Thor Heyerdahl

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born

October 06, 1914 in Norway

died

April 18, 2002

gender

male

genre

History, Nonfiction

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See also ثور هايردال.

Thor Heyerdahl (October 6, 1914, Larvik, Norway – April 18, 2002, Colla Micheri, Italy) was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer with a scientific background in zoology and geography. Heyerdahl became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed 4,300 miles (8,000 km) by raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. All his legendary expeditions are shown in the Kon-Tiki Museum, Oslo.

Thor Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, the son of master brewer Thor Heyerdahl and his wife Alison Lyng. As a young child, Thor Heyerdahl showed a strong interest in zoology. He created a small museum in his childhood home, with a Vipera berus as the main attraction. He studied Zoology and Geography at University of Oslo. At the...more See also ثور هايردال.

Thor Heyerdahl (October 6, 1914, Larvik, Norway – April 18, 2002, Colla Micheri, Italy) was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer with a scientific background in zoology and geography. Heyerdahl became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed 4,300 miles (8,000 km) by raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. All his legendary expeditions are shown in the Kon-Tiki Museum, Oslo.

Thor Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, the son of master brewer Thor Heyerdahl and his wife Alison Lyng. As a young child, Thor Heyerdahl showed a strong interest in zoology. He created a small museum in his childhood home, with a Vipera berus as the main attraction. He studied Zoology and Geography at University of Oslo. At the same time, he privately studied Polynesian culture and history, consulting what was then the world's largest private collection of books and papers on Polynesia, owned by Bjarne Kropelien, a wealthy wine merchant in Oslo. This collection was later purchased by the University of Oslo Library from Kropelien's heirs and was attached to the Kon-Tiki Museum research department. After seven terms and consultations with experts in Berlin, a project was developed and sponsored by his zoology professors, Kristine Bonnevie and Hjalmar Broch. He was to visit some isolated Pacific island groups and study how the local animals had found their way there. Just before sailing together to the Marquesas Islands in 1936, he married his first wife, Liv Coucheron-Torp (b. 1916), whom he had met shortly before enrolling at the University, and who had studied economics there. Though she is conspicuously absent from many of his papers and talks, Liv participated in nearly all of Thor's journeys, with the exception of the Kon-Tiki Expedition. The couple had two sons; Thor Jr and Bjørn. The marriage ended in divorce and in 1949 Thor Heyerdahl married Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen. They in turn had three daughters; Annette, Marian and Helene Elisabeth. This marriage also ended in divorce, in 1969. In 1991 Thor Heyerdahl married for the third time, to Jacqueline Beer (b. 1932).

Thor Heyerdahl's grandson, Olav Heyerdahl, retraced his grandfather's Kon-Tiki voyage in 2006, as part of a six-member crew. The voyage, called the Tangaroa Expedition, was intended as a tribute to Thor Heyerdahl, as well as a means to monitor the Pacific Ocean's environment. A film about the voyage is in preparation.
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Books by Thor Heyerdahl

Average rating: 3.98 · 4,821 ratings · 403 reviews · 24 distinct works

	Kon-Tiki 3.99 avg rating — 3,934 ratings — published 1948 — 59 editions	My rating:
	Aku Aku, The Secret Of Easter Island 3.96 avg rating — 269 ratings — published 1957 — 17 editions	My rating:
	The Ra Expeditions 3.86 avg rating — 247 ratings — 7 editions	My rating:
	Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature 3.90 avg rating — 174 ratings — published 1974 — 7 editions	My rating:
	The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings 3.72 avg rating — 61 ratings — published 1979 — 6 editions	My rating:
	Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day: Memories and Journeys of a Lifetime 4.30 avg rating — 33 ratings — published 1938 — 7 editions	My rating:
	Easter Island 3.85 avg rating — 27 ratings — 4 editions	My rating:
	Early Man and the Ocean: A Search for the Beginnings of Navigation and Seaborne Civilizations 3.82 avg rating — 17 ratings — 3 editions	My rating:
	The Maldive Mystery 3.81 avg rating — 16 ratings — 5 editions	My rating:
	American Indians In The Pacific; The Theory Behind The Kon Tiki Expedition 4.00 avg rating — 11 ratings	My rating:

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Quotes by Thor Heyerdahl

“Borders I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people.”
― Thor Heyerdahl

8 people liked it

“Am going to cross Pacific on a wooden raft to support a theory that the South Sea islands were peopled from Peru. Will you come? I guarantee nothing but a free trip to Peru and the South Sea islands and back, but you will find good use for your technical abilities on the voyage. Reply at once.'

Next day the following telegram arrived from Torstein:

COMING. TORSTEIN.”
― Thor Heyerdahl

5 people liked it

“Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity.”
― Thor Heyerdahl

2 people liked it

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Thor Heyerdahl

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combine editionsBooks by Thor Heyerdahl

Quotes by Thor Heyerdahl

Topics Mentioning This Author

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Books by Thor Heyerdahl