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Two Against the Ice: A Classic Arctic Survival Story and a Remarkable Account of Companionship in the Face of Adversity
Farlig tomandsfærd handler om et af den grønlandske histories mest eventyrlige afsnit. Bogen fortæller om en lille håndfuld mænds uforfærdede kamp for i årene 1909-12 at løfte resten af det slør, der endnu hvilede over Mylius-Erichsens, Høeg-Hagens og Jørgen Brønlunds sidste tragiske rejse under »Danmarks-ekspeditionen« 1906-08. Bogen udkom første gang i 1955.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
About the author
Ejnar Mikkelsen
26 books4 followersEjnar Mikkelsen (1880-1971) was a Danish polar explorer and writer. He is most known for his expeditions to Greenland.
Works:
- Conquering the Arctic Ice (London, 1909)
- Lost in the Arctic (1913) - some of his Greenland expeditions are recounted here
- Mylius-Erichsen's Report on the Non-Existence of Peary's Channel (1913)
- Tre Aar par Grönlands Ostkyst (1914)
- Nord-syd-øst-vest (1917)
- Norden For Lov og Ret, a story (1920), translated as Frozen Justice (1922)
- John Dale, a novel (1921)
- Farlig Tomansfaerd (1955), translated as Two Against the Ice (1957).
Awards:
- 1933 Hans Egede Medal of the Royal Danish Geographical Society
- 1935 Patron's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.
Works:
- Conquering the Arctic Ice (London, 1909)
- Lost in the Arctic (1913) - some of his Greenland expeditions are recounted here
- Mylius-Erichsen's Report on the Non-Existence of Peary's Channel (1913)
- Tre Aar par Grönlands Ostkyst (1914)
- Nord-syd-øst-vest (1917)
- Norden For Lov og Ret, a story (1920), translated as Frozen Justice (1922)
- John Dale, a novel (1921)
- Farlig Tomansfaerd (1955), translated as Two Against the Ice (1957).
Awards:
- 1933 Hans Egede Medal of the Royal Danish Geographical Society
- 1935 Patron's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
February 14, 2024
Ejnar Mikkelsen was a Danish arctic explorer and writer who lived from 1880 to 1971. This book covers his (frankly amazing) expedition to East Greenland from 1909 to 1912.
It took me some time to warm to Mikkelsen, his attitude and his writing were brusk (I had to check my definition of this seldom used word: Abrupt and curt in manner or speech; discourteously blunt) and he had an air of cruelty in dealing with his sledge dogs which put me off side. I understand the realities that dogs are generally making a one way voyage when an expedition involves them, but it seemed an unnecessarily uncaring way to present various situations.
Nevertheless, as the reader I worked this out with Mikkelsen and came to understand he was a driven and focussed man, who was as rough around the edges, and wasted little time with the sugar coating of a statement.
In short, his expedition was established in order than he could recover the diaries of members of a previous expedition who had perished - thus his expedition needed to succeed where the previous had failed and the explorers had died - presumably from lack of food and exposure. It became an immediate reality and realistically a likely outcome for Mikkelsen and his companion, and really this story is an 'against the odds' survival story.
As a companion, Mikkelsen has to find, in the middle of nowhere a replacement for his planned companion, Jorgensen, who succumbs to terrible frostbite and the amputation of toes on the initial sledging attempt to locate the dead men and lay in stores for the return journey of their larger expedition. Iver Iversen, mechanic on the ship ask if he might join this initial expedition and then becomes Mikkelsen's number two for the primary expedition. Both men are aware of this risks involved in this remote place.
P50
For two winters the men must survive, isolated and reliant only on each other - as much a mental challenge as a physical challenge.
Iversen stands out as the hero in this remarkable book. I call it remarkable, not for the writing (perhaps the translation from Danish), but for the situation and sheer will of the men. Iversen is shown to have the qualities needed at the right time, and both men are able to push themselves physically beyond what is accepted as possible, under such adversity, and do so on a regular basis.
Somewhat uniquely, Mikkelsen wrote this book in 1955, over 40 years after the fact. Even armed with his diary, and with access to Iversen's, it is quite an undertaking to fill in the gaps to produce a narrative of this complexity, and not just resort to diary entries.
In 2022 the book was made into a film, which received mixed reactions. I haven't seen it, and will be unlikely to seek it out.
4.5 stars, rounded down.
It took me some time to warm to Mikkelsen, his attitude and his writing were brusk (I had to check my definition of this seldom used word: Abrupt and curt in manner or speech; discourteously blunt) and he had an air of cruelty in dealing with his sledge dogs which put me off side. I understand the realities that dogs are generally making a one way voyage when an expedition involves them, but it seemed an unnecessarily uncaring way to present various situations.
Nevertheless, as the reader I worked this out with Mikkelsen and came to understand he was a driven and focussed man, who was as rough around the edges, and wasted little time with the sugar coating of a statement.
In short, his expedition was established in order than he could recover the diaries of members of a previous expedition who had perished - thus his expedition needed to succeed where the previous had failed and the explorers had died - presumably from lack of food and exposure. It became an immediate reality and realistically a likely outcome for Mikkelsen and his companion, and really this story is an 'against the odds' survival story.
As a companion, Mikkelsen has to find, in the middle of nowhere a replacement for his planned companion, Jorgensen, who succumbs to terrible frostbite and the amputation of toes on the initial sledging attempt to locate the dead men and lay in stores for the return journey of their larger expedition. Iver Iversen, mechanic on the ship ask if he might join this initial expedition and then becomes Mikkelsen's number two for the primary expedition. Both men are aware of this risks involved in this remote place.
P50
"Elsewhere in the world of man a sprain was an easy thing to cure, but here it was a mortal hurt, not only for the one who suffered it, but also for his companion who would have to wait till the other had recovered and could put his weight on that foot before he could continue. There was nothing he could do, if one of us met with the least accident; there was no help to be had, however badly we needed it, not refuge to be found: either we both got through, or we both died and became as still and frozen as everything around us."In short, the two men undertake an ambitious sledging journey from Shannon Island to Danmarks Fjord, and returning along the coast. They barely survive this journey, through immense hardship and the lack of hunting, and various other circumstances, being reliant on finding the stores of the previous expedition to get them by. They finally reach Shannon Island expecting to find their crew, only to find their ship has been crushed in the pack ice, and the crew nowhere to be found.
For two winters the men must survive, isolated and reliant only on each other - as much a mental challenge as a physical challenge.
Iversen stands out as the hero in this remarkable book. I call it remarkable, not for the writing (perhaps the translation from Danish), but for the situation and sheer will of the men. Iversen is shown to have the qualities needed at the right time, and both men are able to push themselves physically beyond what is accepted as possible, under such adversity, and do so on a regular basis.
Somewhat uniquely, Mikkelsen wrote this book in 1955, over 40 years after the fact. Even armed with his diary, and with access to Iversen's, it is quite an undertaking to fill in the gaps to produce a narrative of this complexity, and not just resort to diary entries.
In 2022 the book was made into a film, which received mixed reactions. I haven't seen it, and will be unlikely to seek it out.
4.5 stars, rounded down.
June 30, 2022
An epic survival story of determination, sheer will and loyalties. The characters really brought this book to life. I look forward to watching the movie on Netflix.
March 3, 2022
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: It was the Postscript that did me in.
Ejnar, a man I'd come to see as a massively egotistical narcissist and manipulative user by now, became an old, old man out of his time and out of his element. Writing in the 1950s about the world he had thought inviolable forty years before, he sounded like I feel in this hideous, distorted Hellscape of a 21st century, hag-ridden by preachers and haters and assorted other lowlife scum empowered by their lack of opposition to usher in Armageddon seemingly at will. His awe at a 12,000-horsepower diesel motor that powered US forces (whose presence as saviors there must have rankled at least a bit, given the impetus for his entire ordeal in 1910) to victory over the Nazi regime's outpost in Greenland, was unbearably poignant to me.
This world has never stood still. It is hard for me to remember that punch-card tabulating machines were the dernier cri, unimaginably advanced tech, to Mikkelsen. He died in 1971, so he lived to see Humankind step on a different world. A man whose life was almost lost because his technology was not up to the job of taking him to a very harsh and hostile environment here on Earth watched people walk on a place that makes Greenland look like the Riviera.
Wow.
But what made this read come alive for me, what caused the whole exercise in storytelling to be extraordinarily enhanced, was the extraordinarily beautiful and accurate adaptation. I don't like Mikkelsen any more than I did...he plays Iver's heartstrings like a virtuoso violinist...but he, as Coster-Waldau embodies him, truly reciprocates the devotion and affection Iver offers to him. That he found this in the text, that he saw the truth of their mutuality and interdependence was enough for me to overlook the sheer absurd heteronormative gloss of the thing. Days in the film version are numbered, and the count becomes astonishing...Day 793 is memorable...and a deeply affecting and effective way to offer the experience as the supreme ordeal that it truly was.
Maurice Michael, the translator whose work was largely unsung for generations, rendered Mikkelsen's prose so beautifully that there were moments I sat still and just...was...in the moments depicted. No, quoting them out of context won't do a damn thing because there's just no way to being their most important advantage...interrelationship...with them.
These photos are in the book, and are astounding to me...that they survived, that they made themselves records like this, what a miracle that must've seemed to the men of the 19th century! And I, stuck to my bed by disability, can not only reproduce the photos with a few clicks of a computer's mouse. These are the two men themselves...the resemblance of Coster-Waldau to Mikkelsen is remarkable.
The film, the story of it, is also very interesting, and I encourage you to look into it. More important to me than that is to say that I, who absolutely abhor animal cruelty in my reading, was deeply upset by the treatment of the dogs in this tale...not because it was cruel, but because it was necessary and because the men were quite upset by it on more than one level. This is not a straightforward triumphalist tale of Conquering The Elements. This is the reckoning of a life lived on his own terms delivered by the man who grew and changed, who resulted from the brutalizing battle to survive that would've killed anyone not as powerfully self-motivated and indomitably self-willed as Mikkelsen was.
Truth be told, it's just the fact that had such good luck in his filmic avatar that rescued him from my "that whole postcard thing is a stupid, bad smokescreen" judgment of his manipulative and overbearing character. Had I not been made to see the vulnerable side of him, I'd've stuck with "what a relic of a bad time" and missed the subtle and worthwhile nuances.
My Review: It was the Postscript that did me in.
Ejnar, a man I'd come to see as a massively egotistical narcissist and manipulative user by now, became an old, old man out of his time and out of his element. Writing in the 1950s about the world he had thought inviolable forty years before, he sounded like I feel in this hideous, distorted Hellscape of a 21st century, hag-ridden by preachers and haters and assorted other lowlife scum empowered by their lack of opposition to usher in Armageddon seemingly at will. His awe at a 12,000-horsepower diesel motor that powered US forces (whose presence as saviors there must have rankled at least a bit, given the impetus for his entire ordeal in 1910) to victory over the Nazi regime's outpost in Greenland, was unbearably poignant to me.
This world has never stood still. It is hard for me to remember that punch-card tabulating machines were the dernier cri, unimaginably advanced tech, to Mikkelsen. He died in 1971, so he lived to see Humankind step on a different world. A man whose life was almost lost because his technology was not up to the job of taking him to a very harsh and hostile environment here on Earth watched people walk on a place that makes Greenland look like the Riviera.
Wow.
But what made this read come alive for me, what caused the whole exercise in storytelling to be extraordinarily enhanced, was the extraordinarily beautiful and accurate adaptation. I don't like Mikkelsen any more than I did...he plays Iver's heartstrings like a virtuoso violinist...but he, as Coster-Waldau embodies him, truly reciprocates the devotion and affection Iver offers to him. That he found this in the text, that he saw the truth of their mutuality and interdependence was enough for me to overlook the sheer absurd heteronormative gloss of the thing. Days in the film version are numbered, and the count becomes astonishing...Day 793 is memorable...and a deeply affecting and effective way to offer the experience as the supreme ordeal that it truly was.
Maurice Michael, the translator whose work was largely unsung for generations, rendered Mikkelsen's prose so beautifully that there were moments I sat still and just...was...in the moments depicted. No, quoting them out of context won't do a damn thing because there's just no way to being their most important advantage...interrelationship...with them.
These photos are in the book, and are astounding to me...that they survived, that they made themselves records like this, what a miracle that must've seemed to the men of the 19th century! And I, stuck to my bed by disability, can not only reproduce the photos with a few clicks of a computer's mouse. These are the two men themselves...the resemblance of Coster-Waldau to Mikkelsen is remarkable.
The film, the story of it, is also very interesting, and I encourage you to look into it. More important to me than that is to say that I, who absolutely abhor animal cruelty in my reading, was deeply upset by the treatment of the dogs in this tale...not because it was cruel, but because it was necessary and because the men were quite upset by it on more than one level. This is not a straightforward triumphalist tale of Conquering The Elements. This is the reckoning of a life lived on his own terms delivered by the man who grew and changed, who resulted from the brutalizing battle to survive that would've killed anyone not as powerfully self-motivated and indomitably self-willed as Mikkelsen was.
Truth be told, it's just the fact that had such good luck in his filmic avatar that rescued him from my "that whole postcard thing is a stupid, bad smokescreen" judgment of his manipulative and overbearing character. Had I not been made to see the vulnerable side of him, I'd've stuck with "what a relic of a bad time" and missed the subtle and worthwhile nuances.
May 30, 2022
Bücher über Polarforschungsdinge sind leider oft von Ernsten Männern geschrieben worden, die ihr Hobby in einem möglichst seriösen Licht zu schildern versuchen. Das hier ist eins von ganz wenigen, in denen es auch um Freundschaft geht, um landschaftliche Schönheit, um Träume, um Schlittenhunde als Personen und nicht nur als Ziehgeräte. Gelitten und gehungert wird wie in jedem anderen Polarbuch auch, und die Geschichte der Hunde, das nur als Warnung, geht nicht gut aus.
Ich wollte es lesen, weil ich die Verfilmung ganz okay fand. Das Buch hat mit dem Film eher wenig zu tun, das macht aber nichts, es sind beides gute Geschichten. (Update: Es ergab sich so, dass ich den Film noch mal sah, und im Vergleich zum Buch ist er dann leider doch ziemlich großer Mist. Die gute, friedliche Geschichte aus dem Buch wird mit schlecht ausgedachten Konflikten ausgeschmückt. Aber halt ein paar schöne Szenen mit Schlittenhunden.)
Ich wollte es lesen, weil ich die Verfilmung ganz okay fand. Das Buch hat mit dem Film eher wenig zu tun, das macht aber nichts, es sind beides gute Geschichten. (Update: Es ergab sich so, dass ich den Film noch mal sah, und im Vergleich zum Buch ist er dann leider doch ziemlich großer Mist. Die gute, friedliche Geschichte aus dem Buch wird mit schlecht ausgedachten Konflikten ausgeschmückt. Aber halt ein paar schöne Szenen mit Schlittenhunden.)
December 15, 2022
Published in 1955, and based on the diaries of the participants, this is the true story of an expedition to Greenland in 1910-1912, led by Danish explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen and accompanied by mechanic Iver Iversen. Their goal was to find the journals of a previous expedition, whose members did not survive. Their journey took them through severe terrain in extreme cold. They faced starvation, scurvy, exhaustion, and polar bear attacks. It is a story of the golden age of exploration, prior to any form of technology that could have assisted in their rescue. It is a gripping tale of the limits of human endurance and how a positive mental outlook helped them endure. It is amazing that these two men were able to maintain their camaraderie for almost three years alone on the Greenland ice cap. It is a remarkable tale of survival and highly recommended.
December 2, 2021
Talk about changing tactics I've read Christoffer Petersen accounts from Greenland but now that I've read Ejnar Mikkelsen's story I have changed my impression of what Greenland is like. While Christoffer is manly on the western side of Greenland most of Ejnar's was on the East side. Mikkelsen and Iversen were talking about around the year 1910. While Petersen is up to date in his writing. Things were much harder during Mikkkelsen's years on Greenland. He states that things were even greater during the 1940's with the different motors and aircraft that we now have. I like the way he described the way Mikkelsen and Iversen got along during their 2 and 1/2 years together and all the hardships that occurred. I can really feel for them and their bodies with the cold that they encountered having similar feelings during winter outings, not quite as cold though. It was an exciting read for me with all the drama that goes with it. I recommend it to anyone with the lust for the outdoors.
February 28, 2022
(Sorry for any mistakes, English is not my mother tongue.)
I learned about this book thanks to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who wrote the foreword of the new edition of this book), he's my favorite actor and I've been following his work since around 2007. It was thanks to "Against the Ice", his next film based on this story (written, produced and performed by him, on Netflix the day after tomorrow) that I got curious and wanted to find out more before watching it.
I couldn't be happier with the choice I made. This is an overwhelming, engaging, desperate, yet hopeful story. A story of trust and true friendship.
Narrated by the main character of the story, Ejnar Mikkelsen, during the reading you live all the events following his point of view and, above all, his thoughts and his state of mind (which changes A LOT over time) and you get to appreciate both characters, especially Iver, the best and genuine person in the world (my favorite between them, without a doubt), thanks to the way Ejnar tells the whole story. His way of describing events is detailed and very engaging.
I must say that initially I struggled to get into the story, I found it slow and a bit confusing (perhaps because I read it in English, or because there are many names and places that I don't know, or perhaps because I just had to get a little fond of the characters.)
But then as I went on I realized how, all in all, the pace was right, it makes you experience all the fatigue, despair and desolation that they themselves have experienced. (Don't worry, the second part of the story is faster than the first one)
I let go of rationality and TRIED to relate to their situation.
This is a raw story, many times I had to stop to take a breath, imagining what I would've done in their place. I closed the book, looked at it and thought about it. Then I reopened it and went on reading, hoping that things would improve. But, as the pages went by, I realized that I kept closing the book often because I didn't want to finish it, I didn't want to get to the end of this story that slowly entered my heart, I didn't want to abandon Ejnar and Iver and what I was living with them, their fears, their hopes, their pains. Towards the end of the story I was so involved that many of the things told also moved me.
I absolutely did not expect to be overwhelmed so much by this story, one of the most beautiful books read lately. I wanted to tell what I felt while reading, but remember that reading is always a subjective thing and the things that I've loved so much maybe some will not like at all.
I hope this story has affected you / it affects you as it did with me.
(PS: the photos. Wonderful. A huge round of applause to those who've chosen to include them!)
I learned about this book thanks to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who wrote the foreword of the new edition of this book), he's my favorite actor and I've been following his work since around 2007. It was thanks to "Against the Ice", his next film based on this story (written, produced and performed by him, on Netflix the day after tomorrow) that I got curious and wanted to find out more before watching it.
I couldn't be happier with the choice I made. This is an overwhelming, engaging, desperate, yet hopeful story. A story of trust and true friendship.
Narrated by the main character of the story, Ejnar Mikkelsen, during the reading you live all the events following his point of view and, above all, his thoughts and his state of mind (which changes A LOT over time) and you get to appreciate both characters, especially Iver, the best and genuine person in the world (my favorite between them, without a doubt), thanks to the way Ejnar tells the whole story. His way of describing events is detailed and very engaging.
I must say that initially I struggled to get into the story, I found it slow and a bit confusing (perhaps because I read it in English, or because there are many names and places that I don't know, or perhaps because I just had to get a little fond of the characters.)
But then as I went on I realized how, all in all, the pace was right, it makes you experience all the fatigue, despair and desolation that they themselves have experienced. (Don't worry, the second part of the story is faster than the first one)
I let go of rationality and TRIED to relate to their situation.
This is a raw story, many times I had to stop to take a breath, imagining what I would've done in their place. I closed the book, looked at it and thought about it. Then I reopened it and went on reading, hoping that things would improve. But, as the pages went by, I realized that I kept closing the book often because I didn't want to finish it, I didn't want to get to the end of this story that slowly entered my heart, I didn't want to abandon Ejnar and Iver and what I was living with them, their fears, their hopes, their pains. Towards the end of the story I was so involved that many of the things told also moved me.
I absolutely did not expect to be overwhelmed so much by this story, one of the most beautiful books read lately. I wanted to tell what I felt while reading, but remember that reading is always a subjective thing and the things that I've loved so much maybe some will not like at all.
I hope this story has affected you / it affects you as it did with me.
(PS: the photos. Wonderful. A huge round of applause to those who've chosen to include them!)
July 7, 2019
“Terrible trips make for excellent reading,” says Lawrence Millman in his foreword to Two Against the Ice, by the great Danish Arctic explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen. As a longtime reader of disaster journeys, I can only agree. These trips don’t have to take place in icy lands. I was certainly gripped by Cooper’s Creek,, Alan Moorehead’s account of the Burke and Wills expedition into the center of Australia. But there’s no question that many of the greatest terrible trips have been set in Arctic or Antarctic regions. Think of the journeys of Shackleton, Scott, Mawson—and add Mikkelsen to the list.
Mikkelsen seems to have been destined for the north. When he was a youth, already an adventurer working on ships in the Far East, an Indian in Calcutta, he says, “foretold me a future in a land so white and desolate that he had never imagined anything like it.” This proved to be true. In the north, he found his calling: he went on to explore Greenland, Siberia, Alaska. “What are you to do,” he asks, “when you have been born with an eternal unrest in your body and are drawn to none but those parts of the world that sensible people regard as fit only for fools?”
In Two Against the Ice, Mikkelsen’s mission was to retrieve the papers of three Danish explorers who died on a 1906 expedition to northeast Greenland. Supported by the Danish government, he and a small crew sailed to Greenland in 1909 on a ship most inaptly named the Alabama. When the shipmate with whom he planned to hike inland developed frostbite early on, he agreed to take on a volunteer instead: Iver Iversen, a mechanic with no Arctic experience.
Only one chapter in the book is called “Things Get Worse,” but many chapters might bear that title. The two men struggle with violent weather, crevasses, ailing dogs, and near starvation. Mikkelsen gets scurvy. Both get vitamin A poisoning from eating their dogs’ livers. When they finally arrive back at their ship, now deserted, they face not one but two more winters on the ice, when no boat comes.
Mikkelsen is a fine writer, and he conveys not only the physical setting and stresses, but the psychological experience as well: the desolation of enduring three sunless winters, the fears, in starvation, that one might be willing to eat one’s companion, and the reliance on that single companion for 865 days. The relationship between the two men, as they obsess about food, find solace in the foxes they adopt as pets, and develop—and share—an alternative life in the world of dreams, is every bit as gripping as their amazing feat of survival.
Mikkelsen seems to have been destined for the north. When he was a youth, already an adventurer working on ships in the Far East, an Indian in Calcutta, he says, “foretold me a future in a land so white and desolate that he had never imagined anything like it.” This proved to be true. In the north, he found his calling: he went on to explore Greenland, Siberia, Alaska. “What are you to do,” he asks, “when you have been born with an eternal unrest in your body and are drawn to none but those parts of the world that sensible people regard as fit only for fools?”
In Two Against the Ice, Mikkelsen’s mission was to retrieve the papers of three Danish explorers who died on a 1906 expedition to northeast Greenland. Supported by the Danish government, he and a small crew sailed to Greenland in 1909 on a ship most inaptly named the Alabama. When the shipmate with whom he planned to hike inland developed frostbite early on, he agreed to take on a volunteer instead: Iver Iversen, a mechanic with no Arctic experience.
Only one chapter in the book is called “Things Get Worse,” but many chapters might bear that title. The two men struggle with violent weather, crevasses, ailing dogs, and near starvation. Mikkelsen gets scurvy. Both get vitamin A poisoning from eating their dogs’ livers. When they finally arrive back at their ship, now deserted, they face not one but two more winters on the ice, when no boat comes.
Mikkelsen is a fine writer, and he conveys not only the physical setting and stresses, but the psychological experience as well: the desolation of enduring three sunless winters, the fears, in starvation, that one might be willing to eat one’s companion, and the reliance on that single companion for 865 days. The relationship between the two men, as they obsess about food, find solace in the foxes they adopt as pets, and develop—and share—an alternative life in the world of dreams, is every bit as gripping as their amazing feat of survival.
February 3, 2022
The audio performance is good, but I couldn't get over how dumb these guys were with regards to the dogs. Just utter chaos and ineptitude, letting them die left and right. Were they prepared at all for this journey? DNF at 35%, couldn't do any more.
December 4, 2023
I would die for Iver Iversen.
January 28, 2022
One of the best reads I have had for a long time
The shear will to survive and the distances they traveled is insane. Excellent story from a different time. How they hunted and what they had to eat will make me appreciate every meal I have.
The shear will to survive and the distances they traveled is insane. Excellent story from a different time. How they hunted and what they had to eat will make me appreciate every meal I have.
February 12, 2023
I absolutely loved this book. This book is straightforward, but at times can be rather poetic. Even though this is a memoir, Mikkelsens talent as a writer can not be understated. He has a beautiful sense of language, and can be very witty.
With that said, these two men faced some of the most arduous conditions, and overcame disaster after disaster. Yet, you get the impression that they never lose their sense of morality along the way. I've seen criticism over the dogs treatment. Yes, they had to eat some of their dogs, and like any men would, they made their survival priority over all else. But they had a true love and respect for the animals they shared such a treacherous landscape with. And even go with out meals in order to spare some of the wild life they encounter even though food may not be guaranteed again.
Their friendship is most endearing. And they took such pleasure in the simple comforts they could find along such a terrible journey, it really makes you appreciate your own small comforts and victories. This story really highlights the value of friendship.
With that said, these two men faced some of the most arduous conditions, and overcame disaster after disaster. Yet, you get the impression that they never lose their sense of morality along the way. I've seen criticism over the dogs treatment. Yes, they had to eat some of their dogs, and like any men would, they made their survival priority over all else. But they had a true love and respect for the animals they shared such a treacherous landscape with. And even go with out meals in order to spare some of the wild life they encounter even though food may not be guaranteed again.
Their friendship is most endearing. And they took such pleasure in the simple comforts they could find along such a terrible journey, it really makes you appreciate your own small comforts and victories. This story really highlights the value of friendship.
June 12, 2023
Really enjoyed this, much more than expected.
April 14, 2024
Travel writer, Lawrence Millman, who writes the book’s introduction, makes the point that when it comes to Polar exploration, Scandinavians ‘make their British and American counterparts seem like Boy Scouts’. Ejnar Mikkelsen was a good example.
This concerns his voyage to northeast Greenland in 1910 to recover the diary and any surviving papers that would shed light on what happened to the 1908 Mylius-Erichsen Expedition’s attempts to refute Peary’s claim of having mapped the east Greenland coast. The account is from Mikkelsen himself, put together from his diaries and then tidied up later in his life. His style of writing is quite understated, humble, and yet appealingly miserable, he, and his colleague Iversen, face three years of extreme hardship.
Despite the hunger, cold and solitude, it is evident Mikkelsen is where he wants to be, a place of rare beauty that insists on constant alertness and yet becomes perversely sustaining as it tries to kill you.
This concerns his voyage to northeast Greenland in 1910 to recover the diary and any surviving papers that would shed light on what happened to the 1908 Mylius-Erichsen Expedition’s attempts to refute Peary’s claim of having mapped the east Greenland coast. The account is from Mikkelsen himself, put together from his diaries and then tidied up later in his life. His style of writing is quite understated, humble, and yet appealingly miserable, he, and his colleague Iversen, face three years of extreme hardship.
Despite the hunger, cold and solitude, it is evident Mikkelsen is where he wants to be, a place of rare beauty that insists on constant alertness and yet becomes perversely sustaining as it tries to kill you.
Want to read
March 6, 20226 MAR 2022 - film on Netflix today. Truth is I did not shed a tear for the men left behind. I wept for the innocent dogs. I would enjoy very much reading this story. These early explorers were brave, filled with such fortitude and inner strength and deeply fascinate me.
August 26, 2022
Whoa I did not know about this journey - that consisted mainly of two Danish men who become abandoned on the northwest coastline of Greenland from Aug. 1909 when their wooden ship gets stuck in the ice to July 2012. Explorer Ejnar and a mechanic named Iversen were out in the wilds freezing and trying to stay alive with their sled dogs, traveling hundreds of miles across snow & ice. They had gone to Greenland in 1909 to look for the remains & diaries of three men who did not return from an earlier expedition there, but then their ship filled with others -- the Alabama -- gets stuck hundreds of miles from where they believe the mens' remains to be - so the two set off on sleds with dogs. Yikes they find one man's gravesite but then it takes like eight months to get back to the ship and no one is there when they do. So they have to winter two more times in a hut they build before being eventually found & being picked up.
I listened to the audiobook of Ejnar's pretty grisly, epic account. It's filled with how they stayed alive in Arctic temps and traveled - their dogs took the brunt of their journey and did not make it back. Dog lovers beware - this story might be too harsh for you to endure. But he tells quite a vivid story of endurance & survival against the odds, about two men who made a good team together to make it. I will take it as a good intro to Greenland's early period. I liked how Ejnar describes their journey & friendship (they didn't fight) - only a few times did I become confused where they were in the account. There is much going back & forth. And much freezing too, you will feel the cold and even frostbite. I haven't seen the Netflix movie of this that came out in March 2022. But later Ejnar lived till the ripe age of 90 ... and made two other early trips to Greenland. He became a Danish hero.
I listened to the audiobook of Ejnar's pretty grisly, epic account. It's filled with how they stayed alive in Arctic temps and traveled - their dogs took the brunt of their journey and did not make it back. Dog lovers beware - this story might be too harsh for you to endure. But he tells quite a vivid story of endurance & survival against the odds, about two men who made a good team together to make it. I will take it as a good intro to Greenland's early period. I liked how Ejnar describes their journey & friendship (they didn't fight) - only a few times did I become confused where they were in the account. There is much going back & forth. And much freezing too, you will feel the cold and even frostbite. I haven't seen the Netflix movie of this that came out in March 2022. But later Ejnar lived till the ripe age of 90 ... and made two other early trips to Greenland. He became a Danish hero.
June 15, 2022
Quick Take: The original Survivor meets The Martian but IRL
I read this book in a course of one day. Once I got started, I couldn't put it down. Against the Ice by Enjar Mikkelsen is the true account of an Artic explorer who ended up stranded for almost 3 years in the Artic.
Enjar Mikkelsen was a Danish explorer born in the 1880's. In the late 1890's he began traveling the world and made his first Artic trek. Unfortunately, it was hard to get funding for these explorations so when he heard that the failed Mylius-Erichsen expedition may have left behind important diaries he jumped at the chance to go.
East Greenland is an unforgiving land of ice and snow. Several years before, the explorers Mylius-Erichsen traveled to east Greenland and perished during their expedition. Enjar Mikkelsen brought a crew with him to find the bodies of the lost explorers and retrieve the diaries. Although he embarked with a crew, in the end, only him and his ship mechanic, Iverson, would make the trip for the diaries. Everything went wrong on this trip, right from the beginning. Due to many unforeseen circumstances. Mikkelsen and Iverson must survive 3 years in Greenland suffering scurvy, starvation, food poisoning, and frostbite.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a true tale of survival.
I read this book in a course of one day. Once I got started, I couldn't put it down. Against the Ice by Enjar Mikkelsen is the true account of an Artic explorer who ended up stranded for almost 3 years in the Artic.
Enjar Mikkelsen was a Danish explorer born in the 1880's. In the late 1890's he began traveling the world and made his first Artic trek. Unfortunately, it was hard to get funding for these explorations so when he heard that the failed Mylius-Erichsen expedition may have left behind important diaries he jumped at the chance to go.
East Greenland is an unforgiving land of ice and snow. Several years before, the explorers Mylius-Erichsen traveled to east Greenland and perished during their expedition. Enjar Mikkelsen brought a crew with him to find the bodies of the lost explorers and retrieve the diaries. Although he embarked with a crew, in the end, only him and his ship mechanic, Iverson, would make the trip for the diaries. Everything went wrong on this trip, right from the beginning. Due to many unforeseen circumstances. Mikkelsen and Iverson must survive 3 years in Greenland suffering scurvy, starvation, food poisoning, and frostbite.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a true tale of survival.
August 19, 2022
This book is translated from Danish and the translation was not the greatest. Otherwise an interesting story.
August 31, 2022
Finished reading: August 30th 2022
"All of us who had gone up there were silly, both men and dogs."
P.S. Find more of my reviews here.
March 28, 2022
This book is epic.
It took me awhile to get used to the old Danish style writing but once I went through a couple of pages, it went easily. Ejnar Mikkelsen, apart from being an explorer, was a great writer. He could describe his adventures vividly that you felt that you were there with him, tired and hungry from the strenuous expedition on East Greenland.
I must admit that I picked this book up after watching "Against the Ice" on Netflix, and what can I say? The film doesn't justify the book at all.
It took me awhile to get used to the old Danish style writing but once I went through a couple of pages, it went easily. Ejnar Mikkelsen, apart from being an explorer, was a great writer. He could describe his adventures vividly that you felt that you were there with him, tired and hungry from the strenuous expedition on East Greenland.
I must admit that I picked this book up after watching "Against the Ice" on Netflix, and what can I say? The film doesn't justify the book at all.
January 23, 2022
This was a survival story through and through. I felt empowered by the characters resilience and determination. The pictures were my favorite, I felt transported back in time and it probably helped that I was reading this in the middle of winter. I can't wait to watch this fantastic story on Netflix.
March 8, 2022
Read the 2022-edition ”Farlig tomandsfærd - Ny udvidet og illustreret udgave” in Danish. I have not seen the movie - yet. This edition includes some letters from Ejnar Mikkelsen to his family. Letters he left in Greenland - just in case the letters would make it home faster than himself.
The book is an excellent read with many fine descriptions that no fiction author would come up with. Ejnar Mikkelsen is not the academic perfectionist as Fridtjof Nansen. He does not mind admitting bad judgement and is way more human in his way of thinking and acting. For example the train of though about whether or not to eat the dogs liver is an excellent example of slippery slope thinking rationalising each lower step.
There are many such incidents. The talk about being afraid to carry the gun is brutally honest.
One reviewer writes: “Just utter chaos and ineptitude, letting [the dogs] die left and right. ” Ejnar Mikkelsen may not have been as well prepared as Fridtjof Nansen, but eating the dogs was a part of arctic travel. The only point of underprepared I noticed was not taking precautions against scurvy. Fridtjof Nansen writes about the research he does into the subject and how none of his men gets scurvy during the Fram three year expedition. Seems very strange that an arctic explore is unfamiliar with that.
Reading the book I did not know about the mystery of Koch and Mylius and Hagens bodies. And this add an extra star to the book. There is a separate mystery that Mikkelsen provides evidences for with out knowing it. Again: No fiction writer could have done so well.
Major spoiler warning:
The book is an excellent read with many fine descriptions that no fiction author would come up with. Ejnar Mikkelsen is not the academic perfectionist as Fridtjof Nansen. He does not mind admitting bad judgement and is way more human in his way of thinking and acting. For example the train of though about whether or not to eat the dogs liver is an excellent example of slippery slope thinking rationalising each lower step.
There are many such incidents. The talk about being afraid to carry the gun is brutally honest.
One reviewer writes: “Just utter chaos and ineptitude, letting [the dogs] die left and right. ” Ejnar Mikkelsen may not have been as well prepared as Fridtjof Nansen, but eating the dogs was a part of arctic travel. The only point of underprepared I noticed was not taking precautions against scurvy. Fridtjof Nansen writes about the research he does into the subject and how none of his men gets scurvy during the Fram three year expedition. Seems very strange that an arctic explore is unfamiliar with that.
Reading the book I did not know about the mystery of Koch and Mylius and Hagens bodies. And this add an extra star to the book. There is a separate mystery that Mikkelsen provides evidences for with out knowing it. Again: No fiction writer could have done so well.
Major spoiler warning:
December 8, 2022
Fascinating account of Ejnar Mikkelsen's exploration of the uncharted land of North East Greenland. Mikkelsen, an experienced Arctic explorer traveled for nearly 3 years with Iver Iverson a capable mechanic but novice in the Arctic in a attempt to find the charts and diaries of a previous pair who attempted to map the icey wilderness.
The post script is especially interesting as Mikkelsen credits the internal combustion engine with the huge technological advances in the past century, most especially with the taming of the Artic wilds of Greenland, and points out how much progress happened in the short 2 decades following his adventure in that frozen wilderness.
"Time and again I have been asked what north-east Greenland is like and now I have tried to answer that question as I have described it in this book. Such was NE Greenland when it was discovered, explored and mapped and such it must have been for millions of years since it was first clothed in its cap of ice and life there was exterminated. I in my simplicity never doubted that it would remain thus for all eternity a harsh and desolate land without any means of supporting life for even the Eskimos on the coast had died out. It was so utterly wrong in my view of NE Greenland’s eternal immutability was due first and foremost to the invention and improvement of the internal combustion engine. At the beginning of this century the petrol engine was a heavy, clumsy and unreliable thrall in man's service ,yet in a couple of decades it became the master of mankind or at least a fantastic creator of the energy without which modern society cannot exist. Directly or indirectly the motor plays a part in all man’s undertakings. It makes electricity and provides the power that drives huge ships across the seven seas and amongst many other things it has been the cause of clever technicians being able to realize man's oldest and most fantastic dreams and hankering : to rise into the air and conquer Space. From the time the principle of the first airplane was discovered its development has been explosive until we have arrived at the machines of today that fly at a thousand of miles an hour and more and are driven by engines of tens of thousands of horsepower. The modern airplane upset a not very gifted Prophet’s view of the immutability of the status NE Greenland and reduced it’s eternity to a few decades, or to be exact form 1910 when I still believed that there were things that could endure forever until about 1950 when one such lone monster went flying over the desolate country around the mouth of Danmarks Fjord where I had experienced the most bitter hours of my own long life and seen the expected number of my days shrink to a few weeks, months at the most. In the belly of this monster were comfortable, soft chairs in which sat officials who as they flew along at a low, but safe height looked for level stretches of ground in the wilderness. Those men had the power and the intention to violate the immutability of the wilderness and say where they could and should build a landing ground. Thus putting an end to the abiding desolation. They found what they sought, near the place where Iver and I had rested in 1910 and spoken frankly of the future that for us could hardly have been a future at all...."
The post script is especially interesting as Mikkelsen credits the internal combustion engine with the huge technological advances in the past century, most especially with the taming of the Artic wilds of Greenland, and points out how much progress happened in the short 2 decades following his adventure in that frozen wilderness.
"Time and again I have been asked what north-east Greenland is like and now I have tried to answer that question as I have described it in this book. Such was NE Greenland when it was discovered, explored and mapped and such it must have been for millions of years since it was first clothed in its cap of ice and life there was exterminated. I in my simplicity never doubted that it would remain thus for all eternity a harsh and desolate land without any means of supporting life for even the Eskimos on the coast had died out. It was so utterly wrong in my view of NE Greenland’s eternal immutability was due first and foremost to the invention and improvement of the internal combustion engine. At the beginning of this century the petrol engine was a heavy, clumsy and unreliable thrall in man's service ,yet in a couple of decades it became the master of mankind or at least a fantastic creator of the energy without which modern society cannot exist. Directly or indirectly the motor plays a part in all man’s undertakings. It makes electricity and provides the power that drives huge ships across the seven seas and amongst many other things it has been the cause of clever technicians being able to realize man's oldest and most fantastic dreams and hankering : to rise into the air and conquer Space. From the time the principle of the first airplane was discovered its development has been explosive until we have arrived at the machines of today that fly at a thousand of miles an hour and more and are driven by engines of tens of thousands of horsepower. The modern airplane upset a not very gifted Prophet’s view of the immutability of the status NE Greenland and reduced it’s eternity to a few decades, or to be exact form 1910 when I still believed that there were things that could endure forever until about 1950 when one such lone monster went flying over the desolate country around the mouth of Danmarks Fjord where I had experienced the most bitter hours of my own long life and seen the expected number of my days shrink to a few weeks, months at the most. In the belly of this monster were comfortable, soft chairs in which sat officials who as they flew along at a low, but safe height looked for level stretches of ground in the wilderness. Those men had the power and the intention to violate the immutability of the wilderness and say where they could and should build a landing ground. Thus putting an end to the abiding desolation. They found what they sought, near the place where Iver and I had rested in 1910 and spoken frankly of the future that for us could hardly have been a future at all...."
December 8, 2023
A few weeks ago my husband asked me to find something to watch together, and while browsing Netflix I found Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s adaptation of this very memoir. We were absolutely enthralled, and I decided it had to be the next sad boat book I read. I’m so very glad I did.
Ejnar Mikkelsen and his team were sent to Greenland in order to find out what happened to the previous Danish expedition to eastern Greenland, taking the lives of the expedition leader and two other men. It was imperative to find the journals of these men, to learn what they had discovered about this desolate land. Mikkelsen outfits a boat called the Alabama and takes his men to eastern Greenland in 1909 to find the materials belonging to the previous expedition. But when it’s clear the mechanic Mikkelsen had hired wasn’t up to the job, a mechanic from a ship nearby volunteers to join the expedition. It is this man, Iver P. Iversen, that also volunteers to accompany Mikkelsen north to where Mylius-Erichsen and his men died, in order to try to recover their journals and materials, leading to these two men spending the next three years with only each other for company.
It’s amazing how desolate Greenland was at the time. Mikkelsen does wax a bit preachy at the end, bemoaning how easy it is now to traverse Greenland and to even survive winter in relative comfort, compared to his and Iversen’s travails, including bouts of scurvy and the very real possibility of dying of starvation. Admittedly, he and Iversen barely survived the trek to recover the expedition’s materials; a few more days out on the ice would have resulted in their deaths. I don’t blame Mikkelsen for becoming a bit salty regarding the use of the food in the cairns, how the tinned food had been broken open and strewn about for the dogs, though none of it was dog food. That food would absolutely have made all the difference to Mikkelsen and Iversen, instead of them reaching their destination on the knife’s edge of starvation.
Mikkelsen was quite fortunate to have ended up with Iversen as his partner on this journey. I’ve read too many accounts where everything falls apart because of interpersonal issues. Mikkelsen and Iversen each made conscious decisions to remain as positive as possible and to take the best care of each other that they could. Everything was share and share alike; even as Mikkelsen was clearly in charge, he never took more than his fair share of anything. It’s a testament to how emotionally strong these men were that they never let differences in opinion ruin their friendship; it’s only the relationships with their imaginary girlfriends that cause a rift, but even that was quickly mended.
Being a book, this memoir goes in greater detail than does the movie, but Coster-Waldau did an excellent job of bringing this material to life. I recommend both this book and the movie highly.
Ejnar Mikkelsen and his team were sent to Greenland in order to find out what happened to the previous Danish expedition to eastern Greenland, taking the lives of the expedition leader and two other men. It was imperative to find the journals of these men, to learn what they had discovered about this desolate land. Mikkelsen outfits a boat called the Alabama and takes his men to eastern Greenland in 1909 to find the materials belonging to the previous expedition. But when it’s clear the mechanic Mikkelsen had hired wasn’t up to the job, a mechanic from a ship nearby volunteers to join the expedition. It is this man, Iver P. Iversen, that also volunteers to accompany Mikkelsen north to where Mylius-Erichsen and his men died, in order to try to recover their journals and materials, leading to these two men spending the next three years with only each other for company.
It’s amazing how desolate Greenland was at the time. Mikkelsen does wax a bit preachy at the end, bemoaning how easy it is now to traverse Greenland and to even survive winter in relative comfort, compared to his and Iversen’s travails, including bouts of scurvy and the very real possibility of dying of starvation. Admittedly, he and Iversen barely survived the trek to recover the expedition’s materials; a few more days out on the ice would have resulted in their deaths. I don’t blame Mikkelsen for becoming a bit salty regarding the use of the food in the cairns, how the tinned food had been broken open and strewn about for the dogs, though none of it was dog food. That food would absolutely have made all the difference to Mikkelsen and Iversen, instead of them reaching their destination on the knife’s edge of starvation.
Mikkelsen was quite fortunate to have ended up with Iversen as his partner on this journey. I’ve read too many accounts where everything falls apart because of interpersonal issues. Mikkelsen and Iversen each made conscious decisions to remain as positive as possible and to take the best care of each other that they could. Everything was share and share alike; even as Mikkelsen was clearly in charge, he never took more than his fair share of anything. It’s a testament to how emotionally strong these men were that they never let differences in opinion ruin their friendship; it’s only the relationships with their imaginary girlfriends that cause a rift, but even that was quickly mended.
Being a book, this memoir goes in greater detail than does the movie, but Coster-Waldau did an excellent job of bringing this material to life. I recommend both this book and the movie highly.
January 11, 2024
2, maybe 2.5 stars. I wasn't a huge fan of this one and kind of wish I read a different arctic survival story, as there seems to be quite a few. It was really hard for me to hear about the conditions their sled dogs went through; they were essentially whipped and tricked into submission to continue performing how Mikkelsen and Iversen wanted them to in awful, freezing conditions in which they ended up dying on the journey.
As much as the dogs were discussed,the book surprisingly lacks depth in exploring relationship dynamics between the two explorers. It wasn’t until the last two chapters that I started to get a sense of their friendship and interactions with one another when I expected most of the book to be a detailed description of their partnership under extreme conditions.
Overall it was pretty boring…It’s written from an old timey white male European perspective and didn’t get too deep. I almost stopped reading halfway through, but it wasn’t super long so I finished. Oh, and gotta love the casual references to colonization as they discussed their dream of displacing local Eskimo communities in East Greenland and starting a new colony. Overall, not a suggested read from me.
"We halted a moment in our laborious march so that we could say goodbye to the sun, which we were not to see again til towards the end of February. So it sank below the horizon, sending its last shafts of fire across ice and land, kindling a brief blaze among the massive mountains deep within the inland ice and lending a fleeting warm color to the black mountains around us. And we bowed our heads as though a dear friend had died and his coffin just been lowered into the ground."
"I was well on the way to being snow blind; I should have to be very careful. A bandage over my eyes would soon put them right and some drops of cocaine would relieve the pain."
"It is possible that any reasonable person would have considered what we thought a modest ration astounding gluttony. But then, we were not quite like reasonable people."
As much as the dogs were discussed,the book surprisingly lacks depth in exploring relationship dynamics between the two explorers. It wasn’t until the last two chapters that I started to get a sense of their friendship and interactions with one another when I expected most of the book to be a detailed description of their partnership under extreme conditions.
Overall it was pretty boring…It’s written from an old timey white male European perspective and didn’t get too deep. I almost stopped reading halfway through, but it wasn’t super long so I finished. Oh, and gotta love the casual references to colonization as they discussed their dream of displacing local Eskimo communities in East Greenland and starting a new colony. Overall, not a suggested read from me.
"We halted a moment in our laborious march so that we could say goodbye to the sun, which we were not to see again til towards the end of February. So it sank below the horizon, sending its last shafts of fire across ice and land, kindling a brief blaze among the massive mountains deep within the inland ice and lending a fleeting warm color to the black mountains around us. And we bowed our heads as though a dear friend had died and his coffin just been lowered into the ground."
"I was well on the way to being snow blind; I should have to be very careful. A bandage over my eyes would soon put them right and some drops of cocaine would relieve the pain."
"It is possible that any reasonable person would have considered what we thought a modest ration astounding gluttony. But then, we were not quite like reasonable people."
May 17, 2024
This is a remarkable story of two men who set out to explore northeastern Greenland in the first decade of the 20th Century and ended up spending three winters there before finally being rescued by a boat of sealers from Norway. The trial they had to endure are all described here, including their companionship for their dogs (all of whom died in the expedition) and for each other, and the things they did to keep themselves healthy, both physically and mentally.
My only criticism of the book is that I wished that Ejnar Mikkelsen had described more of what he did in life after returning to Denmark in 1912. The cover of the book says that he lead more expeditions in northeastern Greenland, including 1925, 1932 and 1964, by which time Mikkelsen was 84 years old. From the epilogue of the book, we also learn that he visited Greenland after WWII and learned about how hard the Germans tried to establish a weather station there to aid in their invasion plans, and how they were prevented from doing this by combined American and Danish forces. But I remain curious about all the time in between and what he did in life.
My only criticism of the book is that I wished that Ejnar Mikkelsen had described more of what he did in life after returning to Denmark in 1912. The cover of the book says that he lead more expeditions in northeastern Greenland, including 1925, 1932 and 1964, by which time Mikkelsen was 84 years old. From the epilogue of the book, we also learn that he visited Greenland after WWII and learned about how hard the Germans tried to establish a weather station there to aid in their invasion plans, and how they were prevented from doing this by combined American and Danish forces. But I remain curious about all the time in between and what he did in life.
September 11, 2022
Having visited East Greenland, I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of Arctic exploration.
I loved the writing and found the author had a sense of humour that I hadn’t expected to find in a story of derring-do and bravery in the ice e.g. when the biscuits were offered around, and some people looked like they were going to take more than their fair share, so the lid was put on very quickly and the tin was sat on. This might not sound funny but the way it was written made it so.
I also loved the postscript where the author credited the internal combustion engine with allowing East Greenland to be opened up, with a settlement at Station Nord for example. Given that the author lived to 1971 and so saw the moon landing, his Arctic explorations must have seemed very old fashioned by the time he died.
I loved the writing and found the author had a sense of humour that I hadn’t expected to find in a story of derring-do and bravery in the ice e.g. when the biscuits were offered around, and some people looked like they were going to take more than their fair share, so the lid was put on very quickly and the tin was sat on. This might not sound funny but the way it was written made it so.
I also loved the postscript where the author credited the internal combustion engine with allowing East Greenland to be opened up, with a settlement at Station Nord for example. Given that the author lived to 1971 and so saw the moon landing, his Arctic explorations must have seemed very old fashioned by the time he died.
December 19, 2023
This tale of survival shook me in a few places emotionally. I felt bad for the poor sled dogs and the Ejnar and Iver as they traversed the harsh arctic for 3 years in search of the remains/journals previous explorer party that tried to map eastern Greenland. I found Ejnar’s account fascinating and fluid to read. I had to handle the book in doses because of the moments of desolation and despair and especially when the dogs were so sick or died…I couldn’t imagine eating a dog even if it meant my own survival. I often imagined what I would do if I had to face scurvy, harsh winter storms, extreme cold, starvation, bears, and loneliness. Even in the face of adversity, Ejnar and Iver never gave up all shreds of hope. I admire their tenacity and hope for rescue.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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September 9, 2022DNF'd at 51%
I'm sorry for the spoilers but I need to say them to explain why I can't finished the book.
This is a true story "The Classic Artic Survival Story" as they say on the book. For starters I enjoyed the book in the beginning but then they were a lot of animals cruelty in this. Maybe because it's a true story that's why it was so much harder to read it (of course it's really hard in fiction too but to know this happened in real life it's tough) There was a part were they killed and then ate the dog...
It was just really hard to read this emotionally.
I wouldn't recommend this to animal lovers.
I'm sorry for the spoilers but I need to say them to explain why I can't finished the book.
This is a true story "The Classic Artic Survival Story" as they say on the book. For starters I enjoyed the book in the beginning but then they were a lot of animals cruelty in this. Maybe because it's a true story that's why it was so much harder to read it (of course it's really hard in fiction too but to know this happened in real life it's tough) There was a part were they killed and then ate the dog...
It was just really hard to read this emotionally.
I wouldn't recommend this to animal lovers.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 31, 2022
I love adventure stories and have read dozens…about the Arctic, Antarctic, Himalayans, ocean voyages, and many more. While all are personal, the emphasis tends to be on the details of the adventure and less on the human interactions. This story provides the perfect blend of both - enough to create the sense of awe associated with these epic adventures and enough to create the sense of wonder at how humans navigate these adventures emotionally. I’ve not seen the movie adaptation on Netflix yet, but it will be hard to match the beauty and drama reflected in this first person account.
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