Exploring Greenland: 10 books from the world’s largest island

A list of books to read from Greenland

Native languages and ways of living, including the arts of sea kayaking and dog sledding, fascinated Knud Rasmussen, who was of mixed Inuit and Danish descent. From his base station in Thule, Greenland, in 1910, he visited as many Inuit peoples as he could, taking meticulous notes and making sketches, collecting artifacts and compiling hundreds of Native legends and songs.

The tales are grounded in the Inuit belief system, defined by superstition and transformation. Thanks to his own mixed heritage, Rasmussen understood Inuit stories at a deeper level than did most observers, and documented many priceless legends that the West might have otherwise not have noticed.

Published in 1915, Singnagtugaq: A Greenlanders Dream, created both furore and literary history as the first original novel in Greenlandic. Initially the book was seen as an encounter between the historic clash of evil and good: Danish colonizers and the colonized Greenlanders. The book portrays this encounter in vivid, harsh terms reflecting the time.

At the end of the novel comes a vision of a future, modern Greenland, freed from colonial humiliation and poverty: the first literary expression of the desire for progress which later became so prominent in Greenlandic poetry and politics.

Two brothers learn their father was murdered by their stepfather. Upon learning this, they both depart on journeys of self-discovery leading them to the extremes of traditional Greenlandic culture and, finally, transcendence.

Hans Lynge was a Greenlandic painter, sculptor and writer, but also a social debater and politician who strongly opposed the Danish colonial power’s disempowerment of the Greenlandic people. Lynge’s The Will of the Unseen is a major work in Greenlandic literature.

Homo Sapienne is a work of daring invention about young life in Greenland. Through monologues, emails, and text exchanges, the young author weaves together the coming of age of five distinct characters: a woman who’s “gone off sausage” (men); her brother, in a secret affair with a powerful married man; a lesbian couple confronting an important transition; and the troubled young woman who forces them all to face their fears.

With vibrant imagery and daring prose, Korneliussen writes honestly about finding yourself and growing into the person you were meant to be. The novel was praised for creating “its own genre” and established Niviaq Korneliussen as a Greenlandic voice that cannot be ignored.

A long time ago, the people of Greenland believed in the Mother of the Sea. She lived on the bottom of the sea and ruled over all that lived in the ocean. From her home on the bottom she sent out seals, whales, fish and birds of the sea, up to the surface so that hunters could catch them. However, if the people didn’t behave well, she became angry and hid the animals from the hunters. The people would then have to send a Shaman down to visit her in order to cleanse and comb her hair which had become dirty and tangled because of what the humans had done wrong.

A traditional Greenlandic tale, narrated for children and illustrated by one of Greenland’s greatest artists.

In 1910, Freuchen and his close friend, arctic explorer Knud Rasmussen, founded a settlement among the Greenland Inuit at Thule. Freuchen lived there for fifteen years, adopting native ways of life, and married an Inuit woman and had two children. He went on many expeditions, surviving frostbite, snowblindness, and starvation.

In Arctic Adventure he writes of polar bear hunts, of meeting people who had resorted to cannibalism in times of famine, and of the moving experience of seeing the sun after three months of winter darkness. He writes about the Inuit with great respect and affection, describing their stoicism amidst hardship, their spiritual beliefs, their ingenious ways of surviving their harsh environment, their humor in the face of danger, and the social politics behind such customs as “wife-trading.”

Freuchen’s warmth, wit, and tremendous literary ability make this book stand out from so many explorers’ tales; it is a rich human saga.

With his five companions, Nansen rowed ashore on the desolate east coast of Greenland. There was no turning back – they had to succeed in their goal of traversing the inland ice to the inhabited west coast or perish. They were pioneers – in exploring the inland ice, and in creating the concept of the modern polar expedition; inventing much of the required equipment in the process

However, this book is doubly interesting because of the meeting of Nansen and his team with the Greenlanders, and how they recognized that they had much to learn from them about living in the polar wastes. The book reveals Nansen to ot only to be an eminent scientist and explorer, but also a fine author.

Idealistic, misguided Morten Falck is a newly ordained priest sailing to Greenland in 1787 to convert the Inuit to the Danish church. A rugged outpost battered by unremittingly harsh winters, Sukkertoppen is simmering with the threat of dissent. Natives from neighbouring villages have unified to reject Danish rule and establish their own settlement atop Eternal Fjord.

Kim Leine was born in Norway, grew up in Denmark, and lived in Greenland for many years. In Prophets of the Eternal Fjord he illuminates the brutal and tender impulses of those seeking redemption and the shifting line between religion and mysticism.

The Greenlanders is an enthralling novel in the epic tradition of the old Norse sagas. Set in the fourteenth century in Europe’s most far-flung outpost, a land of glittering fjords, blasting winds, sun-warmed meadows, and high, dark mountains. The Greenlanders is the story of one family–proud landowner Asgeir Gunnarsson; his daughter Margret, whose wilful independence leads her into passionate adultery and exile; and his son Gunnar, whose quest for knowledge is at the compelling centre of this unforgettable book.

Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling US author Jane Smiley takes us into this world of farmers, priests, and law speakers, of hunts and feasts and long-standing feuds, and by an act of literary magic, makes a remote time, place, and people not only real but dear to us.

Six young people meet on an archaeological dig in a remote corner of Greenland. Excavating the unsettling remains of a Norse society under attack, they also come to uncover some of their own demons, as it becomes apparent that a plague pandemic is sweeping across the planet and communication with the outside world is breaking down.

In fluid, witty prose, British author Sarah Moss weaves a rich tapestry of personal narratives, history, ghost stories, love stories, stories of grief and naked survival. Through these missives, the author explores themes that are at the very heart of our existence: What do people do in extremis? What do they think when faced with near-certain death? How do the group dynamics shift under such strain?