"The highest authority upon the Eskimos and their life." -American Review, 1909"Fascinating reading." - American Academy of Political & Social Science."The grim struggle for life in the Polar regions." - The Athenæum 1908"Extremely interesting." -Nature 1909"Absolutely unique." -McBride's Magazine 1909"His mother was a South Greenland Eskimo…he is able to live among the natives as one of them." -Journal of the American Geographical Society, 1909"He is looked upon as the greatest authority on Eskimo manners and customs in Denmark." -The Century, 1910Never before has any narrative brought the joys and troubles of Polar travel, the real meaning of the Arctic night, the grim struggle for life in the Polar regions, more vividly and more intensely than Knut Rasmussen.Born in Greenland, the son of a Danish missionary and an Inuit–Danish mother, Rasmussen spent his early years in Greenland among the Eskimo where he learned to hunt, drive dog sleds and live in harsh Arctic conditions before being educated in Denmark.In 1902–1904, Rasmussen went on his first expedition, known as The Danish Literary Expedition, to examine Inuit tribes and their culture in Greenland. After returning to Denmark after the successful expedition he went on a lecture circuit and wrote "The People of the Polar North" (1908), a combination travel journal and scholarly account of Inuit folklore.The literature of polar exploration is of course full of references to the Eskimo, whose resourcefulness in contending against the most untoward circumstances of life can hardly fail to evoke the admiration of travelers who have profited by their ingenuity. But probably no one has come so close to mirroring the everyday activities of these people as Knud Rasmussen, the son of a Danish missionary in Greenland, himself possessed of a tincture of Eskimo blood and a master of the native tongue. His book on “The People of the Polar North” is a sympathetic and graphic account of Greenland society in its varied manifestations.It is a wonderful book, which introduces us to the homes and to the souls of the Eskimos in the North of Greenland. For it is more than a travel book. It is full of the folk-lore, the legends, the fireside tales of a culture that was dying out. What life it is that Mr. Rasmussen reveals in his fascinating pages!Above all, there is a wealth of legendary material and a full account of those odd beliefs in spirits, magic formulae, and traditional rules of conduct that constitute Eskimo religion. These outlandish folk, who know no God, but who fear the Evil One, whose only priests are magicians, are nevertheless intensely human. Far away in their snowy wilderness they are strangely like the rest of us who are not marooned in the Polar regions.The book is fascinating reading, as it is not the desultory impressions of a casual traveller, but the recorded experiences of one who has lived among these people, spoken their language, and absorbed their traditions and customs. It is really a history of these people as evolved from legend and folk-tale.About the author:Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen (1879 –1933) was a Greenlandic–Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the "father of Eskimology" and was the first European to cross the Northwest Passage via dog sled. He remains well known in Greenland, Denmark and among Canadian Inuit.Other works by the author include:•Greenland by the Polar Sea: The Story of the Thule Expedition from Melville Bay to Cape Morris Jesup (1921)•Eskimo Folk Tales (1921)•Across Arctic America: Narrative of the Fifth Thule Expedition (1927)•The Fifth Thule Expedition (1946–52) 10 volumes
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Title: The People of the Polar North: A Record (1908)
 by Knud
Rasmussen, George Herring ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free){kind=link}
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