Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m8s7h Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T23:27:28.576Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Beyond the Horizon

Greenland in Eighteenth-Century Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2023

Robert W. Rix
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
Get access

Summary

The chapter focusses on post-1721 developments, analysing the Dano-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede’s struggle to fit the new observations he made in Greenland into the framework of established ideas promoted in the texts he had read prior to his arrival. The transition from reading about Greenland in books to observing the land in situ led to a crisis of representation as the archive of knowledge that had been stored up over the centuries became difficult to reconcile with experience. The most significant error perpetuated in several texts was the idea that the Eastern Settlement was located on the east coast. Rather than dismiss the many expeditions that sought to reach this fabled settlement as irrelevant to the colonial project that eventually developed on the west coast, the chapter proposes that the search for the settlers and their resource-rich lands is significant for understanding Denmark’s political, religious, and commercial ambitions in Greenland. Attention is also paid to the maps Egede drew of Greenland as they are visual records of how traditional perceptions were allowed to coexist with new empirical data.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Vanished Settlers of Greenland
In Search of a Legend and Its Legacy
, pp. 103 - 141
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Beyond the Horizon
  • Robert W. Rix, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: The Vanished Settlers of Greenland
  • Online publication: 01 June 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009359450.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Beyond the Horizon
  • Robert W. Rix, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: The Vanished Settlers of Greenland
  • Online publication: 01 June 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009359450.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Beyond the Horizon
  • Robert W. Rix, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: The Vanished Settlers of Greenland
  • Online publication: 01 June 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009359450.005
Available formats
×