Rasmus Berthelsen (poet)

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Rasmus Berthelsen

Rasmus Storm Josva Berthel "Kíkîk" Berthelsen (born July 10, 1827 near Sisimiut ; † January 4, 1901 in Nuuk ) was a Greenlandic pedagogue , author , poet , catechist , preacher , xylograph , printer , editor , translator and composer .

Life

childhood and education

Rasmus Berthelsen was born on board an Umiaq in the Amerloq Fjord when his parents were hunting. His father was the reindeer and seal hunter Jens Christian Berthelsen (1799–1868) and his mother was Esther Sophia Kleist (1798–1855). Through his father he was a great-grandson of the missionary Berthel Laersen (1722–1782) and a grandson of his son Frederik Berthelsen (1750–1828). When his father saw the newborn boy, he was shocked by his ugliness and called "Kíkîk", in German "Ugh", from which Rasmus' nickname originated, which he kept throughout his life.

He grew up in a family of hunters, but at the age of 10 he was handed over to his aunt, wife of the missionary in Sisimiut, where he grew up from then on. He could already read and write and his uncle sparked his interest in studying Christianity. Finally he was instructed by Pastor Erik Adolf Wandall and, after his calling as a missionary, by his successor Carl Junius Optatus Steenberg and taken to Denmark by Inspector Carl Peter Holbøll , where he continued to teach him. Although Rasmus' father wanted his son to become a reindeer hunter like him, the colony administrator and later inspector Jørgen Nielsen Møller convinced him that Rasmus could go to Denmark so that he could become a teacher according to his own wishes. In the summer of 1843 he drove to Copenhagen on the Titus for six weeks . In Amager he was thus informed and should after some time on the teacher training college in Skårup in Svendborg Kommune change. At the same time, however, the new director at Den Kongelige Grønlandske Handel , the Judicial Councilor Schwendsen, banned Greenlanders from attending Danish seminars. So, reluctantly, he returned to Greenland in 1847, where he began studying in Nuuk at Grønland's seminary , which was just opening. In 1849, after about a year of apprenticeship, he was the first to graduate from the seminar, which he completed with top marks (five times "excellent" and four times "very good"), and two years later he was employed there as an assistant teacher. Rink had already offered him a position as an assistant in Kangaamiut in 1847 , but Rasmus turned it down because the "fool" - as Rink then called him - wanted to continue to be a teacher.

Act

He stayed as a teacher at the seminary all his life and thus had a great influence on teaching in Greenland. He was also a colony predicant and head catechist. When Hinrich Johannes Rink opened the printing works in Nuuk in 1857 , Rasmus Berthelsen began to work there too. He helped u. a. when translating Greenlandic sagas. He became the first editor of Atuagagdliutit in 1861 and was replaced as such by Lars Møller in 1873 .

Rasmus Berthelsen is best known as a poet, more precisely as Greenland's greatest poet of his time, who was also appointed Knight of the Order of Dannebrog in 1897 . His most important work is the traditional Christmas carol Guuterput , whose melody he also composed:

Inngilerpassuit
savanik paarsisunut
juullimi ima tussiarput:
Guuterput qutsinnermiu
naalannarsingaarli!
Nuna eqqissineqarli
tipaatsungaarillu,
inuk-aa,
annaffissaqaleravit.

Illernartoq Guutiusoq
qilammi Naalagaq
pimmat nunarsuatsinnut
nuannaarneqarpoq
inunni,
annattussannguleramik.

family

Rasmus Berthelsen with his third wife Sara

Rasmus Berthelsen was married three times. His first marriage was on July 2, 1848 in Qeqertarsuatsiaat Ane Sofie Berglund (1829–1878), daughter of the worker Jonas Sivert Berglund and his wife Ane Sophia. The following children were born from this marriage:

  • Maline Katrine Lovise Sara Berthelsen (born June 15, 1849 in Nuuk; † July 6, 1849 ibid)
  • Maline Catrine Lovise Birgithe Berthelsen (born May 25, 1850 in Nuuk)
  • Tobias Vittus Elias Jørgen Berthelsen (born August 31, 1852 in Nuuk)
  • Erneĸ Jens Lars Johan Berthelsen (born February 5, 1855 in Nuuk; † July 11, 1889 in Uummannaq ), married to Laura Johanne Frederikke Holm († 1861)
  • Mikias Jacob Christian Boas Berthelsen (born October 17, 1857 in Nuuk)
  • Helene Berthelsen (born March 15, 1860 in Nuuk; † March 18, 1860 there)
  • Sivert Jacob Augustinus Berthelsen (born February 8, 1861 in Nuuk)
  • Ane Sophie Helene Berthelsen (* March 8, 1864 in Nuuk; † October 27, 1864 ibid)
  • Ane Sophie Frederikke Berthelsen (born August 2, 1865 in Nuuk)
  • Birthe Christence Bodil Berthelsen (born August 16, 1868 in Nuuk)
  • Kirsten Margrethe Susanne Berthelsen (born June 3, 1873 in Nuuk)

After the death of his first wife, he married on August 10, 1879 in Nuuk Esther Ane Karen Juliane Lynge (1845-1880), daughter of the carpenter Marcus Nissen Myhlenphort Lynge and Sophie Abigael Kreutzmann, a sister of the painter Jens Kreutzmann (1828-1899). After his second wife died after a few months with a stillborn son on March 20, 1880, he married Sara Gjertrud Louise Poulsen (1842–?), Daughter of the seal hunter Josva Ludvig Poulsen and Elisabeth, in his third marriage on October 17, 1880 in Nuuk Ingeborg. She gave birth to another daughter:

  • Ane Sophia Karen Berthelsen (born February 7, 1882 in Nuuk; † August 4, 1951 in Sisimiut), married to Gustav Olsen (1878–1950)

He has many grandchildren through his numerous children, including the regional councilors Tobias Heilmann (1873–1940), Gerhard Egede (1892–1969) and Hendrik Olsen (1901–1967). His great-grandchildren include Christian Berthelsen (1916–2015), Hans Egede Berthelsen (1918–?), Motzfeldt Hammeken (1922–2009) and Kristian Olsen (1942–2015). Knud Sørensen (1934–2009), Lars-Pele Berthelsen (* 1949) and Per Berthelsen (* 1950) are his great-great-grandchildren.

Web links

Commons : Rasmus Berthelsen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography in Den Store Danske
  2. ^ Autobiography up to 1864 in Emil Bluhme: Fra et ophold i Grønland 1863–1864. 1865. pp. 255-265
  3. ↑ Biography in Dansk biografisk leksikon
  4. ↑ Biography in Biografisk Leksikon for Grønland
  5. ↑ Text of Guuterput at aarhusvorfrue.dk
  6. ↑ Church registers Qeqertarsuatsiaat 1826–1886 (married p. 248)
  7. ^ Church books Nuuk 1827–1886 (Born girls p. 126)
  8. ^ Church records Nuuk 1827-1886 (Dead women p. 442)
  9. ↑ Church records Nuuk 1827–1886 (Born girls p. 127)
  10. ^ Church records Nuuk 1827–1886 (Born boys p. 35)
  11. ^ Church records Nuuk 1827-1886 (Born boys p. 39)
  12. ↑ Erneĸ Jens Lars Johan Berthelsen in the Biografisk Leksikon for Grønland
  13. ^ Church books Nuuk 1827–1886 (Born boys p. 43)
  14. ^ Church books Nuuk 1827–1886 (Born girls p. 138)
  15. ↑ Church records Nuuk 1827–1886 (Dead women p. 449)
  16. ^ Church records Nuuk 1827–1886 (Born boys p. 47)
  17. ^ Church records Nuuk 1827–1886 (Born girls p. 144)
  18. ↑ Church records Nuuk 1827–1886 (Dead women, p. 460)
  19. ^ Church records Nuuk 1827–1886 (Born girls p. 146)
  20. ^ Church books Nuuk 1827-1886 (Born girls p. 151)
  21. ^ Church records Nuuk 1827–1886 (Born girls p. 162)
  22. ^ Church records Nuuk 1827-1886 (married p. 318)
  23. ^ Church books Nuuk 1827–1886 (Born boys p. 85)
  24. ^ Church records Nuuk 1827-1886 (married p. 319)
  25. ^ Church records Nuuk 1827–1886 (Born girls p. 178)
personal data
SURNAME Berthelsen, Rasmus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berthelsen, Rasmus Storm Josva Berthel (full name); Kíkîk (nickname); Kikkiik (nickname, new spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greenlandic pedagogue, author, poet, catechist, preacher, xylograph, printer, editor, translator and composer
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1827
PLACE OF BIRTH at Sisimiut
DATE OF DEATH January 4, 1901
Place of death Nuuk