Peter Freuchen Biography and List of Works

Danish journalist, writer and explorer, who established with Knud Rasmussen exploring station in Thule (1910). In addition to Arctic journeys, Freuchen also visited South Africa in 1935.

Peter Freuchen was born in Nykøbing Falster. He studied medicine at the University of Copenhagen for a time and made expeditions to Greenland in 1906 and 1921-24, among others with Knud Rasmussen. He served as a governor of the colony at Thule in 1913-20. During these years he lived with the Eskimos and married Navarana, an Eskimo woman, who followed him on some of his later explorations. She died in 1921 during an influenza epidemic.

"How lovely our country is in the summer", she said happily. "Weeks are similar, like this, so mild, silent, and sun shines all night long. The only drawback is that the people become idle in this kind weather..."
(Navarana in Fangsmaend in Melville-bagten, 1956)

In 1928 Freuchen travelled in Russia. However, the amputation of his leg in 1926 ended his full-time career as an explorer and turned him into a writer. In 1932 Freuchen was again in Greenland - this time his expedition was sponsored by American Metry-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. He also played a major role in the film Eskimo (1933), which depicted the life of an Eskimo hunter and his family.

Freuchen's first travel books appeared in the 1920s. Among his best-known works are the memoirs MIN GRØNLANDSKE UNGDOM (1936) and FANGSTMÆND IN MELVILLEBUGTEN (1956), in which Freuchen's describes his family life and his hunting on whaling ships on the sea or hunting seals and polar bears on the coast. He also records stories in which his Eskimo friends tell about their adventures and experiences with white men who do not know how to survive in the arctic surroundings. The conflict between different cultures is drawn with understanding and humour. Navarana is eager to see Freuchen's homeland but finds it difficult to understand why any woman would live in Denmark - there are no seals or walrus's and everybody must buy their food from a shop. IVALU, EN ROMAN FRA POLARESKIMOERNES LAND (1930) was based on his marriage and a tribute to his wife Navarana. NORDKAPER (1929) was a tale of a polar whaling voyage and HVID MAN (1943) was a historical novel based on life in the Danish colony in Greenland in the early 1700s.

After settling in Denmark in the 1920s, Freuchen bought a little island, Enhoje, where he wrote his books and from where he made lecturing tours. He joined social democrats and contributed to the liberal newspaper Politiken. He also headed a film company.

During World War II Freuchen worked for the Danish underground - he was an outspoken anti-Nazi. He was captured by the Germans occupying his country and sentenced to death. Freuchen managed to escape to Sweden and from there to the United States.

In his new home country Freuchen lived in New York City and maintained a country home in Connecticut. His third wife, Dagmar Mueller, was a fashion illustrator. His son, half-Eskimo, who could not endure European life, returned back to Greenland. Freuchen died of heart attack in Alaska, Elmendorf, on September 3, 1957. He was a member of the council of the Royal Danish Geographical Society and a fellow on the American Geographical Society.

Eskimo (1933), dir. by W.S. Van Dyke, starring John Lee Mahin, Peter Freuchen. "Curious fated attempt by a major studio to do a northern version of the successful White Shadows in the South Seas. Despite a melodramatic plot and gripping documentary sequences, the locale chilled audiences to the marrow." - "Igloo whoopee variations not sufficiently hotcha to spell. b.o. " From Halliwell's Film&Video Guide, 1998 edition. - White Shadows in the South Seas (1928) was directed by W.S. Van Dyke and Robert Flaherty and depicted Tahiti, where an alcoholic doctor finds happiness before he is killed by white colonials.

For further reading: World Authors 1900-1950, ed. by Martin Seymor-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmes (1996) - Other writers / explorers: Thor Heyerdahl, Henry Morton Stanley

GRØNLAND, LAND OG FOLK, (1927)