Peter Freuchen
Peter Freuchen was a Danish explorer, author, and polar adventurer born on February 20, 1886, in Nykøbing, Denmark. Initially a medical student at the University of Copenhagen, he shifted his focus to exploration, participating in significant Arctic expeditions beginning in the early 1900s, notably with the renowned explorer Knud J. V. Rasmussen. Freuchen spent considerable time in Greenland, where he served as governor of Thule from 1913 to 1920 and built deep connections with the Inuit community, marrying an Inuit woman named Navarana.
His life was marked by transformative experiences, including the amputation of his left leg due to frostbite during a 1926 expedition. Following this, he settled in Denmark, transitioning into a successful career as a writer and lecturer, producing numerous works that captured his adventures and the cultures he encountered. Freuchen was also politically active; he opposed the Nazi regime during their occupation of Denmark and was involved in the Danish resistance until his escape to Sweden. Later, he moved to the United States, where he continued to share his experiences, gaining fame as a contestant on a television quiz show.
Freuchen's diverse writings, encompassing memoirs and historical novels, offered readers insights into life in the Arctic and fostered a greater understanding of Inuit culture. He received recognition for his contributions to exploration and literature, including a gold medal from the Benjamin Franklin Society in 1957. Peter Freuchen passed away on September 2, 1957, in Anchorage, Alaska, while filming a polar expedition for television.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Peter Freuchen
Fiction and Nonfiction Writer
- Born: February 20, 1886
- Birthplace: Nykøbing, Falster Island, Denmark
- Died: September 2, 1957
- Place of death: Anchorage, Alaska
Biography
Peter Freuchen was born on February 20, 1886, in the seaport town of Nykøbing, on Falster Island, Denmark. He attended the University of Copenhagen as a medical student but left to become an explorer. From 1906 to 1908, Freuchen was a member of an expedition to Greenland, headed by the Arctic explorer Knud J. V. Rasmussen. In 1910, he joined Rasmussen and the archaeologist Therkel Mathiassen on the first of a series of expeditions undertaken from a base at Thule, an Eskimo settlement on the northwestern coast of Greenland. From 1913 to 1920, Freuchen served as governor of the colony at Thule. From that base, he explored Arctic Canada, Alaska, and Russia.
While in Greenland, Freuchen met and married his first wife, Navarana, an Inuit woman with whom he had two children. After Navarana died of influenza in 1921, Freuchen’s second wife, Magdalene, became a second mother to his daughter Pipaluk, who was educated in Denmark; his son chose to return to his native Greenland. Freuchen later married Dagmar Mueller, a fashion illustrator.
While he was on an expedition to Hudson Bay in 1926, Freuchen had to have his left leg amputated because of frostbite. He then decided to settle down in Denmark and become a full-time writer and lecturer. During Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, Freuchen voiced his opposition to the dictator in the Danish liberal newspaper Politken. When the Nazis occupied Denmark, he joined the Danish underground. Freuchen was captured and placed in a German concentration camp, but in 1944 he escaped to neutral Sweden.
After World War II, Freuchen moved to the United States, where he maintained two homes, one in New York City and the other in rural Connecticut. In 1956, he was a successful contestant on the American television quiz showThe $64,000 Question. On September 2, 1957, Freuchen died of a heart attack in Anchorage, Alaska, where he had gone to film a polar expedition for television.
Although the twenty-five books that Freuchen produced varied greatly in form, all of them were exciting and authentic. Among them was a memoir, Min gronlandske ungdom (1936; Arctic Adventure: My Life in the Frozen North (1936). Other works contained autobiographical elements. For example, although Fangstmaend in Melvillebugten (1954; Ice Floes and Flaming Water: A True Adventure in Melville Bay, 1954) contained stories told by various people, the frame was a rescue mission spearheaded by Freuchen. His tribute to his fellow explorer, Knud Rasmussen som jeg husker ham: Fortalt for Ungdommen (1934; I Sailed with Rasmussen (1958), necessarily focused on their shared experiences. Even the novel Ivalu, en roman fra Polareskimoernes land (1930; Ivalu, the Eskimo Wife, 1935), was based on Freuchen’s marriage to Navarana. Among Freuchen’s other works were several historical novels, a compendium of facts about the oceans. and an informative, month-by-month account of a year in the Arctic.
Freuchen was a fellow of the American Geographical Society and a member of the council of the Royal Danish Geographical Society. In 1957, he received a gold medal from the Benjamin Franklin Society for his accomplishments as an explorer. His books about the Arctic and the Inuits made it possible for readers throughout the world to understand an area they will probably never visit and to appreciate the values of people they will never meet.