Helge Ingstad | |
|---|---|
.gif) Ingstad in his trapper days in the late 1920s (photo taken in 1932 from his book about CanadaThe Land of Feast and Famine, 1931) | |
| 2ndGovernor of Svalbard Acting | |
| In office 28 July 1933 (1933-07-28) – 1 September 1935 (1935-09-01) | |
| Monarch | Haakon VII |
| Prime Minister | Johan Ludwig Mowinckel Johan Nygaardsvold |
| Preceded by | Johannes Gerckens Bassøe |
| Succeeded by | Wolmar Tycho Marlow |
| Governor ofErik the Red's Land | |
| In office 1932–1933 | |
| Monarch | Haakon VII |
| Prime Minister | Peder Kolstad Jens Hundseid Johan Ludwig Mowinckel |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1899-12-30)30 December 1899 Meråker Municipality, Norway |
| Died | 29 March 2001(2001-03-29) (aged 101) Diakonhjemmet Hospital,Oslo, Norway |
| Spouse | Anne Stine Ingstad |
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | University of Oslo Faculty of Law |
| Part ofa series on the |
| Norse colonization of North America |
|---|
 Leiv Eirikson Discovering America, 1893 painting byChristian Krohg |
Alleged artifacts |
Helge Marcus Ingstad (30 December 1899 – 29 March 2001)[1] was a Norwegian explorer. In 1960, after mapping some Norse settlements, Ingstad and his wife archaeologistAnne Stine Ingstad found remnants of aViking settlement inL'Anse aux Meadows in the province ofNewfoundland in Canada.[2][3] They were thus the first to prove conclusively that theIcelandic/GreenlandicNorsemen such asLeif Erickson had found a way across theAtlantic Ocean toNorth America, roughly 500 years beforeChristopher Columbus andJohn Cabot. He also thought that the mysterious disappearance of theGreenland Norse Settlements in the 14th and 15th centuries could be explained by their emigration toNorth America.[4]
Helge Ingstad died at Diakonhjemmet Hospital in Oslo at the age of101.[5]
Helge Ingstad was the son of Olav Ingstad (1867–1958) and Olga Marie Qvam (1869–1946) inMeråker Municipality inNordre Trondheim county. His father was municipal engineer inTromsø Municipality and held the title of factory supervisor. He was the grandson of lawyer professor,Marcus Pløen Ingstad. Helge and his family moved toBergen in 1915 where he attended theBergen Katedralskole (1915–1918), and after graduatingcand. jur. in 1922 he took up a practice of lawyer inLevanger.[6]
Helge Ingstad was originally a lawyer by profession, but, ever an outdoorsman, he sold his successful law practice inLevanger and went toCanada'sNorthwest Territories as atrapper in 1926. For the next three years, the Norwegian travelled with the localIndiantribe known as theCaribou Eaters. After returning to Norway, he wrote the bestsellingPelsjegerliv ("Trapper Life") about his time in Canada, published in English asThe Land of Feast and Famine (Knopf, 1933).[7]
Ingstad was the governor (Sysselmann) ofErik the Red's Land in 1932–1933, when Norway annexed that eastern part ofGreenland. ThePermanent Court of International Justice inThe Hague decided that the lands belonged toDenmark, and so the official Norwegian presence had to end. Following the verdict, Ingstad was summoned by the government to the job as governor ofSvalbard (Spitsbergen and the surrounding islands) — a position suiting him uniquely, considering his profession of law and his experience in Arctic living.[8]
During his years on Svalbard, Helge Ingstad metAnne Stine Moe, nearly twenty years his junior. She had read his books from Canada and Greenland with great admiration, and developed a crush on the explorer. She wrote to him, and after some time of correspondence and dating, they were engaged, and married in 1941. In 1946, the Ingstads made themselves a home near theHolmenkollen area of Norway's capital,Oslo, where they spent the rest of their lives when not travelling the world. They had one daughter, Benedicte, who became a professor in medical anthropology at the University in Oslo. From her teenage years, Benedicte accompanied her parents on their exploration journeys.[9]
Helge Ingstad was a popular author, whose books on his visits to remote parts of the world gained him fame in Norway. From Greenland he wroteØst for den store bre ("East of the Great Glacier"), from Svalbard he wroteLandet med de kalde kyster ("The Land With the Chilly Coasts"). He also visited theApache Indians of northwesternMexico, from which he wroteApache-indianerne - jakten på den tapte stamme ("The Apaches - The Hunt for the Lost Tribe"). AfterWorld War II he stayed for a period in theBrooks Range in northernAlaska among theNunamiutIñupiat, and afterwards wroteNunamiut - blant Alaskas innlandseskimoer ("Nunamiut - Inland Eskimos of Alaska").
His 1931 book,The Land of Feast or Famine, was republished byMcGill University Press, in 1992, after being out of print for over forty years.[10]
In 1960, he discovered the remains of what later proved to be aViking settlement atL'Anse aux Meadows at the northernmost tip ofNewfoundland inCanada.
It is the only known site of a Norse or Viking village in Canada, and in North America outside ofGreenland. Dating to around the year 1000, L'Anse aux Meadows remains the only widely accepted instance of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact and is notable for its possible connection with the attempted colony ofVinland established byLeif Ericson around the same time period or, more broadly, withNorse exploration of the Americas.
Archaeological excavation at the site was conducted in the 1960s by an international team led byarchaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad (Helge Ingstad's wife) and under the direction ofParks Canada of the Government of Canada in the 1970s. Following each period of excavation, the site was reburied to protect and conserve the cultural resources.
The settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows has been dated to approximately 1,000 years ago, an assessment that tallies with the relative dating of artifact and structure types.[11] The remains of eight buildings were located. They are believed to have been constructed ofsod placed over a wooden frame. Based on associated artifacts, the buildings were variously identified as dwellings or workshops. The largest dwelling measured 28.8 by 15.6 m (94 by 51 ft) and consisted of several rooms.[12] Workshops were identified as anironsmithy containing aforge and ironslag, a carpentry workshop, which generated wood debris, and a specialized boat repair area containing wornrivets. Besides those related to iron working, carpentry, and boat repair, other artifacts found at the site consisted of common everyday Norse items, including a stone oil lamp, awhetstone, a bronze fastening pin, a bone knitting needle, and part of a spindle. The presence of the spindle and needle suggests that women were present as well as men.[13] Food remains includedbutternuts, which are significant because they do not grow naturally north ofNew Brunswick, and their presence probably indicates the Norse inhabitants travelled farther south to obtain them.[14] Archaeologists concluded that the site was inhabited by the Norse for a relatively short period of time.
Helge Ingstad has two geographic features in North America named after him. In Canada, a small river, Ingstad Creek, flows intoGreat Slave Lake. In Alaska, the 1,461-metre (4,793 ft) high Ingstad Mountain in theBrooks Range was officially approved by the U.S.Board on Geographic Names on 19 April 2006. The name was suggested by theNunamiut tribe in gratitude for Ingstad's efforts on their behalf.[15]
During the last few years of his life, he worked on categorizing and annotating the large quantity of photos andaudio recordings (141 songs) he had made while living with the Nunamiut in 1950. The effort resulted in a booklet,Songs of the Nunamiut, with an accompanying CD containing the audio material. This is an extremely valuable contribution to the preservation of theNunamiut culture, because it turned out that much of what he had gathered in the mid-20th century was now lost locally and was only preserved in his recordings.
He was an honorary member of theNorwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He also held honorary doctorates at theUniversity of Oslo,Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada, and atSt. Olaf College inMinnesota. He was awarded the Grand Cross of theRoyal Norwegian Order of St. Olav (in 1991; previously Knight 1st class in 1965, and Commander in 1970), Knight of theOrder of Vasa, and he was presented with the NorwegianRed Cross Badge of Honour for his efforts inFinnmark duringWorld War II. He received a lifetime government grant from the Norwegian government from 1970. He was the subject of a 1981National Film Board of Canada (NFB) documentaryThe Man Who Discovered America,[2] and subsequently appeared along with his wife in the 1984 NFB film,The Vinland Mystery.[16] In 1986, he was presentedArts Council Norway's honor award.HNoMS Helge Ingstad (F313), the fourth of the fiveFridtjof Nansen-class frigates of theRoyal Norwegian Navy was named after Helge Ingstad.[17]
The innermain-belt asteroid8993 Ingstad, discovered by Danish astronomerRichard Martin West at ESO'sLa Silla Observatory in Chile in 1980, was named in his memory. The official naming citation was published by theMPC on 24 June 2002 (M.P.C. 46009).[18]
The Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad Building on the St. John's Campus of Memorial University is named after him and his wife. It houses the University's Print and Mail Services.[19]
The Land of Feast and Famine, originally published in 1931 and re-released by McGill-Queen's after more than forty years out-of-print, is a vivid depiction of Ingstad's adventures. He describes the native companions and fellow trappers with whom he shared both harsh and heart-warming experiences, and relates how he learned first-hand about beaver, caribou, wolf, and other wildlife.
...Vinland was a country, not a place...
| Civic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Governor of Svalbard 1933–1935 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Position established | Governor ofErik the Red's Land 1932–1933 | Succeeded by Position abolished |
| Awards | ||
| Preceded by | Recipient of theNorsk kulturråds ærespris 1986 | Succeeded by |
