Christiane Ritter - A Woman in the Polar Night

Ritter Christiane

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A Woman in the Polar Night

WINTER LANDSCAPE, SPITSBERGEN

from a painting by the Author

First pabMcd In J954

This booh Is copyright under the Bam Conraitlea, Apart from aay fair dealings for the purposes nf private study, research, crlodsm or revletr, gs permitted under Che Copyright Aa 1$IS, no portion may be reproduced hj aay process vlthout written petirdsslan. Engulf shoald be made to the publishers.

This edition published In IffSS for The Travel Bool Club,

III, Charing Cross Bead, V.C.

Translated from the German EINE FRAU ERLEBT DIE POLARNACHT (Deutscher Verlag, Berlin)

Printed In Great Britain In 12 poIntPlIgrlm type fy C, Tinling Co, ltd, Uvetpaol, London and Present

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Contents

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Illustrations

1. Winter Landscape, Spitsbergen trontispiece

2. The Hut in Autumn facing page 40

The Hut in Spring 40

The Author's German Home 40

3. Frozen Waterfall 72

Mikkl 72

4. Karl 120

The Author and her husband in front of their Hut I20

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The Beckoning Arctic

To live in a hut in the Arctic had always been my husbands wish-dream. Whenever anything went wrong in our European home, a short circuit, a burst pipe, or even if the rent was raised, he would always say that nothing like that could happen in a hut in the Arctic.

After taking part in a scientific expedition, my husband remained in Spitsbergen, fishing in the Arctic from his cutter, and in winter, when everything was frozen over, hunting for furs on the mainland. Letters and telegrams used to come from the far north: 'Leave everything as it is and follow me to the Arctic.

But for me at that time, as for all central Europeans, the Arctic was just another word for freezing and forsaken solitude. I did not follow at once.

Then gradually the diaries that arrived in summer from the far north began to fascinate me. They told of journeys by water and over ice, of the animals and the fascination of the wilderness, of the strange light over the landscape, of the strange illumination of ones own self in the remoteness of the polar night. In his descriptions there was practically never any mention of coldor darkness, of storms or hardships.

Tlie little winter hut appeared to me in a more and more friendly light. As housewife I would not have to accompany him on the dangerous winter excursions. I could stay by the warm stove in the hut, knit socks, paint from the window, read thick books in the remote quiet, and, not least, sleep to my hearts content.

The decision to hazard a winters stay ripened in my mind. I made careful preparations, for I wanted to set foot

in the Arctic well protected, as though I were sitting in a warm comfortable seat in the cinema, with all the events and the unfamiliar beauty of the polar night unrolling before me. Mothers, grandmothers, and aunts knitted warm wraps; fathers, uncles, and brothers presented me with the latest heating equipment. Just the same, they kept telling me that it was hare-brained idiocy for a woman to go to the Arctic.

The latest letter arrived from my husband:

T hope youre going to keep your promise and come up here this year. Ive taken over for next winter a little hut on the north coast of Spitsbergen. Its supposed to be well and strongly built. It wont be too lonely for you, because at the north-east corner of the coast, about sixty miles from here, there is another hunter living, an old Swede. We can visit him in the spring, when its light again and the sea and fiords are frozen over.

Apart from your ski boots you dont need to bring anything. There are skis and equipment here left over from a previous travelling companion. Ill see about provisions, and everything else needed for the winter.

'Don't bring anything more than you can yourself comfortably carry in a rucksack. Theres a very good oppor-' tunity for us to make the journey. We shall row straight across the Ice fiord from Advent Anchorage with the hunter Nois. Then he will take us on in his dog sleigh over the glacier, and from there well go on alone, across the Wijde fiord straight on. At the most well have to cross a few glacier streams. We can get to our house on the north coast in about fourteen days.