| Hans Egede | |
|---|---|
Johan Hörner, Hans Egede, c. 1745, Danish Museum of National History |
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| Born | 31 January 1686 Harstad, Northern Norway |
| Died | 5 November 1758 (age 72) Falster, Denmark |
| Spouse | Gertrud Egede nee Rasch |
| Children | sons: Paul (1709-1789); Niels (1710-1782); daughters: Kirstine Matthea (1715/1786); Petronelle (1716–1805) |
| Church | Church of Denmark (evangelical Lutheran) |
| Writings | Published the journal of his journey to Greenland |
| Offices held | Ordained pastor Missionary to Greenland Bishop of Greenland Principal of missionary seminary |
| Title | National Saint of Greenland |
Hans Poulsen Egede (January 31, 1686 – November 5, 1758) was a Norwegian-Danish Lutheran missionary who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland.[1][2] He established a successful mission among the Inuit and is credited with revitalizing Dano-Norwegian interest in the island after contact had been broken for hundreds of years. He founded Greenland's capital Godthåb, now known as Nuuk.
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Hans Egede was born into the home of a civil servant on Hinnøya, in Harstad, Norway, several hundreds of miles north of the Arctic Circle. His paternal grandfather had been a vicar priest in Vester Egede on southern Zealand, Denmark. Hans was schooled by an uncle, a clergyman in a local Lutheran Church. In 1704 he traveled to Copenhagen to enter the University of Copenhagen, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Theology. He returned to Hinnøya after graduation, and in April 1707 he was ordained and assigned to a parish on the equally remote archipelago of Lofoten. Also in 1707 he married Gertrud Rasch (or Rask), who was 13 years his senior. Four children were born to the marriage - two boys and two girls.[3]
At Lofoten, Egede heard stories about the Old Norse settlements on Greenland, with which contact had been lost years before. In May 1721 he sought permission from Frederick IV of Denmark to search for the colony and establish a mission there, presuming that it had either remained Catholic after the Danish Reformation, or had lost the Christian faith altogether. Frederick gave consent at least partially to reestablish a colonial claim to the island.[4]
Egede was aboard one of several sailing ships which departed from Bergen on 12 May 1721. They reached Greenland on 3 July.[5] After searching for some time for the old Norse colony on Greenland, he found no survivors. The last communication with that colony had been over 300 years earlier. Egede did, however, find the Inuit people, and started a religious mission among them. He studied the Inuit language and translated Christian texts into it. This required some imagination as, for instance, the Inuit had no bread nor any idea of it. So he translated the words of the Lord's Prayer as the equivalent of "Give us this day our daily harbor seal". [6]
Egede founded Godthåb (now Nuuk), which later became the capital of Greenland. In 1724 he baptized the first children. The new king, Christian VI of Denmark, recalled all Europeans from Greenland in 1730. Egede remained, however, encouraged by his wife Gertrud. Egede's book "The Old Greenland's New Perlustration" (Norwegian: Det gamle Grønlands nye Perlustration) appeared in 1729 and was translated into several languages.[7]
In 1733 the Herrnhut missionaries of Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf were allowed to establish New Herrnhut, south of Nuuk. In 1734 a smallpox epidemic broke out which spread through the Inuit and claimed Gertrud Egede in 1735. Hans Egede left his son Paul in Greenland and traveled on August 9, 1736 with his other children to Denmark, to become principal of a Copenhagen seminary that trained missionaries for service to Greenland. In 1741 he was named Bishop of Greenland. He established a catechism for use in Greenland in 1747. Egede died November 5, 1758 at the age of 72 at Falster, Denmark.[8]
Because Norway was ruled from Denmark in Egede's time, his citizenship has been a bone of contention. Egede became something of a national "saint" of Greenland. The town of Egedesminde (literally: memory of Egede) commemorates him. It was established by Hans' second son, Niels, in 1759 on the Eqalussuit peninsula. It was moved to the island of Aasiaat in 1763, which had been the site of a pre-Viking Inuit settlement. A statue of Hans Egede stands watch over Greenland's capital in Nuuk.[9]
Hans Egede gives one of the oldest descriptions of a sea serpent commonly believed to have been a giant squid. On 6 July 1734 he wrote that his ship was off the Greenland coast when those on board "saw a most terrible creature, resembling nothing they saw before. The monster lifted its head so high that it seemed to be higher than the crow's nest on the mainmast. The head was small and the body short and wrinkled. The unknown creature was using giant fins which propelled it through the water. Later the sailors saw its tail as well. The monster was longer than our whole ship".[10]
This article incorporates material translated from the Danish and German Wikipedia articles on Hans Egede.
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