Eskimo Life

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About this book

Eskimo Life is by Fridtjof Nansen, author of The First Crossing of Greenland, and was translated by William Archer, with a title page dated 1893. The translator's preface says that Nansen carefully revised the text before it was translated, making numerous excisions and additions, so that the English differs in several particulars from the Norwegian original. An illustration shows a hunter, his wife and a young girl on the west coast of Greenland.

One passage takes up the question of the route by which the Eskimos came to Greenland, weighing the sagas, a conjecture by Dr. Rink and an Eskimo tradition of a first meeting with the old Norsemen at Godthaab-fiord. It also looks at kaiaks, woman-boats and dog-sledges. Another passage discusses early ideas about the soul, shadows, dreams and the breath of the mouth.

About the author

Fridtjof Nansen

Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) was a Norwegian scientist, skier, and explorer who crossed Greenland in 1888 and drifted the Arctic aboard Fram. He later worked as a diplomat and refugee commissioner for the League of Nations, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.