The Prophets of Eternal Fjord (67 page)

Author's Afterword

This novel is a fantasy, constructed around events that took place more than two hundred years ago. Events occurring in the novel did not neces­sarily occur in reality, or else they did so in another place at another time, in a different sequence, with different people and in different weather. The characters are my own inventions, although some really did exist. Who can truly know a person, not least someone who, for instance, died in 1802? I have allowed myself to hazard a guess.

The famine that is mentioned may be historically correct, but if so it is unrecorded. Several periods did occur in which the hunting failed – periods of ‘two winters without summer' – and these most certainly were the cause of great hardship in eighteenth-century Greenland. In some cases, nine tenths of the population of an area perished due to epidemics and hunger. Nonetheless, colony people were little concerned as to whether those in the outlying district lived or died, so accounts of these times of scarcity are sporadic.

I have tried to recreate actual places, times and incidents as exactly as possible: Sukkertoppen (1785–93), Copenhagen (1782–87), the great fire of 1795, and so on. Frequent use has been made of eye-witness accounts, though these have been tailored at my own discretion. The physical reality that my fictional characters inhabit, however, is authentic only to the extent that I have been able – or considered it suitable – to make it.

I owe the novel's title to the writer and historian Mads Lidegaard, a true friend of Greenland. His Danish account of the prophets' rise and fall can be accessed online and may be compared to my own. Pastor Hother Ostermann's more than one hundred biographies of Danes and Norwegians in Greenland up until 1814 have been an invaluable source. Clergymen with a love of writing have always been numerous, in Greenland as elsewhere. We are deeply indebted to them, because without them we would have nothing but ledgers. That said, they are by no means always impartial. Finn Gad, the author of a three-volume history of Greenland, may be a lesser writer, but he is to be praised for his sober and detailed work, even if it may seem dull in comparison. Of the Greenlandic writers, mention must be made of the catechist Peter Gundel, whose book
Jeg danser af glæde
(I Dance with Joy) provides insight into the plight of an intelligent and gifted Greenlander afflicted by illness in an isolated settlement during colonial days, though much later than the events described here.

It is said that the prophetess Maria Magdalene's correspondence with the priest, apparently a rather thick bundle, perished when it was used to light a fire in an emergency. Most likely it was cold and perhaps their letters saved a life. But in the flames were lost what to all intents and purposes was the only historical, handwritten document penned by a Greenlander in the eighteenth century. Sad, but all the more fortunate for me, because it left me free to use my imagination.

Acknowledgements

The Danish Arts Foundation, for its three-year grant; the Council of Danish Artists (and Jens and Lise on the island of Hirsholm), for allowing me to stay in their Artists' Residence; the Cultural Foundation Denmark-Greenland, for financially supporting a research journey to Maniitsoq and the Eternal Fjord in August 2010; Tea Dahl Christensen, Director (until 2011), Maniitsoq Museum; Peter Henningsen, Director, Frilandsmuseet; Søren Rud, Senior Lecturer, The SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen; Simon Pasternak, Senior Editor, Gyldendal; Johannes Riis, Literary Director, Gyldendal; Jon Kyst, Akademisk Rejsebureau; Inge Kyst; Bodil Kyst; Bente Hauptmann; Aviaaja Kleist Burkal; Staffan Söderberg; Elsebeth Schiller; Tage Schjøtt, Saga Maps; Aalipaaraq Kreutzmann; Benny Vadmand, hypnotist.