Greenlandiania:

The "Parca Men" (By Per Danker) :

- Now you can talk between Greenland
  and Denmark through a satallite!
- So, it understands Greenlandic?

- How does your campaign "Keep Greenland  
clean" develope?                                          
- Fine, fine. We are now working at finding a  
food additive for the whales, that will make
their stinking oil to smell vanilla.               _


There is a multitude of litterature from and about Greenland, both in greenlandic, danish and english. This partly due to the fact that Greenland has fascinated at lot of writers over the centuries, from the papal representatives in the viking age to the present times tourists.

But we also have to remember, that since the Greenlandic inuits got their own written language nearly 150 years ago, the newspaper Atuagagliutit ("something to read"), that has played a important role in the greenlandic society, the last 35 years in good company with Greenlands other newspaper, Sermitsiaq. The two newspapers is today sharing production and their web site.

Its from Sermitsiaq the three cartoons of the "Parca Men" originates, they was a steady strip in the 80:ies. Unfortunatly I only dare to bring you 3 examples of these ironic and iconic bystander view of greenlandic society, but have to direct you to the libraries for more.

Authors (list and titles, specially the english translations, far to incomplete) :

  • Knud Rasmussen  - the man that founded Thule and did the Thule expeditons.
    • Inuit Tells I-III  (Inuit fortaeller I-III)
    • Myth and stories from Greenland  (Myter og sagn fra Groenland )
  • Peter Freuchen - the cofounder of Thule
    • The great hunter  (Storfangeren)
    • The escapee  (Roemningsmanden)
    • Ivalu
  • Hans Anthon Lynge - one of modern Greenlands most important journalists and authors.
    • Seqajuk
  • Jens Rosing - a renowned historian, archeologist and painter.
    • The unicorn of the Sea (Havets enhjoerning)
    • Inunguak - the little greenlander (Inunguaq - den lille groenlaenderen)
  • Ivar Silis - geophycisist, naturalist and photographer.
    • Kalaaleq - Greenland today
    • Nanok
  • H.C. Petersen - the man that revived the art of building the greenlandic kayak.
    • Instruction in Kayak Building
  • Per Danker - cartoonist and creater of "the Parca Men".
    • Parca Men  - collections from Sermitsiak -77 - -79
  • Joern Riel - danish author with much arctic black humor.
    • Sarfatuut  - poems about Greenland
    • A downward lie  (En lodret loegn)
    • Tales from northeastern Greenland.
  • Jörgen Bjerre - danish journalist.
    • Sirius   (a book about the world's loneliest military patrol)
  • Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen - ex-member of the Sirius dogsledge patrol on N.E. Greenland
    • Thousend days with Sirius (Tusind daga med Sirius)
  • Naomi Jackson Grove - canadian writer and niece to A.Y. Jackson.
    • Northward Journal 31 (-83) - Naomi Jackson Grove's Greenland Caper, 1941.
  • H.G. Edeland - swedish M.D.
    • Black Angel - Black widow and other short stories
  • Tété-Michel Kpomassie - on escape from the tree snakes in his homeland of Togo.
    • An African in Greenland

Correct english titles (for those that is translated) and sources for these books can possible be found through the Greenlandic National Library or the great Atuagkat Bookstore, where I spent a lot of my lunches. 

Lastly,
I can't keep my fingers from the following "Parca Men", about the, now closed, US Air Force Base - Blue West 8, in Soendre Stroemsfjord ;-).

- Why isn't there any moskitos in Soendre Stromsfjord.
  Shouldn't it be billions of them this time of the year?

- Well, the americans probably refused them landing
  permission.