Arctic Dreams

by Barry Lopez

Christian Vibe told me a story. He was in northern Greenland, coming and going by dog sledge from the small village of Uummannaq (Thule) on Hayes Peninsula. In the spring of 1940 he was traveling along the east coast of Ellesmere Island, living on supplies he had cached there months before. An Eskimo friend of his from Uummannaq knew that Vibe was a Dane and that some information that had reached Uummannaq in May would be important to him. The man sledged across Smith Sound and found a cache where he knew Vibe would show up. He scratched this message in Eskimo syllables on the side of a pemmican can: germans taking meat from denmark the king is still alive no gas left in shop. The meaning was almost instantly clear to Vibe. Germany had gone to war with Denmark (i.e., “was taking her food”); the government of King Christian had not been deposed; and, because of the war, there would be no supplies coming by ship to Uummannaq in the spring. Vibe said he held the can in his gloved hands and looked around in the bright light, at his dogs and his few supplies, and knew he would not get home for a very long time.