Eskimo Poems

• Main Author: Rasmussen, Knud
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 1990
• Subjects: Baffin Island; Baffin; eskimo*; inuit; North West Passage; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195061024.003.0028; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52479600/isbn-9780195061024-book-part-28.pdf

Abstract The Danish ethnographer Knud Rasmussen (1879-1935) led the Fifth Thule Expedition across northern Canada from Baffin Island to Alaska during the years 1921-1924. This expedition constituted the first traverse of the North west Passage by dog sled. Along the way, Rasmussen made detailed ethnological and archaeological studies of the Inuit, a research project that eventually produced a monumental ten-volume work totalling over 5,000 pages. Rasmussen was interested in all cultural aspects of the Eskimo as they are found in the circumpolar north. Toward this end, he gathered and translated Eskimo folk tales, oral narratives, religious myths, songs; and poems. These poems are found scattered through the many volumes of his study, a few volumes of which were published posthumously.