Paul Egede

Paul or Poul Hansen Egede (born September 9, 1708 in Kabelvåg , today Vågan on a small Lofoten island, † June 6, 1789 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish-Norwegian Greenland missionary, linguist and translator.

Life

The first of the four children of Hans Egede , the first missionary of Greenland, and his wife Gertrud Rask , came with his parents in 1721 to Greenland, where the boy in Godthåb fast the Greenlandic language learned and with the life and culture of the indigenous Inuit familiarized . In 1728 his father sent him to study in Copenhagen , already with the plan to find his successor for the Greenland mission in Paul. The son, who originally wanted to become an officer at sea, finally bowed to his father's will.

King Friedrich IV. And the Danish court were interested in Paul Egede. In 1734, after his ordination as a missionary, Paul Egede returned to Greenland on a church mission. He began in the Christianshåb ( Qasigiannguit ) settlement founded by Jacob Severin with his important missionary and translation work. Through his knowledge of Greenlandic society, culture and mentality, he made numerous advances in missionary work.

In 1740 an eye disease forced him to return to Denmark . In 1741 he became pastor in Copenhagen, in 1747 head of the Greenlandic seminary there. In 1758 he was appointed provost and inspector of the Greenland mission, in 1761 he received his doctorate in theologiae naturalis and professor. In 1779 Paul Egede also received the title and rank of titular bishop of Greenland. From 1785 he was a member of the Royal Norwegian Scientific Society .

Paul Egede married three times in his life: 1742 with Maria Elisabeth Frauen (1718–1752), 1753 with Marie Christine Thestrup (1735–1768) and 1771 with her sister Christiane Amalie Thestrup (1744–1795). He died in Copenhagen in 1789, highly regarded as the "teacher of Greenland".

Literary work

Since the linguistically gifted Paul Egede grew up with his brother Niels in a Danish-Greenlandic environment and their parents encouraged encounters with the local Inuit culture, his translations into Greenlandic are of groundbreaking importance. In 1739 the first three books of Moses were available, in 1742 the first catechism appeared in Greenlandic, and in 1744 the four Gospels. In 1766 Egede finished his translation of the entire New Testament, which was based on preliminary work by his father. In 1750 he published the Greenlandic-Danish-Latin dictionary, in 1760 a grammar for the Greenlandic language, which was authoritative for over a hundred years up to the work of Samuel Kleinschmidt . In 1787 his Greenland translation of Thomas a Kempis' De imitatione Christi was completed. In his translation work, Egede showed great missionary skill in adapting the texts to the Inuit imagination.

He vividly described his experiences in missionary work in diary form in the books Continuation af Relationerne betræffende den Grønlandske Missionens Tilstand og Beskaffenhed, forfatt i Form af en Journal fra Anno 1734 til 1740 (published 1741) and Efterretninger om Grønland, uddragne af en Journal, holden af ​​en Journal fra 1721 til 1788 (published 1788), which was translated into several foreign languages ​​and had a great influence on the image of Greenland in the 19th century.

Most important work

• Evangelium okausek tussarnersok Gub Niarnik Innungortomik akausianiglo, Usornartuleniglo, tokomello umarmello, Killaliarmello, Innuin annauniartlugit, aggerromartomiglo, tokorsut tomasa umartitsartortlugit . karalit okausiet attuartlugo aglekpaka Paul Egede. Kongib Iglorpersoarne, Kiôbenhavnme 1744.
• Dictionarium Grönlandico-Danico-Latinum: complectens primitiva cum suis derivatis, qvibus interjectae sunt voces primariae è Kirendo Angekkutorum adornatum . Godm. Frid. Kise, Hafniae 1750.
• Grammatica Greenlandica Danico-Latina . Kisel, Havniae 1760.
• Kristusimik Mallingnaursut / pivdlugit Thomasib â Kempisib ; aglegá Kaladlin okauzeenut nuktersimarsok Pelesiunermit Paviamit Egedimit; illogeegnerublo ussornartórsub “Det Danske Missions-Selskabimik” taïutiglub ama nakittarkomago; nárkingniarkiksarallóarà AF Hönnib. 1824

literature

• Hother Ostermann : Poul and Niels Egede: Continuation af Hans Egedes relationer fra Grønland including Niels Egede: Description over Grønland. Copenhagen 1939 (= Meddelelser om Grønland , volume 120).
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Egede, Paul. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 1468.
• LB-n: Egede, Paul Hansen . In: Christian Blangstrup (Ed.): Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon . 2nd Edition. tape 6 : Demeter – Elektriske Sikringer . JH Schultz Forlag, Copenhagen 1917, p. 753 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
• Paul Egede . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 4 : Clemens – Eynden . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1890, p. 431 (Danish, runeberg.org ).