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4 - 1818

British Greenland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2023

Robert W. Rix
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
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Summary

The chapter charts the cultural and literary responses to the British Admiralty’s decision to explore the Arctic after the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. The main impetus for launching these explorations was reports of vanishing sea ice. Because it was erroneously thought that ice had hemmed in the Eastern Settlement on Greenland’s east coast, hopes were raised that the Admiralty’s Arctic programme would lead to a recovery of the ‘lost colony’. Several studies have dealt with Britain’s early nineteenth-century ambitions in the Arctic, but the role Greenland played in these considerations has not received the attention it warrants. By collecting and juxtaposing diverse sources, the chapter produces a new perspective on British imperial thinking. Focus is on how the hope of discovering the lost European settlers of Greenland was expressed in several nationalist poems published around 1818. Among the poets examined in the chapter are Anna Jane Vardill and Eleanor Anne Porden, whose verses about British interest in Greenland are analysed.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Vanished Settlers of Greenland
In Search of a Legend and Its Legacy
, pp. 142 - 180
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • 1818
  • Robert W. Rix, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: The Vanished Settlers of Greenland
  • Online publication: 01 June 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009359450.006
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  • 1818
  • Robert W. Rix, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: The Vanished Settlers of Greenland
  • Online publication: 01 June 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009359450.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • 1818
  • Robert W. Rix, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: The Vanished Settlers of Greenland
  • Online publication: 01 June 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009359450.006
Available formats
×