He is one of the greatest explorers of all time, he killed wolves with his bare hands, he was trapped under an avalanche of 10 meters of ice to save himself with his own feces, amputated himself without anesthesia, he successfully escaped from prison after being arrested by Hitler, he participated in a film that won an Oscar, he was the fifth person to win the grand prize on the TV game show "The $64,000 Problem", he has published 30 books.
His name was Peter Freuchen and he was born in Denmark in 1886. His father was a businessman, and his father just wanted him to live a stable life. So, at the behest of his father, Frichen enrolled at the University of Copenhagen Medical School. But soon Frouchen realized that this was not for him, and after dropping out of the University of Copenhagen, he began a life of adventure.
In 1906, he made his first expedition to Greenland. He and his friend Knud Rasmussen set off from Denmark to sail north, then left their boat to continue on a dog sledding. During their journey, they meet the Inuit and trade while learning the language and accompanying them on hunting expeditions.
The Inuit are simple and kind, hunting walruses, whales, seals, and even polar bears and living an uncontested life. Standing 6 feet 7 inches (2.04 meters), Fruchen quickly learned these skills from them, and it wasn't long before he killed a polar bear himself and made himself a leather coat out of its skin.
In 1910, Fruchen and Rasmussen opened a small shop in Cape York, Greenland, which he named Thule. The name comes from "Ultima Thule", which means "place beyond the boundaries of the known world". The shop mainly provides supplies for tourists, explains Inuit culture to them, and occasionally follows them on expeditions.
His first expedition was to test a theory that claimed that there was a strait separating Greenland and Piryland Island. The expedition involved a 620-mile trek through the icy Greenland wilderness, culminating in Fluschen's famous ice cave escape.
In his autobiography, Vagrant Viking (The Wandering Viking), Frichen said the trip was the first successful trip through Greenland, and the crew was caught in a blizzard. Fruchen tried to hide under a dog sled, and then an avalanche occurred, and he was buried under the ice 10 meters deep with a sled, until he woke up and found trapped in an ice cave.
At that time, he carried his dagger with him and did not know where it fell, so he was forced to improvise - he pulled a bubble of poop, then squeezed it into the shape of a dagger, and the poop quickly froze into a hard "dagger". He used this "dagger" to dig up the ice, and after 30 hours of excavation, he finally cut through the ice wall.
Frushen crawled for three hours back to base, and when he took off his socks and saw gangrene on his toes, he then amputated 5 toes with forceps and hammers without anesthesia. Doctors then advised him to go south for further treatment, but he was reluctant. He still had work to do and returned to the island of Denmark.
Upon his return to Denmark in 1926, his left foot deteriorated further, eventually leading to his left foot being amputated and fitted with a prosthetic foot.
One of Fluchen's books about the Inuit was made into the 1933 film Eskimo/Mala The Magnificent and won an Oscar. It tells the story of a fictional Inuit explorer on his adventures in the Arctic. Fluchen wears many hats in the film, writing screenplays, translating dialogue, acting as an interpreter on set, serving as a safety consultant for the film crew on set, and guest starring as a villain in the film.
In 1938, Fluschen founded the "Adventurers' Club" (Danish: Eventyrernes Klub) in Denmark, which still exists today.
Friuchen was very sympathetic to the suffering of Jews, and whenever someone said something anti-Semitic around him, he would stand up, go straight to the guy, and say terrifyingly, "I'm Jewish, what are you going to do?" ”
When the Germans took over Denmark, he actively hid Jewish refugees, sabotaged the actions of the Nazis, and the Germans arrested him and sentenced him to death. Flewchen later managed to escape from prison, fled to Sweden, and continued to help the Jews.
In 1956, he became the fifth person to win the $64,000 question (they asked him questions about the seven seas, isn't that tantamount to sending him money?). ）
Married three times in his life, Fruchen first married Inuk woman Navarana Mequpaluk in 1911, and after having two children, his wife died of the Spanish flu in 1921.
In 1924, he married Magdalene Vang Lauridsen, daughter of Johannes Peter Lauridsen, a Danish businessman and director of the National Danish Bank, and the two divorced in 1944.
In 1945, Flusson moved to New York City and married his third wife, Dagmar Cohn, a Jewish fashion illustrator.
Fluchen died of a heart attack in 1957, at the age of 71, just three days after he finished his last book, The Seven Seas. His ashes were scattered on the famous table-shaped Dundas Hill outside Thule.
Photo 2: Fluchen stands next to his third wife, wearing a coat made from a polar bear he killed.
Figure 4: Fluchen and his first wife, who often explored together.
Figure 5: The pliers Fruchen used to amputate himself.
Figure 6: His book The Book of the Seven Seas
