This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland

This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland

by Gretel Ehrlich (Author)

Synopsis

In a tribute to the far latitudes, Gretel Ehrlich travels across Greenland, the largest island on earth. All but five percent of the island is covered by a vast ice sheet, an enduring remnant of the last ice age. Despite a uniquely hostile environment, it has been inhabited continuously for thousands of years. Greenlanders retain many of their traditional practices. Some still hunt on sleds made from whale and caribou with packs of dogs; others fashion harpoons from Narwhal tusks; and entranced shamans make soul fights under the ice. The modern population lives on the edge of a stone- and ice-age world and has reached a unique understanding of it. Ehrlich mixes stories of European anthropologists who have recorded the ways of the Inuit, with artists who have lived briefly on Greenland's fringe in order to try to capture its extraordinary pure light. She travels across this unearthly landscape in the company of men and women who have a deep bond with it, and with them she discovers the realm of the Great Dark, ice pavilions, polar bears and Eskimo nomads. She learns about hunting and endurance, Inuit languages, legends and ghosts. Conjuring up Greenland's cruel, beautiful landscape, she shows that it is a land endowed with magical and mysterious properties. St Brendan, the sixth century Irish monk, described one of its huge glaciers as a floating crystal castle the colour of a silver veil, yet hard as marble and the sea around it as smooth as glass and white as milk . This book shows that it has lost none of its power to enthral.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 400
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Published: 04 Feb 2002

ISBN 10: 1841157228
ISBN 13: 9781841157221

Media Reviews
The author's account of travelling in Greenland, the largest island on earth and covered by a vast sheet of ice except for a very small portion. Many of the Greenlanders have kept their traditional way of life and still hunt on sleds made from whale and caribou with packs of dogs. We learn about the great explorer Knud Rasmussen, who was born in 1879 and was driving his own dogsled by the time he was 10. Ehrlich also relates tales of the ordinary men and women who brave this awe-inspiring land, including one who has shot two husbands dead for trivial reasons and is now in 'lock-up'. This truly remarkable country is the perfect setting for a wonderful blend of travel and adventure.
Author Bio
Gretel Ehrlich is the author of many works of non-fiction, fiction and poetry, including A Match to the Heart (Fourth Estate 1995) The Solace of Open Spaces; Heart Mountain; and Islands, the Universe, Home. She divides her time between California and Wyoming.