April 2025: Greenland - a hot topic since the 18th century

Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat in Greenlandic) is the world’s largest island, yet it has the lowest population density. Today, it is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, although its predominantly Inuit population (Kalaallit) has long debated the possibility of full independence from its sovereign state.

Greenland’s modern history, particularly its ties to Denmark, began with its recolonization in the early 18th century, when the Dano-Norwegian Lutheran missionary Hans Egede landed on the island’s western coast in 1721 and founded Godthåb (modern-day Nuuk). Egede’s mission marked the culmination of Danish interest in Greenland, but Denmark’s claims to the island, both geographically and culturally, were already deeply rooted in earlier attempts to assert influence over it.

Long before Egede, Danish expeditions to Greenland had taken place throughout the 17thcentury, with different degrees of success. These missions were part of a broader political and cultural program promoted by the Danish monarchy. However, even earlier, from the late 16th century onward, several treatises on Greenland had been written.

One of the first was Arngrímur Jónsson’s Gronlandia: it was completed around 1602, but published only in 1688, in an Icelandic translation by Einar Eyjólfsson. Arngrímur’s work provided a geographical overview of Greenland and abridged information from Icelandic sagas. The political motivation behind Arngrímur’s writing becomes clear in the final sentence of his treatise:

[…] miserum gentis Gronlandicæ fatum, non solum ab imperio Daniæ et Norvegiæ, sed etiam a veri Dei religione abalienatæ. Et ô illum fausto feliciqve sydere natum principem, Daniæ Regem, qvi perditam illam et exoletam terram non solum imperio Danico, sed Deo ipsi recuperavit […].

(“[…] the miserable fate of Greenlandic people, alienated not only from the kingdom of Denmark and Norway, but also from the religion of the true God. Oh, truly born under a lucky star, the King of Denmark, who reclaimed that lost and worn-out land not only for the Danish empire, but for God himself”).

A major milestone in Denmark’s cultural claim over Greenland came with the publication of Gronlandia antiqua, seu veteris Gronlandiæ descriptio (Copenhagen, 1706) by Þormóður Torfason (Torfæus). Originally published in Latin and later translated into Danish by the author himself, this work aimed to introduce Greenland to an international readership.

Just like Arngrímur, Torfæus had never set foot on Greenland. His depiction of the island was based largely on sagas, particularly accounts from Flateyjarbók. Since Torfæus was also engaged in writing his history of Norway at the time, he had access to a vast collection of historical sources. In addition to sagas, he also drew on contemporary accounts, including Lyschander’s Den Grønlandske Cronica (1608) and especially Arngrímur Jónsson’s Gronlandia.

Divided into thirty-two chapters, Gronlandia antiqua provided a more extensive and detailed description of Greenland than Arngrímur’s earlier work. It covers various aspects of the island, including its geography, natural environment (with an entire chapter devoted to sea monsters), and historical narratives.

Just as Arngrímur, Torfæus was driven by a political agenda. This is evident in his prologue:

Recuperandæ perditæ genti Gronlandicæ, Deoque inprimis conciliandæ, delectum destinatumqve ætatis jam flore virentem Piissimum Regem nostrum temporum reique gerendæ oportunitas persvadere videtur: de successu non erit desperandum.

(“The opportunity of the moment and of the enterprise seems to convince our mightiest King, who is in his best age, to recover the lost people of Greenland, and reconcile them with God: we shall not despair of success”)

Only a few years after the publication of Gronlandia antiqua, Hans Egede would turn these colonial ambitions into reality. This was the birth of a DanicizedGreenland. Yet, the most recent chapters in Kalaallit Nunaat‘s history (free from the colonialist perspectives of the past?) remain to be written. And we will likely hear much more about it in the near future.