Abstract

Primitive People of the North

The article presents information about the books "Eskimo: An Epic of the North," by Peter Freuchen and translated by A. Paul Maerker-Branden and Elsa Branden and "Turi's Book of Lappland," by Johan Turi and edited and translated into Danish by Emilie Demant Hatt. "Eskimo" is a story told by a white man who lived for many years among the Eskimos. "Eskimo" is no tale of a simple, superstitious-minded folk, it is a story of pride and violence, of the attempt of a strong man to dominate his fellows, of the ineradicable hurt given his pride and self-confidence by an encounter with white men from outside, and of the persistent dogged courage with which he works his way back into an almost incredibly isolated self-sufficiency. "Turi's Book of LappIand" is of a different genre. It is the story of a primitive Lapp set down in his own language, which he had learned to write only after attaining manhood.