inuit and are concentrated in Kitaa. It is also a contemporary term in the Greenlandic language for the indigenous people living in Greenland (Greenlandic ''Kalaallit Nunaat'').Hessel, 8 Th ...
where he learned to speak
Kalaallisut Kalaallisut may refer to:
* Greenlandic language
* West Greenlandic
West Greenlandic ( da, vestgrønlandsk), also known as Kalaallisut, is the primary language of Greenland and constitutes the Greenlandic language, spoken by the vast majority of ...
, hunt, drive dog sleds and live in harsh
Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
conditions. "My playmates were native Greenlanders; from the earliest boyhood I played and worked with the hunters, so even the hardships of the most strenuous sledge-trips became pleasant routine for me."
[
He was later educated in Lynge, ]North Zealand
North Zealand, also North Sealand ( da, Nordsjælland), refers to the northern part of the Danish island of Zealand which is not clearly defined but generally covers the area north of Copenhagen. The Danish tourist authorities have recently in ...
, Denmark. Between 1898 and 1900 he pursued an unsuccessful career as an actor and opera singer.[
]
Career
He went on his first expedition in 1902–1904, known as The Danish Literary Expedition
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
, with Jørgen Brønlund
Jørgen Brønlund (14 December 1877 – November 1907), was a Kalaallit, Greenlandic polar explorer, educator, and Catechism, catechist. He participated in two Danish expeditions to Greenland in the early 20th century.
Early years
Brønlund, ...
, Harald Moltke
Harald Viggo Moltke (14 December 1871 – 24 June 1960) was a Danish painter, author and explorer. Among his activities Moltke, participated as draftsman in four Arctic expeditions.
Early life and education
Harald Moltke was born in Helsingø ...
and Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen
Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen (15 January 1872 – 25 November 1907) was a Danish author, ethnologist, and explorer, from Ringkøbing. He was most notably an explorer of Greenland.
Literary expedition
With Count Harald Moltke and Knud Rasmussen Mylius-E ...
, to examine Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
culture. After returning home he went on a lecture circuit and wrote ''The People of the Polar North'' (1908), a combination travel journal and scholarly account of Inuit folklore. In 1908, he married Dagmar Andersen.
In 1910, Rasmussen and friend Peter Freuchen established the Thule Trading Station at Cape York (''Qaanaaq
Qaanaaq (), formerly known as Thule or New Thule, is the main town in the northern part of the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is one of the northernmost cities and towns, northernmost towns in the world. The inhabitants of ...
''), Greenland, as a trading base. The name Thule was chosen because it was the most northerly trading post in the world, literally the " Ultima Thule".[Knud Rasmussen, 1927, ''Across Arctic America'', Introduction.] Thule Trading Station became the home base for a series of seven expeditions, known as the ''Thule Expeditions'', between 1912 and 1933.
The Thule expeditions
The First Thule Expedition (1912, Rasmussen and Freuchen) aimed to test Robert Peary's claim that a channel divided 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 ...
from Greenland. They proved this was not the case in a remarkable journey across the inland ice that almost killed them.[ ]Clements Markham
Sir Clements Robert Markham (20 July 1830 – 30 January 1916) was an English geographer, explorer and writer. He was secretary of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) between 1863 and 1888, and later served as the Society's president for ...
, president of the Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
, called the journey the "finest ever performed by dogs." Freuchen wrote personal accounts of this journey (and others) in ''Vagrant Viking'' (1953) and ''I Sailed with Rasmussen'' (1958). In 1915, he translated Mathias Storch's novel into Danish (''The Dream'' in English; translated as ), the first novel written in Greenlandic.
The Second Thule Expedition (1916–1918) was larger with a team of seven men, which set out to map a little-known area of Greenland's north coast. This journey was documented in Rasmussen's account ''Greenland by the Polar Sea'' (1921). The trip was beset with two fatalities, the only in Rasmussen's career,[ namely Thorild Wulff and Hendrik Olsen. The Third Thule Expedition (1919) was depot-laying for ]Roald Amundsen
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen bega ...
's polar drift in ''Maud''.[ The Fourth Thule Expedition (1919–1920) was in east Greenland where Rasmussen spent several months collecting ethnographic data near ]Angmagssalik
Tasiilaq, formerly Ammassalik and Angmagssalik, is a town in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland. With 1,985 inhabitants as of 2020, it is the most populous community on the eastern coast, and the seventh-largest town in Green ...
.[
Rasmussen's "greatest achievement"][ was the massive Fifth Thule Expedition (1921–1924) which was designed to "attack the great primary problem of the origin of the Eskimo race."][ A ten volume account (''The Fifth Thule Expedition 1921–1924'' (1946)) of ethnographic, archaeological and biological data was collected, and many artifacts are still on display in museums in Denmark. The team of seven first went to eastern Arctic Canada where they began collecting specimens, taking interviews (including the shaman Aua, who told him of ]Uvavnuk
Uvavnuk was an Inuk woman born in the 19th century, now considered an oral poet. The story of how she became an '' angakkuq'' (spiritual healer), and the song that came to her, were collected by European explorers of Arctic Canada in the early 192 ...
), and excavating sites.
Rasmussen left the team and traveled for 16 months with two Inuit hunters by dog sled
A dog sled or dog sleigh is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for dog sled racing. Traditionally in Greenland and the e ...
across North America to Nome, Alaska
Nome (; ik, Sitŋasuaq, ) is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of Alaska, United States. The city is located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. It had a population of 3,699 recorded ...
– he tried to continue to Russia but his visa was refused.[ He was the first European to cross the ]Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arct ...
via dog sled.[ His journey is recounted in ''Across Arctic America'' (1927), considered today a classic of polar expedition literature.][ This trip has also been called the "''Great Sled Journey''" and was dramatized in the Canadian film '']The Journals of Knud Rasmussen
''The Journals of Knud Rasmussen'' is a 2006 Canadian-Danish film directed by Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn. The film is about the pressures on traditional Inuit shamanistic beliefs as documented by Knud Rasmussen during his travels across the C ...
'' (2006).
For the next seven years Rasmussen traveled between Greenland and Denmark giving lectures and writing. In 1931, he went on the Sixth Thule Expedition, designed to consolidate Denmark's claim on a portion of eastern Greenland that was contested by Norway.[
The Seventh Thule Expedition (1933) was meant to continue the work of the sixth, but Rasmussen contracted pneumonia after an episode of food poisoning attributed to eating kiviaq, dying a few weeks later in ]Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
at the age of 54. During this expedition Rasmussen worked on the film '' The Wedding of Palo'', which Rasmussen wrote the screenplay for. The film was directed by Friedrich Dalsheim and completed in 1934 under the Danish title ''Palos brudefærd.''
Honors
In addition to several capes and glaciers, Knud Rasmussen Range in Greenland is named after him.
He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the American Geographical Society
The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the ...
in 1912, and its Daly Medal in 1924. The Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
awarded him their Founder's Medal in 1923 and the Royal Danish Geographical Society
The Royal Danish Geographical Society (RDGS, da, Det Kongelige Danske Geografiske Selskab) is a scientific society aimed at furthering the knowledge of the Earth and its inhabitants and to disseminate interest in the science of geography.
It was ...
their Hans Egede Medal
The Hans Egede medal is awarded by the Royal Danish Geographical Society for outstanding services to geography, "principally for geographical studies and research in the Polar lands." It was instituted in 1916 and named after Hans Egede, a Danish ...
in 1924. He was made honorary doctor
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
at the University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...
in 1924, and the University of St Andrews
(Aien aristeuein)
, motto_lang = grc
, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
in 1927.
Bibliography
''The People of the Polar North''
(1908)
* ''Greenland by the Polar Sea: The Story of the Thule Expedition from Melville Bay to Cape Morris Jesup'' (1921)
''Eskimo Folk Tales''
(1921)
''Across Arctic America: Narrative of the Fifth Thule Expedition''
(1927)
* ''The Fifth Thule Expedition'' (1946–52) 10 volumes
Notes
Further reading
* Bown, Stephen R. ''White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic'' (Da Capo, 2015). xxvi, 341 pp.
* Cruwys, Elizabeth (2003). "Rasmussen, Knud (1879–1933)", in ''Literature of Travel and Exploration: An Encyclopedia'', volume 3.
* Malaurie, Jean (1982). ''The Last Kings of Thule: With the Polar Eskimos, as They Face Their Destiny'', trans. Adrienne Folk.
* Markham, Clements R. (1921). ''The Lands of Silence: A History of Arctic and Antarctic Exploration''. Cambridge University Press.
External links
Biography of Knud Rasmussen
on Inuit.uqam.ca
*
*
*
*
*
*
Aviation Studies in Greenland Report by Knud Rasmussen et al.
at Dartmouth College Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rasmussen, Knud
1879 births
1933 deaths
Burials at Vestre Cemetery, Copenhagen
Danish ethnologists
Explorers of the Arctic
Greenlandic Inuit people
Greenlandic people of Danish descent
Greenlandic polar explorers
People from Ilulissat
People from Hundested
Exploration of the Arctic
Eskimologists