Rasmussen Knud

Knud Rasmussen was born on June 7, 1879 in Greenland, in the family of a Danish missionary Christian Rasmussen, who spent twenty-eight years on the island, and Louise Fleischer, whose mother was of Calaalite origin. Before moving to Denmark, Knud lived among the Aboriginal people, he perfectly learned the inuktitut , and also related to their way of life - he mastered the science of sled team management, the nuances of hunting, etc. “My friends were native Greenlanders, from early childhood I played and worked with hunters, so even the hardships of the most intense tobogganing trips were a pleasant routine for me ” ^[2] .

In 1891, his father received a one-year vacation, which the family spent in Denmark, where Knud began to study at the gymnasium. After the father’s vacation, the Rasmussen family returned to Jakobshavn, and Knud was left in his historical homeland to continue studying, which was not easy, primarily because of problems with his native language - he knew better than Danish inuktitut. In 1896, the family reunited - the father received a small parish in ( Zealand ) ^[3] .

After graduating from high school in 1898, Knud Rasmussen entered the University of Copenhagen , where he studied philosophy , ethnography, history , and also listened to lectures on geography, geology , zoology , botany and other disciplines. Even during his studies, he tried his hand as an actor and an opera singer , but without success ^[4] .

In 1900, as a columnist for Rasmussen accompanied Danish journalist and writer Ludwig Mülius-Eriksen (whom he had close friends with) on a trip to Iceland , and the next year he visited Swedish Lapland , where he studied the life and culture of the Lapps ^[5] . In 1908, Rasmussen published the results of his journey in the book Lapland .

In 1902, Rasmussen went on his first expedition to Greenland - the so-called “Literary expedition” under the leadership of Ludwig Mulius-Eriksen. Danish artist and writer , ornithologist and physician Alfred Bertelsen ( date: Alfred Bertelsen ) and later Greenlandic priest Jorgen Brenlundn also took part in it. The purpose of the expedition was to study the life and culture of the Greenland Eskimos, as well as record their folklore. The expedition lasted until September 1904, its main tasks were completed. Travelers first worked in West Greenland, and then crossed the Melville Bay on the dogs and reached the land of the Eskimos Etah or, as Rasmussen called it, “Kingdom of the North Wind”, and made contact with this northernmost people of Greenland ^[6] . The results of the expedition were reflected by Knud’s books “New People” ( dates. Nye mennesker (1905), in the English version The people of the Polar north - People of the Far North) and “Under the blows of the North Wind” ( dates. Under nordenvindens svøbe (1906)) .

In 1905, Rasmussen, on behalf of the Danish government, explored opportunities for reindeer herding on the west coast of Greenland ^[7] , and in 1906-1908 made another trip to the island, where he again studied the culture and life of the natives.

Back in 1905, Knud learned that due to navigation problems that year, whalers were unable to reach the Smith Strait , which meant there was no way for the northern Eskimos to purchase essential goods for themselves. This prompted Knud to the idea of ​​creating a trade mission. In 1910, with funds raised in advance in Denmark, he founded a trading post near Cape York, on the shores of Melville Bay, and named it Thule in honor of the legendary island . It was assumed that its existence would alleviate the plight of the indigenous inhabitants of Greenland. The trading post bought up goods related to hunting, mainly Arctic fox skins, and sold weapons, fuel, food and other goods. Rasmussen led the activities of the trading post until his death ^[7] . In 1920, the trading post was officially annexed to Denmark, and Rasmussen became the official representative of Denmark in Tula.

The trade mission organized by Rasmussen also served as a starting point for the seven polar expeditions organized by him, which were called the Tule expeditions. They were undertaken in the period from 1912 to 1933 and covered the vast territories of Greenland and northern Canada, and also collected valuable scientific material on the geography and geology of these regions, and the life and culture of the Eskimo tribes from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean were studied.

Knud Rasmussen published the results of his research in numerous books. In 1912, he became an honorary member of the , and in 1924 he was awarded ^[8] . In 1923, the Royal Geographical Society honored its founders with a gold medal ^[9] . Rasmussen was also awarded the Order of Danebrog of the Knight degree ( Denmark ), the Order of St. Olav of the Commander degree ( Norway ), the Order of the White Rose of Finland of the Commander degree ( Finland ), the Order of the North Star of the Knight degree ( Sweden ) ^[10] . In 1924, the University of Copenhagen awarded Rasmussen an honorary doctorate.

On December 21, 1933, Knud Rasmussen died in Copenhagen from the effects of food poisoning ( botulism ), which occurred in Greenland in the autumn of that year after the seventh expedition.

In Greenland, in the house of Rasmussen, as well as in Danish Hunestead, in the house in which Knud lived and worked, museums were opened ^{[11] [12]} . Knud Rasmussen named the class of patrol ships of the Arctic zone of the Danish Navy ^[13] , as well as a number of geographical objects on the territory of Greenland - the cape, glacier , and the region - Knud Rasmussen Land.

First Thule Expedition (1912)

The first Tula expedition of Rasmussen took place in 1912. Her main goal was to study the Piri Strait, as well as the possible search for Einar Mikkelsen , who had gone two years earlier to search for the missing Mulius-Eriksen and . It was attended by the cartographer (as well as the co-founder of the trading mission) Peter Freichen and two Greenlanders - Uvdloriak and Inukitsok. The dogs sled the researchers from Thule about 300 kilometers north along the western coast of Greenland to the Eskimo village Eta, after which they crossed the ice sheet of Greenland and went to the northeast coast of the island. On June 4, Rasmussen discovered the summer camp of Mulius-Eriksen on the west coast of the Danish Fjord, but found no messages or traces of Mikkelsen's stay. Knud went north from the Danish fjord and, near the Independence Fjord, he discovered the ruins of the northernmost Paleo-Eskimo settlement, known as the Independence Culture. As part of the trip, travelers found that Piri Land is a peninsula (unaware of the results of the Mulius-Eriksen expedition), and also mapped significant sections of the northern and north-eastern regions of Greenland. In total, the first expedition of Thule lasted about four months; according to the results of its work, Rasmussen published the book “My Travel Diary” ^{[7] [14]} .

Second Thule Expedition (1916-1917)

The object of the second expedition of Thule was the study of the fjords in the north of Greenland, as well as a detailed mapping of the Bay of Melville. The expedition started from Gothob on April 18. It included Danish geologist and cartographer Lauge Koch , and a little later (in Tula) it was joined by the Swedish botanist , the Greenlandic Henrik Olsen and three Eskimos - Ajako, Inukitsoq and Nasaitordluarssuk ("Boatswain"). At the first stage of the expedition, Koch and Rasmussen explored Melville Bay. Koch mapped over 500 km of the coast; Rasmussen himself was engaged in archaeological research on the shores of the bay. This part of the work has been completed. The winter of 1916-1917, Rasmussen and Koch spent in Tula ^{[7] [14]} .

On April 6, 1917, seven travelers traveled to the north of Greenland to carry out the second part of the scientific program. By May 7, they had safely reached St. George's Fjord, where a small food warehouse was set up. By June 23, the scientific work was completed - the fjords Sherard-Osbourne, Victoria, Nordenskjöld, as well as the newly discovered J.P. Koch fjord and Delong fjord were studied and mapped. Unfortunately, the reckoning on food replenishment due to hunting in the area of ​​the Victoria and Nordenskjold fjords did not materialize, and on the way back travelers faced an acute shortage of food, they had to kill dogs. In addition, under unclear circumstances, Henryk Olsen disappeared in the fjord area of ​​St. George. 200 kilometers from the village, Eta Rasmussen was forced to leave the weakened Koch and Wolfe with two Eskimos, and he went lightly with Ayyago for help. Five days later they reached the Greenland camp, but help was late - Torild Wulf died, unable to withstand the hardships of the fallen test ^{[7] [14]} .

The results of the expedition turned out to be significant: the northern regions of Greenland were mapped in the sector 82-83'35 ° N - 38-56 ° West, a rich botanical collection was collected, geological and glaciological studies were carried out. According to the results of the expedition, Rasmussen's books “Greenland along the Polar Sea”, as well as Koch's scientific report “Stratigraphy of North-West Greenland” ^{[1], were} published.

Expeditions Three and Four (1919)

The third expedition of Thule had a purely practical purpose - the organization of a warehouse at Cape Columbia for the expedition of Roald Amundsen on the ship Mod . It was held without the participation of its organizer, the campaign was led by Gottfried Hansen, a Danish participant in the conquest of the Northwest Passage ^[15] . Rasmussen himself at that time was in Angmassalik on an ethnographic expedition, the result of which was the publication of the collection Myths and Sagas of Greenland.

Fifth Expedition Thule (Danish Ethnographic Expedition, 1921-1924)

The goal of the fifth, the most ambitious plan of the Thule expedition (The Danish Ethnographic Expedition to Arctic North America 1921-1924) was to study folklore, ethnography and anthropology of the indigenous inhabitants of the polar regions of North America from eastern Canada to Alaska, as well as archaeological research. In addition to Rasmussen, Peter Freichen (cartographer and zoologist), (ethnographer), (assistant), and archaeologist and cartographer), Jacob Olsen ( Greenlandic) - translator, as well as six Eskimos (three men and women — hunters, mushers, seamstresses) ^{[14] [7]} .

The expedition started on September 7, 1921, and already at the beginning of the 20th set up a base camp on the Danish island in the western part of the Hudson's Bay , from where over the next two and a half years various parties carried out lengthy toboggan expeditions to the south, west, and north of the American continent. Contacts were established and the Inuit tribes netsilik, igloolik, caribou were studied, archaeological research was carried out. On April 11, 1923, Rasmussen, accompanied by two Eskimos, went on his longest journey of 18,000 kilometers. At the beginning of the twentieth of May of the following year, he reached Cape Barrow in Alaska - the extreme northern point of the continent and the northernmost Inuit settlement, after which he safely reached Nome . Along the way, he visited almost all Inuit tribes and collected the richest ethnographic and folklore material ^{[14] [7]} .

The expedition brought to Denmark a collection of more than 20,000 items, of which 15,000 were ethnographic and archaeological exhibits that greatly replenished the Danish museums. The results of the scientific work of the expedition were published in a 10-volume edition. Rasmussen’s book about the expedition “Across Arctic America: Narrative of the Fifth Thule Expedition ” was translated into Russian and published under the title “Great Luge Way” ^[14] .

Sixth and Seventh Expeditions (1931-1933)

The next goal of Rasmussen's expeditions was the east coast of Greenland, which he first visited in 1919. In 1931, on a 10-ton Dagmar motobot, Rasmussen walked along the east coast of the island from the southern tip to Angmagssalik, making several stops and outlining work plans for the next season (this intelligence was called the sixth expedition of Thule) ^[7] .

The seventh (and last) expedition of Thule (1932-1933) by Knud Rasmussen was an event well organized and financed by the Danish government. The purpose of the expedition this time was a detailed mapping of significant sections of the southeast coast of Greenland, conducting geological, geodetic and biological studies between Cape Farvel and Scorsby Bay . Despite the fact that between them in a straight line only 380 miles, due to the numerous fjords, the length of the coastline is thousands of miles. The expedition was equipped with eight motor ships and an aircraft, equipment for conducting film, photo and aerial photography, at the first stage its number was 35 Danes (including the research team: captain Karl Gabel-Jorgensen (surveyor), , Dr. (archaeologist), R. Bogwad ( dates. R. Bøgvad - geologist), Pole Hansen (biologist) and Terkel Matiassen (ethnographer)) and 28 Greenlanders, and in the second stage (1933) more than 150 people ( of which 50 Europeans, including one Englishman and four Germans). The tasks assigned to the expedition were completed, but Rasmussen was not destined to see the scientific results of her work. In the fall of 1933 in Angmagssalik he was poisoned with meat, and, despite all the possible measures taken, he died on December 21, 1933 at the age of 54 at the hospital in Copenhagen ^{[1] [7]} .

He was buried in the Western cemetery of Copenhagen .

• Rasmussen, Knud. Under Nordenvindens Svøbe . - Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1906.- 226 p.
• Rasmussen, Knud. Lapland - Kjøbenhavn: Gyldendal, 1907. - 170 p.
• Rasmussen, Knud. The people of the Polar north / Herring, G .. - London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & co., Ltd., 1908. - 608 p.
• Rasmussen, Knud. Eskimo Folk-Tales / W. Worster. - London, Copenhagen, Christiania: Gyldendal, 1921 .-- 194 p.
• Rasmussen, Knud. Greenland by the Polar Sea; the story of the Thule expedition from Melville bay to Cape Morris Jesup / Asta and Rowland Kenny. - New York: Frederic A. Stokes Company, 1921 .-- 482 p.
• Rasmussen, Knud. Across Arctic America . - GPPutnams Sons, 1927 .-- 545 p.
• Rasmussen, Knud . Report Of The Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24. The Danish Expedition To Arctic North America In Charge of Knud Rasmussen, 10 volumes:

• Rasmussen, Knud. Intellectual culture of the Iglulik Eskimos . - Copenhagen, 1929 .-- 350 p.
• Rasmussen, Knud. Observations on the intellectual culture of the Caribou Eskimos. - Copenhagen, 1930.
• Rasmussen, Knud. Iglulik and Caribou Eskimo tests. - Copenhagen, 1930.
• Rasmussen, Knud. The Netsilik Eskimos, social life and spiritual culture . - Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1931 .-- 668 p.
• Rasmussen, Knud. The Eagle's Gift: Alaska Eskimo Tales / Isobel Hutchinson. - Doubleday, Doran, Incorporated, 1932 .-- 235 p.
• Rasmussen, Knud. Intellectual Culture of Copper Eskimos. - Gyldendal, 1932 .-- 350 p.