Greenland (Denmark) / All works
Novel
Tuumarsi
Frederik Nielsen · 1934
Synopsis
Thomas: in the 1850s, driven out by famine, a Greenlandic family leaves its settlement to reach better hunting grounds. The novel follows its struggle to survive, its joys and misfortunes at a time when Christianity has not yet changed everything, and sets against the old society the first efforts at modernisation, such as the protection of reindeer threatened with extinction.
Context
The novel appeared in Greenlandic in 1934 on the recommendation of Knud Rasmussen, according to Signe Michelsen; the author himself translated it into Danish in 1980, and Torben Hutchings gave an English version of it in 2016. Den Store Danske places it among the works of the Greenlandic modernists of the 1930s to the 1970s, and Store norske leksikon counts its author among those who wrote historical novels. Per Langgaard studied it in 1988 together with a novel by Hans Lynge.
Who it is for
A realistic historical novel, readable in English; no French translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
The publisher of the English translation presents it as a realistic portrayal of the struggle for survival.
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