Time and again, during that winter of 1923 to 24, members of some isolated Eskimo* tribe, peering from the entrances of their snug igloos, could hardly believe their eyes. Through the deadly cold, the howling wind and lashing snow, came a man—a white man. Ignoring any weapons aimed at him, the stranger flashed a grin and joked in fluent Eskimo language. “Now, is that any way to greet a friend who has come so far to see you? What are we having for dinner?”
Thus, Knud Rasmussen, the inimitable Danish explorer and ethnologist, forged and charmed his way steadily westwards across the whole bleak and stormy roof of North America. When he reached Nome in mid-1924, he had completed the longest, most remarkable sledge journey in Arctic annals. The winding course he had followed in order to seek out hundreds of tribal villages scattered from Hudson Bay to the Pacific had taken him, in three years, some 32,000 kilometers.
The feats of this master explorer are still relevant today. Thanks partly to Rasmussen’s wanderings, his native Greenland, once a precariously claimed Danish colony, is now undisputedly Danish territory. Thus, little Denmark holds sway over a 217.5 million hectare area, 50 times the size of herself, and not quite as large as India.
The outpost of Thule [now called Qaanaaq], Greenland, founded by Rasmussen, is still the northernmost major settlement on the globe** as well as the site of the free world’s largest ballistic missile centre and early warning station. Today, Rasmussen’s writings remain the leading authority on the more primitive Eskimo tribes.
This story is from the April 2024 edition of Reader's Digest India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the April 2024 edition of Reader's Digest India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
THE UNBELIEVABLE MR RIPLEY
The creator of Believe It or Not had an insatiable curiosity about strange and astonishing facts
HE OPENED UP THE ARC TIC
\"You don't just sit and wait for adventure to come,\" famed polar explorer Knud Rasmussen liked to explain.\"You go out and make it happen!\"
Discovering Babasaheb
This Dalit history month—which also marks the 134\" birth anniversary of Dr B. R. Ambedkar, we recount four momentous incidents from his life
Lion in the Living Room
Five decades after two young men brought a playful cub into their London home, the tale has touched a whole new generation
The Many Roles of SUNIL DUTT
Through many personal tragedies, this favourite matinee idol finds strength and solace in helping others
AGATHA CHRISTIE MURDER BY THE BOOK
More widely read than any other English writer, she baffled the world with masterly tales of murder and remained something of a mystery herself
THE DAY WE MADE Flying History
Ona sunny September day in 1913, the author set three world records ina homemade flying machine
THE COMMANDO WITH THE TATTOO
Ganesh Dhangde was just six years old when he got lost. Twenty years later, his mother had a visitor
MARILYN: HER MAGIC LINGERS ON
The real Marilyn Monroe was nobody you'd look at twice—unless she wanted you to
I Think, Therefore, I Spam...
...has become the way forward for too many e-mail pests. Here's how I deal with them every single day