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Against the Ice: The Classic Arctic Survival Story
Soon to be a Netflix feature film co-written by and starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones)
The harrowing, amazing, and often amusing personal account of two mismatched Arctic explorers who banded together to keep themselves sane on an historic expedition gone horribly wrong.
Ejnar Mikkelsen was devoted to Arctic exploration. In 1910 he decided to search for the diaries of the ill-fated Mylius-Erichsen expedition, which had set out to prove that Robert Peary’s outline of the East Greenland coast was a myth, erroneous and presumably self-serving. Iver Iversen was a mechanic who joined Mikkelsen in Iceland when the expedition’s boat needed repair.
Several months later, Mikkelsen and Iversen embarked on an incredible journey during which they would suffer every imaginable Arctic travail: implacable cold, scurvy, starvation, frostbite, snow blindness, plunges into icy seawater, impossible sledding conditions, Vitamin A poisoning, debilitated dogs, apocalyptic storms, gaping crevasses, and assorted mortifications of the flesh. Mikkelsen’s diary was even eaten by a bear.
Three years of this, coupled with seemingly no hope of rescue, would drive most crazy, yet the two retained both their sanity as well as their humor.
Indeed, what may have saved them was their refusal to become as desolate as their surroundings…
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who co-adapted the book into a screenplay, provides a new foreword to this brand-new edition of the classic exploration memoir, which was one of The Explorer's Club’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century.
Originally published as Two Against the Ice: A Classic Arctic Survival Story and a Remarkable Account of Companionship in the Face of Adversity. Translated from the Danish by Maurice Michael.
The harrowing, amazing, and often amusing personal account of two mismatched Arctic explorers who banded together to keep themselves sane on an historic expedition gone horribly wrong.
Ejnar Mikkelsen was devoted to Arctic exploration. In 1910 he decided to search for the diaries of the ill-fated Mylius-Erichsen expedition, which had set out to prove that Robert Peary’s outline of the East Greenland coast was a myth, erroneous and presumably self-serving. Iver Iversen was a mechanic who joined Mikkelsen in Iceland when the expedition’s boat needed repair.
Several months later, Mikkelsen and Iversen embarked on an incredible journey during which they would suffer every imaginable Arctic travail: implacable cold, scurvy, starvation, frostbite, snow blindness, plunges into icy seawater, impossible sledding conditions, Vitamin A poisoning, debilitated dogs, apocalyptic storms, gaping crevasses, and assorted mortifications of the flesh. Mikkelsen’s diary was even eaten by a bear.
Three years of this, coupled with seemingly no hope of rescue, would drive most crazy, yet the two retained both their sanity as well as their humor.
Indeed, what may have saved them was their refusal to become as desolate as their surroundings…
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who co-adapted the book into a screenplay, provides a new foreword to this brand-new edition of the classic exploration memoir, which was one of The Explorer's Club’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century.
Originally published as Two Against the Ice: A Classic Arctic Survival Story and a Remarkable Account of Companionship in the Face of Adversity. Translated from the Danish by Maurice Michael.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1955
156 people are currently reading
1753 people want to read
About the author
Ejnar Mikkelsen
41 books4 followersEjnar Mikkelsen (1880-1971) was a Danish polar explorer and writer. He is most known for his expeditions to Greenland.
Works:
- Conquering the Arctic Ice (London, 1909)
- Lost in the Arctic (1913) - some of his Greenland expeditions are recounted here
- Mylius-Erichsen's Report on the Non-Existence of Peary's Channel (1913)
- Tre Aar par Grönlands Ostkyst (1914)
- Nord-syd-øst-vest (1917)
- Norden For Lov og Ret, a story (1920), translated as Frozen Justice (1922)
- John Dale, a novel (1921)
- Farlig Tomansfaerd (1955), translated as Two Against the Ice (1957).
Awards:
- 1933 Hans Egede Medal of the Royal Danish Geographical Society
- 1935 Patron's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.
Works:
- Conquering the Arctic Ice (London, 1909)
- Lost in the Arctic (1913) - some of his Greenland expeditions are recounted here
- Mylius-Erichsen's Report on the Non-Existence of Peary's Channel (1913)
- Tre Aar par Grönlands Ostkyst (1914)
- Nord-syd-øst-vest (1917)
- Norden For Lov og Ret, a story (1920), translated as Frozen Justice (1922)
- John Dale, a novel (1921)
- Farlig Tomansfaerd (1955), translated as Two Against the Ice (1957).
Awards:
- 1933 Hans Egede Medal of the Royal Danish Geographical Society
- 1935 Patron's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
February 14, 2024
Ejnar Mikkelsen was a Danish arctic explorer and writer who lived from 1880 to 1971. This book covers his (frankly amazing) expedition to East Greenland from 1909 to 1912.
It took me some time to warm to Mikkelsen, his attitude and his writing were brusk (I had to check my definition of this seldom used word: Abrupt and curt in manner or speech; discourteously blunt) and he had an air of cruelty in dealing with his sledge dogs which put me off side. I understand the realities that dogs are generally making a one way voyage when an expedition involves them, but it seemed an unnecessarily uncaring way to present various situations.
Nevertheless, as the reader I worked this out with Mikkelsen and came to understand he was a driven and focussed man, who was as rough around the edges, and wasted little time with the sugar coating of a statement.
In short, his expedition was established in order than he could recover the diaries of members of a previous expedition who had perished - thus his expedition needed to succeed where the previous had failed and the explorers had died - presumably from lack of food and exposure. It became an immediate reality and realistically a likely outcome for Mikkelsen and his companion, and really this story is an 'against the odds' survival story.
As a companion, Mikkelsen has to find, in the middle of nowhere a replacement for his planned companion, Jorgensen, who succumbs to terrible frostbite and the amputation of toes on the initial sledging attempt to locate the dead men and lay in stores for the return journey of their larger expedition. Iver Iversen, mechanic on the ship ask if he might join this initial expedition and then becomes Mikkelsen's number two for the primary expedition. Both men are aware of this risks involved in this remote place.
P50
For two winters the men must survive, isolated and reliant only on each other - as much a mental challenge as a physical challenge.
Iversen stands out as the hero in this remarkable book. I call it remarkable, not for the writing (perhaps the translation from Danish), but for the situation and sheer will of the men. Iversen is shown to have the qualities needed at the right time, and both men are able to push themselves physically beyond what is accepted as possible, under such adversity, and do so on a regular basis.
Somewhat uniquely, Mikkelsen wrote this book in 1955, over 40 years after the fact. Even armed with his diary, and with access to Iversen's, it is quite an undertaking to fill in the gaps to produce a narrative of this complexity, and not just resort to diary entries.
In 2022 the book was made into a film, which received mixed reactions. I haven't seen it, and will be unlikely to seek it out.
4.5 stars, rounded down.
It took me some time to warm to Mikkelsen, his attitude and his writing were brusk (I had to check my definition of this seldom used word: Abrupt and curt in manner or speech; discourteously blunt) and he had an air of cruelty in dealing with his sledge dogs which put me off side. I understand the realities that dogs are generally making a one way voyage when an expedition involves them, but it seemed an unnecessarily uncaring way to present various situations.
Nevertheless, as the reader I worked this out with Mikkelsen and came to understand he was a driven and focussed man, who was as rough around the edges, and wasted little time with the sugar coating of a statement.
In short, his expedition was established in order than he could recover the diaries of members of a previous expedition who had perished - thus his expedition needed to succeed where the previous had failed and the explorers had died - presumably from lack of food and exposure. It became an immediate reality and realistically a likely outcome for Mikkelsen and his companion, and really this story is an 'against the odds' survival story.
As a companion, Mikkelsen has to find, in the middle of nowhere a replacement for his planned companion, Jorgensen, who succumbs to terrible frostbite and the amputation of toes on the initial sledging attempt to locate the dead men and lay in stores for the return journey of their larger expedition. Iver Iversen, mechanic on the ship ask if he might join this initial expedition and then becomes Mikkelsen's number two for the primary expedition. Both men are aware of this risks involved in this remote place.
P50
"Elsewhere in the world of man a sprain was an easy thing to cure, but here it was a mortal hurt, not only for the one who suffered it, but also for his companion who would have to wait till the other had recovered and could put his weight on that foot before he could continue. There was nothing he could do, if one of us met with the least accident; there was no help to be had, however badly we needed it, not refuge to be found: either we both got through, or we both died and became as still and frozen as everything around us."In short, the two men undertake an ambitious sledging journey from Shannon Island to Danmarks Fjord, and returning along the coast. They barely survive this journey, through immense hardship and the lack of hunting, and various other circumstances, being reliant on finding the stores of the previous expedition to get them by. They finally reach Shannon Island expecting to find their crew, only to find their ship has been crushed in the pack ice, and the crew nowhere to be found.
For two winters the men must survive, isolated and reliant only on each other - as much a mental challenge as a physical challenge.
Iversen stands out as the hero in this remarkable book. I call it remarkable, not for the writing (perhaps the translation from Danish), but for the situation and sheer will of the men. Iversen is shown to have the qualities needed at the right time, and both men are able to push themselves physically beyond what is accepted as possible, under such adversity, and do so on a regular basis.
Somewhat uniquely, Mikkelsen wrote this book in 1955, over 40 years after the fact. Even armed with his diary, and with access to Iversen's, it is quite an undertaking to fill in the gaps to produce a narrative of this complexity, and not just resort to diary entries.
In 2022 the book was made into a film, which received mixed reactions. I haven't seen it, and will be unlikely to seek it out.
4.5 stars, rounded down.
June 30, 2022
An epic survival story of determination, sheer will and loyalties. The characters really brought this book to life. I look forward to watching the movie on Netflix.
March 3, 2022
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: It was the Postscript that did me in.
Ejnar, a man I'd come to see as a massively egotistical narcissist and manipulative user by now, became an old, old man out of his time and out of his element. Writing in the 1950s about the world he had thought inviolable forty years before, he sounded like I feel in this hideous, distorted Hellscape of a 21st century, hag-ridden by preachers and haters and assorted other lowlife scum empowered by their lack of opposition to usher in Armageddon seemingly at will. His awe at a 12,000-horsepower diesel motor that powered US forces (whose presence as saviors there must have rankled at least a bit, given the impetus for his entire ordeal in 1910) to victory over the Nazi regime's outpost in Greenland, was unbearably poignant to me.
This world has never stood still. It is hard for me to remember that punch-card tabulating machines were the dernier cri, unimaginably advanced tech, to Mikkelsen. He died in 1971, so he lived to see Humankind step on a different world. A man whose life was almost lost because his technology was not up to the job of taking him to a very harsh and hostile environment here on Earth watched people walk on a place that makes Greenland look like the Riviera.
Wow.
But what made this read come alive for me, what caused the whole exercise in storytelling to be extraordinarily enhanced, was the extraordinarily beautiful and accurate adaptation. I don't like Mikkelsen any more than I did...he plays Iver's heartstrings like a virtuoso violinist...but he, as Coster-Waldau embodies him, truly reciprocates the devotion and affection Iver offers to him. That he found this in the text, that he saw the truth of their mutuality and interdependence was enough for me to overlook the sheer absurd heteronormative gloss of the thing. Days in the film version are numbered, and the count becomes astonishing...Day 793 is memorable...and a deeply affecting and effective way to offer the experience as the supreme ordeal that it truly was.
Maurice Michael, the translator whose work was largely unsung for generations, rendered Mikkelsen's prose so beautifully that there were moments I sat still and just...was...in the moments depicted. No, quoting them out of context won't do a damn thing because there's just no way to being their most important advantage...interrelationship...with them.
These photos are in the book, and are astounding to me...that they survived, that they made themselves records like this, what a miracle that must've seemed to the men of the 19th century! And I, stuck to my bed by disability, can not only reproduce the photos with a few clicks of a computer's mouse. These are the two men themselves...the resemblance of Coster-Waldau to Mikkelsen is remarkable.
The film, the story of it, is also very interesting, and I encourage you to look into it. More important to me than that is to say that I, who absolutely abhor animal cruelty in my reading, was deeply upset by the treatment of the dogs in this tale...not because it was cruel, but because it was necessary and because the men were quite upset by it on more than one level. This is not a straightforward triumphalist tale of Conquering The Elements. This is the reckoning of a life lived on his own terms delivered by the man who grew and changed, who resulted from the brutalizing battle to survive that would've killed anyone not as powerfully self-motivated and indomitably self-willed as Mikkelsen was.
Truth be told, it's just the fact that had such good luck in his filmic avatar that rescued him from my "that whole postcard thing is a stupid, bad smokescreen" judgment of his manipulative and overbearing character. Had I not been made to see the vulnerable side of him, I'd've stuck with "what a relic of a bad time" and missed the subtle and worthwhile nuances.
My Review: It was the Postscript that did me in.
Ejnar, a man I'd come to see as a massively egotistical narcissist and manipulative user by now, became an old, old man out of his time and out of his element. Writing in the 1950s about the world he had thought inviolable forty years before, he sounded like I feel in this hideous, distorted Hellscape of a 21st century, hag-ridden by preachers and haters and assorted other lowlife scum empowered by their lack of opposition to usher in Armageddon seemingly at will. His awe at a 12,000-horsepower diesel motor that powered US forces (whose presence as saviors there must have rankled at least a bit, given the impetus for his entire ordeal in 1910) to victory over the Nazi regime's outpost in Greenland, was unbearably poignant to me.
This world has never stood still. It is hard for me to remember that punch-card tabulating machines were the dernier cri, unimaginably advanced tech, to Mikkelsen. He died in 1971, so he lived to see Humankind step on a different world. A man whose life was almost lost because his technology was not up to the job of taking him to a very harsh and hostile environment here on Earth watched people walk on a place that makes Greenland look like the Riviera.
Wow.
But what made this read come alive for me, what caused the whole exercise in storytelling to be extraordinarily enhanced, was the extraordinarily beautiful and accurate adaptation. I don't like Mikkelsen any more than I did...he plays Iver's heartstrings like a virtuoso violinist...but he, as Coster-Waldau embodies him, truly reciprocates the devotion and affection Iver offers to him. That he found this in the text, that he saw the truth of their mutuality and interdependence was enough for me to overlook the sheer absurd heteronormative gloss of the thing. Days in the film version are numbered, and the count becomes astonishing...Day 793 is memorable...and a deeply affecting and effective way to offer the experience as the supreme ordeal that it truly was.
Maurice Michael, the translator whose work was largely unsung for generations, rendered Mikkelsen's prose so beautifully that there were moments I sat still and just...was...in the moments depicted. No, quoting them out of context won't do a damn thing because there's just no way to being their most important advantage...interrelationship...with them.
These photos are in the book, and are astounding to me...that they survived, that they made themselves records like this, what a miracle that must've seemed to the men of the 19th century! And I, stuck to my bed by disability, can not only reproduce the photos with a few clicks of a computer's mouse. These are the two men themselves...the resemblance of Coster-Waldau to Mikkelsen is remarkable.
The film, the story of it, is also very interesting, and I encourage you to look into it. More important to me than that is to say that I, who absolutely abhor animal cruelty in my reading, was deeply upset by the treatment of the dogs in this tale...not because it was cruel, but because it was necessary and because the men were quite upset by it on more than one level. This is not a straightforward triumphalist tale of Conquering The Elements. This is the reckoning of a life lived on his own terms delivered by the man who grew and changed, who resulted from the brutalizing battle to survive that would've killed anyone not as powerfully self-motivated and indomitably self-willed as Mikkelsen was.
Truth be told, it's just the fact that had such good luck in his filmic avatar that rescued him from my "that whole postcard thing is a stupid, bad smokescreen" judgment of his manipulative and overbearing character. Had I not been made to see the vulnerable side of him, I'd've stuck with "what a relic of a bad time" and missed the subtle and worthwhile nuances.
May 30, 2022
Bücher über Polarforschungsdinge sind leider oft von Ernsten Männern geschrieben worden, die ihr Hobby in einem möglichst seriösen Licht zu schildern versuchen. Das hier ist eins von ganz wenigen, in denen es auch um Freundschaft geht, um landschaftliche Schönheit, um Träume, um Schlittenhunde als Personen und nicht nur als Ziehgeräte. Gelitten und gehungert wird wie in jedem anderen Polarbuch auch, und die Geschichte der Hunde, das nur als Warnung, geht nicht gut aus.
Ich wollte es lesen, weil ich die Verfilmung ganz okay fand. Das Buch hat mit dem Film eher wenig zu tun, das macht aber nichts, es sind beides gute Geschichten. (Update: Es ergab sich so, dass ich den Film noch mal sah, und im Vergleich zum Buch ist er dann leider doch ziemlich großer Mist. Die gute, friedliche Geschichte aus dem Buch wird mit schlecht ausgedachten Konflikten ausgeschmückt. Aber halt ein paar schöne Szenen mit Schlittenhunden.)
Ich wollte es lesen, weil ich die Verfilmung ganz okay fand. Das Buch hat mit dem Film eher wenig zu tun, das macht aber nichts, es sind beides gute Geschichten. (Update: Es ergab sich so, dass ich den Film noch mal sah, und im Vergleich zum Buch ist er dann leider doch ziemlich großer Mist. Die gute, friedliche Geschichte aus dem Buch wird mit schlecht ausgedachten Konflikten ausgeschmückt. Aber halt ein paar schöne Szenen mit Schlittenhunden.)
December 15, 2022
Published in 1955, and based on the diaries of the participants, this is the true story of an expedition to Greenland in 1910-1912, led by Danish explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen and accompanied by mechanic Iver Iversen. Their goal was to find the journals of a previous expedition, whose members did not survive. Their journey took them through severe terrain in extreme cold. They faced starvation, scurvy, exhaustion, and polar bear attacks. It is a story of the golden age of exploration, prior to any form of technology that could have assisted in their rescue. It is a gripping tale of the limits of human endurance and how a positive mental outlook helped them endure. It is amazing that these two men were able to maintain their camaraderie for almost three years alone on the Greenland ice cap. It is a remarkable tale of survival and highly recommended.
February 3, 2022
The audio performance is good, but I couldn't get over how dumb these guys were with regards to the dogs. Just utter chaos and ineptitude, letting them die left and right. Were they prepared at all for this journey? DNF at 35%, couldn't do any more.
December 2, 2021
Talk about changing tactics I've read Christoffer Petersen accounts from Greenland but now that I've read Ejnar Mikkelsen's story I have changed my impression of what Greenland is like. While Christoffer is manly on the western side of Greenland most of Ejnar's was on the East side. Mikkelsen and Iversen were talking about around the year 1910. While Petersen is up to date in his writing. Things were much harder during Mikkkelsen's years on Greenland. He states that things were even greater during the 1940's with the different motors and aircraft that we now have. I like the way he described the way Mikkelsen and Iversen got along during their 2 and 1/2 years together and all the hardships that occurred. I can really feel for them and their bodies with the cold that they encountered having similar feelings during winter outings, not quite as cold though. It was an exciting read for me with all the drama that goes with it. I recommend it to anyone with the lust for the outdoors.
February 28, 2022
(Sorry for any mistakes, English is not my mother tongue.)
I learned about this book thanks to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who wrote the foreword of the new edition of this book), he's my favorite actor and I've been following his work since around 2007. It was thanks to "Against the Ice", his next film based on this story (written, produced and performed by him, on Netflix the day after tomorrow) that I got curious and wanted to find out more before watching it.
I couldn't be happier with the choice I made. This is an overwhelming, engaging, desperate, yet hopeful story. A story of trust and true friendship.
Narrated by the main character of the story, Ejnar Mikkelsen, during the reading you live all the events following his point of view and, above all, his thoughts and his state of mind (which changes A LOT over time) and you get to appreciate both characters, especially Iver, the best and genuine person in the world (my favorite between them, without a doubt), thanks to the way Ejnar tells the whole story. His way of describing events is detailed and very engaging.
I must say that initially I struggled to get into the story, I found it slow and a bit confusing (perhaps because I read it in English, or because there are many names and places that I don't know, or perhaps because I just had to get a little fond of the characters.)
But then as I went on I realized how, all in all, the pace was right, it makes you experience all the fatigue, despair and desolation that they themselves have experienced. (Don't worry, the second part of the story is faster than the first one)
I let go of rationality and TRIED to relate to their situation.
This is a raw story, many times I had to stop to take a breath, imagining what I would've done in their place. I closed the book, looked at it and thought about it. Then I reopened it and went on reading, hoping that things would improve. But, as the pages went by, I realized that I kept closing the book often because I didn't want to finish it, I didn't want to get to the end of this story that slowly entered my heart, I didn't want to abandon Ejnar and Iver and what I was living with them, their fears, their hopes, their pains. Towards the end of the story I was so involved that many of the things told also moved me.
I absolutely did not expect to be overwhelmed so much by this story, one of the most beautiful books read lately. I wanted to tell what I felt while reading, but remember that reading is always a subjective thing and the things that I've loved so much maybe some will not like at all.
I hope this story has affected you / it affects you as it did with me.
(PS: the photos. Wonderful. A huge round of applause to those who've chosen to include them!)
I learned about this book thanks to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who wrote the foreword of the new edition of this book), he's my favorite actor and I've been following his work since around 2007. It was thanks to "Against the Ice", his next film based on this story (written, produced and performed by him, on Netflix the day after tomorrow) that I got curious and wanted to find out more before watching it.
I couldn't be happier with the choice I made. This is an overwhelming, engaging, desperate, yet hopeful story. A story of trust and true friendship.
Narrated by the main character of the story, Ejnar Mikkelsen, during the reading you live all the events following his point of view and, above all, his thoughts and his state of mind (which changes A LOT over time) and you get to appreciate both characters, especially Iver, the best and genuine person in the world (my favorite between them, without a doubt), thanks to the way Ejnar tells the whole story. His way of describing events is detailed and very engaging.
I must say that initially I struggled to get into the story, I found it slow and a bit confusing (perhaps because I read it in English, or because there are many names and places that I don't know, or perhaps because I just had to get a little fond of the characters.)
But then as I went on I realized how, all in all, the pace was right, it makes you experience all the fatigue, despair and desolation that they themselves have experienced. (Don't worry, the second part of the story is faster than the first one)
I let go of rationality and TRIED to relate to their situation.
This is a raw story, many times I had to stop to take a breath, imagining what I would've done in their place. I closed the book, looked at it and thought about it. Then I reopened it and went on reading, hoping that things would improve. But, as the pages went by, I realized that I kept closing the book often because I didn't want to finish it, I didn't want to get to the end of this story that slowly entered my heart, I didn't want to abandon Ejnar and Iver and what I was living with them, their fears, their hopes, their pains. Towards the end of the story I was so involved that many of the things told also moved me.
I absolutely did not expect to be overwhelmed so much by this story, one of the most beautiful books read lately. I wanted to tell what I felt while reading, but remember that reading is always a subjective thing and the things that I've loved so much maybe some will not like at all.
I hope this story has affected you / it affects you as it did with me.
(PS: the photos. Wonderful. A huge round of applause to those who've chosen to include them!)
July 7, 2019
“Terrible trips make for excellent reading,” says Lawrence Millman in his foreword to Two Against the Ice, by the great Danish Arctic explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen. As a longtime reader of disaster journeys, I can only agree. These trips don’t have to take place in icy lands. I was certainly gripped by Cooper’s Creek,, Alan Moorehead’s account of the Burke and Wills expedition into the center of Australia. But there’s no question that many of the greatest terrible trips have been set in Arctic or Antarctic regions. Think of the journeys of Shackleton, Scott, Mawson—and add Mikkelsen to the list.
Mikkelsen seems to have been destined for the north. When he was a youth, already an adventurer working on ships in the Far East, an Indian in Calcutta, he says, “foretold me a future in a land so white and desolate that he had never imagined anything like it.” This proved to be true. In the north, he found his calling: he went on to explore Greenland, Siberia, Alaska. “What are you to do,” he asks, “when you have been born with an eternal unrest in your body and are drawn to none but those parts of the world that sensible people regard as fit only for fools?”
In Two Against the Ice, Mikkelsen’s mission was to retrieve the papers of three Danish explorers who died on a 1906 expedition to northeast Greenland. Supported by the Danish government, he and a small crew sailed to Greenland in 1909 on a ship most inaptly named the Alabama. When the shipmate with whom he planned to hike inland developed frostbite early on, he agreed to take on a volunteer instead: Iver Iversen, a mechanic with no Arctic experience.
Only one chapter in the book is called “Things Get Worse,” but many chapters might bear that title. The two men struggle with violent weather, crevasses, ailing dogs, and near starvation. Mikkelsen gets scurvy. Both get vitamin A poisoning from eating their dogs’ livers. When they finally arrive back at their ship, now deserted, they face not one but two more winters on the ice, when no boat comes.
Mikkelsen is a fine writer, and he conveys not only the physical setting and stresses, but the psychological experience as well: the desolation of enduring three sunless winters, the fears, in starvation, that one might be willing to eat one’s companion, and the reliance on that single companion for 865 days. The relationship between the two men, as they obsess about food, find solace in the foxes they adopt as pets, and develop—and share—an alternative life in the world of dreams, is every bit as gripping as their amazing feat of survival.
Mikkelsen seems to have been destined for the north. When he was a youth, already an adventurer working on ships in the Far East, an Indian in Calcutta, he says, “foretold me a future in a land so white and desolate that he had never imagined anything like it.” This proved to be true. In the north, he found his calling: he went on to explore Greenland, Siberia, Alaska. “What are you to do,” he asks, “when you have been born with an eternal unrest in your body and are drawn to none but those parts of the world that sensible people regard as fit only for fools?”
In Two Against the Ice, Mikkelsen’s mission was to retrieve the papers of three Danish explorers who died on a 1906 expedition to northeast Greenland. Supported by the Danish government, he and a small crew sailed to Greenland in 1909 on a ship most inaptly named the Alabama. When the shipmate with whom he planned to hike inland developed frostbite early on, he agreed to take on a volunteer instead: Iver Iversen, a mechanic with no Arctic experience.
Only one chapter in the book is called “Things Get Worse,” but many chapters might bear that title. The two men struggle with violent weather, crevasses, ailing dogs, and near starvation. Mikkelsen gets scurvy. Both get vitamin A poisoning from eating their dogs’ livers. When they finally arrive back at their ship, now deserted, they face not one but two more winters on the ice, when no boat comes.
Mikkelsen is a fine writer, and he conveys not only the physical setting and stresses, but the psychological experience as well: the desolation of enduring three sunless winters, the fears, in starvation, that one might be willing to eat one’s companion, and the reliance on that single companion for 865 days. The relationship between the two men, as they obsess about food, find solace in the foxes they adopt as pets, and develop—and share—an alternative life in the world of dreams, is every bit as gripping as their amazing feat of survival.
December 4, 2023
I would die for Iver Iversen.
January 28, 2022
One of the best reads I have had for a long time
The shear will to survive and the distances they traveled is insane. Excellent story from a different time. How they hunted and what they had to eat will make me appreciate every meal I have.
The shear will to survive and the distances they traveled is insane. Excellent story from a different time. How they hunted and what they had to eat will make me appreciate every meal I have.
February 12, 2023
I absolutely loved this book. This book is straightforward, but at times can be rather poetic. Even though this is a memoir, Mikkelsens talent as a writer can not be understated. He has a beautiful sense of language, and can be very witty.
With that said, these two men faced some of the most arduous conditions, and overcame disaster after disaster. Yet, you get the impression that they never lose their sense of morality along the way. I've seen criticism over the dogs treatment. Yes, they had to eat some of their dogs, and like any men would, they made their survival priority over all else. But they had a true love and respect for the animals they shared such a treacherous landscape with. And even go with out meals in order to spare some of the wild life they encounter even though food may not be guaranteed again.
Their friendship is most endearing. And they took such pleasure in the simple comforts they could find along such a terrible journey, it really makes you appreciate your own small comforts and victories. This story really highlights the value of friendship.
With that said, these two men faced some of the most arduous conditions, and overcame disaster after disaster. Yet, you get the impression that they never lose their sense of morality along the way. I've seen criticism over the dogs treatment. Yes, they had to eat some of their dogs, and like any men would, they made their survival priority over all else. But they had a true love and respect for the animals they shared such a treacherous landscape with. And even go with out meals in order to spare some of the wild life they encounter even though food may not be guaranteed again.
Their friendship is most endearing. And they took such pleasure in the simple comforts they could find along such a terrible journey, it really makes you appreciate your own small comforts and victories. This story really highlights the value of friendship.
August 27, 2024
If you want to find out how Greenland was recognized as a Danish territory, this book is for you. If you want to read about how the travel in cold climate was before the technical gear and has ruled snowmobiles, this book is also for you. If you want to read about how adventurers easily swing between sanity and lunacy, this book is also for you. On occasion, the book shows its age - it was written in 1950s.
When to read it: if you live in Canada, in the midst of summer so you never complaint about hot weather again
When to read it: if you live in Canada, in the midst of summer so you never complaint about hot weather again
June 12, 2023
Really enjoyed this, much more than expected.
April 14, 2024
Travel writer, Lawrence Millman, who writes the book’s introduction, makes the point that when it comes to Polar exploration, Scandinavians ‘make their British and American counterparts seem like Boy Scouts’. Ejnar Mikkelsen was a good example.
This concerns his voyage to northeast Greenland in 1910 to recover the diary and any surviving papers that would shed light on what happened to the 1908 Mylius-Erichsen Expedition’s attempts to refute Peary’s claim of having mapped the east Greenland coast. The account is from Mikkelsen himself, put together from his diaries and then tidied up later in his life. His style of writing is quite understated, humble, and yet appealingly miserable, he, and his colleague Iversen, face three years of extreme hardship.
Despite the hunger, cold and solitude, it is evident Mikkelsen is where he wants to be, a place of rare beauty that insists on constant alertness and yet becomes perversely sustaining as it tries to kill you.
This concerns his voyage to northeast Greenland in 1910 to recover the diary and any surviving papers that would shed light on what happened to the 1908 Mylius-Erichsen Expedition’s attempts to refute Peary’s claim of having mapped the east Greenland coast. The account is from Mikkelsen himself, put together from his diaries and then tidied up later in his life. His style of writing is quite understated, humble, and yet appealingly miserable, he, and his colleague Iversen, face three years of extreme hardship.
Despite the hunger, cold and solitude, it is evident Mikkelsen is where he wants to be, a place of rare beauty that insists on constant alertness and yet becomes perversely sustaining as it tries to kill you.
May 22, 2025
I get that this book was written in 1955, about an expedition that took place in 1909, and things were different back then in regards to animal welfare. But the way dogs are treated in this account is psychopathic, and I didn’t even get past chapter 3.
The author, explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen, emotionlessly describes how the first group of dogs he brought for the expedition were so badly mistreated that they all had to be shot. It’s unclear if this was for behavioral reasons, health reasons, or both, but Mikkelsen only regrets this because it delayed his expedition. Which, by the way, was simply to retrieve some papers off a dead body. Not even to bring the body of the preceding explorer back to his family, just to get the papers, so the British wouldn’t get them first. Ok.
So then, Mikkelsen goes and gets another group of dogs from some locals, realizes they are too small and not hearty enough for the job of dragging the oversized sledges, then proceeds to beat them in order to “train them” while simultaneously starving them to the point where they take on a polar bear, one of them gets mauled, and the other dogs eat the first one because they’re so starved. I’m sure Mikkelsen was enjoying his hot meals while this was going on. He then acknowledges all the idiotic mistakes he made and red flags he ignored when deciding to continue on their mission, chalking it up as “bad luck” when in fact, he put everybody into this deadly situation through his own stubbornness, because “once the journey is started, he doesn’t like turning around.” By the beginning of chapter three he’s run the boat aground on ice and is now forcing the poor dogs to pull him around on the sledges, and he doesn’t like how long it’s taking so he keeps beating the starving dogs until they start dropping dead, which he also graphically describes without a hint of acknowledgment of his abusive treatment of them, or that, I don’t know, maybe the DOGS HAVE FEELINGS TOO????
I quit reading here. I hate Mikkelsen at this point and obviously he survives this idiotic journey if he’s now writing a book about it later, so I won’t even be gratified by him meeting the same demise as his poor, abused dogs.
The author, explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen, emotionlessly describes how the first group of dogs he brought for the expedition were so badly mistreated that they all had to be shot. It’s unclear if this was for behavioral reasons, health reasons, or both, but Mikkelsen only regrets this because it delayed his expedition. Which, by the way, was simply to retrieve some papers off a dead body. Not even to bring the body of the preceding explorer back to his family, just to get the papers, so the British wouldn’t get them first. Ok.
So then, Mikkelsen goes and gets another group of dogs from some locals, realizes they are too small and not hearty enough for the job of dragging the oversized sledges, then proceeds to beat them in order to “train them” while simultaneously starving them to the point where they take on a polar bear, one of them gets mauled, and the other dogs eat the first one because they’re so starved. I’m sure Mikkelsen was enjoying his hot meals while this was going on. He then acknowledges all the idiotic mistakes he made and red flags he ignored when deciding to continue on their mission, chalking it up as “bad luck” when in fact, he put everybody into this deadly situation through his own stubbornness, because “once the journey is started, he doesn’t like turning around.” By the beginning of chapter three he’s run the boat aground on ice and is now forcing the poor dogs to pull him around on the sledges, and he doesn’t like how long it’s taking so he keeps beating the starving dogs until they start dropping dead, which he also graphically describes without a hint of acknowledgment of his abusive treatment of them, or that, I don’t know, maybe the DOGS HAVE FEELINGS TOO????
I quit reading here. I hate Mikkelsen at this point and obviously he survives this idiotic journey if he’s now writing a book about it later, so I won’t even be gratified by him meeting the same demise as his poor, abused dogs.
August 26, 2022
Whoa I did not know about this journey - that consisted mainly of two Danish men who become abandoned on the northwest coastline of Greenland from Aug. 1909 when their wooden ship gets stuck in the ice to July 2012. Explorer Ejnar and a mechanic named Iversen were out in the wilds freezing and trying to stay alive with their sled dogs, traveling hundreds of miles across snow & ice. They had gone to Greenland in 1909 to look for the remains & diaries of three men who did not return from an earlier expedition there, but then their ship filled with others -- the Alabama -- gets stuck hundreds of miles from where they believe the mens' remains to be - so the two set off on sleds with dogs. Yikes they find one man's gravesite but then it takes like eight months to get back to the ship and no one is there when they do. So they have to winter two more times in a hut they build before being eventually found & being picked up.
I listened to the audiobook of Ejnar's pretty grisly, epic account. It's filled with how they stayed alive in Arctic temps and traveled - their dogs took the brunt of their journey and did not make it back. Dog lovers beware - this story might be too harsh for you to endure. But he tells quite a vivid story of endurance & survival against the odds, about two men who made a good team together to make it. I will take it as a good intro to Greenland's early period. I liked how Ejnar describes their journey & friendship (they didn't fight) - only a few times did I become confused where they were in the account. There is much going back & forth. And much freezing too, you will feel the cold and even frostbite. I haven't seen the Netflix movie of this that came out in March 2022. But later Ejnar lived till the ripe age of 90 ... and made two other early trips to Greenland. He became a Danish hero.
I listened to the audiobook of Ejnar's pretty grisly, epic account. It's filled with how they stayed alive in Arctic temps and traveled - their dogs took the brunt of their journey and did not make it back. Dog lovers beware - this story might be too harsh for you to endure. But he tells quite a vivid story of endurance & survival against the odds, about two men who made a good team together to make it. I will take it as a good intro to Greenland's early period. I liked how Ejnar describes their journey & friendship (they didn't fight) - only a few times did I become confused where they were in the account. There is much going back & forth. And much freezing too, you will feel the cold and even frostbite. I haven't seen the Netflix movie of this that came out in March 2022. But later Ejnar lived till the ripe age of 90 ... and made two other early trips to Greenland. He became a Danish hero.
Want to read
March 6, 20226 MAR 2022 - film on Netflix today. Truth is I did not shed a tear for the men left behind. I wept for the innocent dogs. I would enjoy very much reading this story. These early explorers were brave, filled with such fortitude and inner strength and deeply fascinate me.
June 12, 2024
I love survival stories but something about this was a little flat and I really didn’t enjoy reading about the harsh treatment of those poor dogs. I’ve seen it mentioned that something got lost in translation which maybe was the case but I wasn’t inclined to finish this book.
June 15, 2022
Quick Take: The original Survivor meets The Martian but IRL
I read this book in a course of one day. Once I got started, I couldn't put it down. Against the Ice by Enjar Mikkelsen is the true account of an Artic explorer who ended up stranded for almost 3 years in the Artic.
Enjar Mikkelsen was a Danish explorer born in the 1880's. In the late 1890's he began traveling the world and made his first Artic trek. Unfortunately, it was hard to get funding for these explorations so when he heard that the failed Mylius-Erichsen expedition may have left behind important diaries he jumped at the chance to go.
East Greenland is an unforgiving land of ice and snow. Several years before, the explorers Mylius-Erichsen traveled to east Greenland and perished during their expedition. Enjar Mikkelsen brought a crew with him to find the bodies of the lost explorers and retrieve the diaries. Although he embarked with a crew, in the end, only him and his ship mechanic, Iverson, would make the trip for the diaries. Everything went wrong on this trip, right from the beginning. Due to many unforeseen circumstances. Mikkelsen and Iverson must survive 3 years in Greenland suffering scurvy, starvation, food poisoning, and frostbite.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a true tale of survival.
I read this book in a course of one day. Once I got started, I couldn't put it down. Against the Ice by Enjar Mikkelsen is the true account of an Artic explorer who ended up stranded for almost 3 years in the Artic.
Enjar Mikkelsen was a Danish explorer born in the 1880's. In the late 1890's he began traveling the world and made his first Artic trek. Unfortunately, it was hard to get funding for these explorations so when he heard that the failed Mylius-Erichsen expedition may have left behind important diaries he jumped at the chance to go.
East Greenland is an unforgiving land of ice and snow. Several years before, the explorers Mylius-Erichsen traveled to east Greenland and perished during their expedition. Enjar Mikkelsen brought a crew with him to find the bodies of the lost explorers and retrieve the diaries. Although he embarked with a crew, in the end, only him and his ship mechanic, Iverson, would make the trip for the diaries. Everything went wrong on this trip, right from the beginning. Due to many unforeseen circumstances. Mikkelsen and Iverson must survive 3 years in Greenland suffering scurvy, starvation, food poisoning, and frostbite.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a true tale of survival.
August 19, 2022
This book is translated from Danish and the translation was not the greatest. Otherwise an interesting story.
August 25, 2025
1 star for the treatment of the sled dogs. It was a good book otherwise, the very end is what stood out the most. In just two decades where he was in NE Greenland, the area turned into a developed camp. The place that was the harshest and undiscovered ultimately (de)evolved into something else entirely.
“Reduced its eternity to a few decades…those men had the power and the intention to violate the immutability of the wilderness, putting an end to the abiding desolation.”
It echoed personal feelings about remote places continuously becoming less remote, and the concept that nothing stays the same.
“Reduced its eternity to a few decades…those men had the power and the intention to violate the immutability of the wilderness, putting an end to the abiding desolation.”
It echoed personal feelings about remote places continuously becoming less remote, and the concept that nothing stays the same.
Read
January 21, 2026no rating bc I've had this on pause for nearly a year and I'm letting go ✨
August 31, 2022
Finished reading: August 30th 2022
"All of us who had gone up there were silly, both men and dogs."
P.S. Find more of my reviews here.
March 28, 2022
This book is epic.
It took me awhile to get used to the old Danish style writing but once I went through a couple of pages, it went easily. Ejnar Mikkelsen, apart from being an explorer, was a great writer. He could describe his adventures vividly that you felt that you were there with him, tired and hungry from the strenuous expedition on East Greenland.
I must admit that I picked this book up after watching "Against the Ice" on Netflix, and what can I say? The film doesn't justify the book at all.
It took me awhile to get used to the old Danish style writing but once I went through a couple of pages, it went easily. Ejnar Mikkelsen, apart from being an explorer, was a great writer. He could describe his adventures vividly that you felt that you were there with him, tired and hungry from the strenuous expedition on East Greenland.
I must admit that I picked this book up after watching "Against the Ice" on Netflix, and what can I say? The film doesn't justify the book at all.
January 23, 2022
This was a survival story through and through. I felt empowered by the characters resilience and determination. The pictures were my favorite, I felt transported back in time and it probably helped that I was reading this in the middle of winter. I can't wait to watch this fantastic story on Netflix.
March 8, 2022
Read the 2022-edition ”Farlig tomandsfærd - Ny udvidet og illustreret udgave” in Danish. I have not seen the movie - yet. This edition includes some letters from Ejnar Mikkelsen to his family. Letters he left in Greenland - just in case the letters would make it home faster than himself.
The book is an excellent read with many fine descriptions that no fiction author would come up with. Ejnar Mikkelsen is not the academic perfectionist as Fridtjof Nansen. He does not mind admitting bad judgement and is way more human in his way of thinking and acting. For example the train of though about whether or not to eat the dogs liver is an excellent example of slippery slope thinking rationalising each lower step.
There are many such incidents. The talk about being afraid to carry the gun is brutally honest.
One reviewer writes: “Just utter chaos and ineptitude, letting [the dogs] die left and right. ” Ejnar Mikkelsen may not have been as well prepared as Fridtjof Nansen, but eating the dogs was a part of arctic travel. The only point of underprepared I noticed was not taking precautions against scurvy. Fridtjof Nansen writes about the research he does into the subject and how none of his men gets scurvy during the Fram three year expedition. Seems very strange that an arctic explore is unfamiliar with that.
Reading the book I did not know about the mystery of Koch and Mylius and Hagens bodies. And this add an extra star to the book. There is a separate mystery that Mikkelsen provides evidences for with out knowing it. Again: No fiction writer could have done so well.
Major spoiler warning:
The book is an excellent read with many fine descriptions that no fiction author would come up with. Ejnar Mikkelsen is not the academic perfectionist as Fridtjof Nansen. He does not mind admitting bad judgement and is way more human in his way of thinking and acting. For example the train of though about whether or not to eat the dogs liver is an excellent example of slippery slope thinking rationalising each lower step.
There are many such incidents. The talk about being afraid to carry the gun is brutally honest.
One reviewer writes: “Just utter chaos and ineptitude, letting [the dogs] die left and right. ” Ejnar Mikkelsen may not have been as well prepared as Fridtjof Nansen, but eating the dogs was a part of arctic travel. The only point of underprepared I noticed was not taking precautions against scurvy. Fridtjof Nansen writes about the research he does into the subject and how none of his men gets scurvy during the Fram three year expedition. Seems very strange that an arctic explore is unfamiliar with that.
Reading the book I did not know about the mystery of Koch and Mylius and Hagens bodies. And this add an extra star to the book. There is a separate mystery that Mikkelsen provides evidences for with out knowing it. Again: No fiction writer could have done so well.
Major spoiler warning:
December 8, 2022
Fascinating account of Ejnar Mikkelsen's exploration of the uncharted land of North East Greenland. Mikkelsen, an experienced Arctic explorer traveled for nearly 3 years with Iver Iverson a capable mechanic but novice in the Arctic in a attempt to find the charts and diaries of a previous pair who attempted to map the icey wilderness.
The post script is especially interesting as Mikkelsen credits the internal combustion engine with the huge technological advances in the past century, most especially with the taming of the Artic wilds of Greenland, and points out how much progress happened in the short 2 decades following his adventure in that frozen wilderness.
"Time and again I have been asked what north-east Greenland is like and now I have tried to answer that question as I have described it in this book. Such was NE Greenland when it was discovered, explored and mapped and such it must have been for millions of years since it was first clothed in its cap of ice and life there was exterminated. I in my simplicity never doubted that it would remain thus for all eternity a harsh and desolate land without any means of supporting life for even the Eskimos on the coast had died out. It was so utterly wrong in my view of NE Greenland’s eternal immutability was due first and foremost to the invention and improvement of the internal combustion engine. At the beginning of this century the petrol engine was a heavy, clumsy and unreliable thrall in man's service ,yet in a couple of decades it became the master of mankind or at least a fantastic creator of the energy without which modern society cannot exist. Directly or indirectly the motor plays a part in all man’s undertakings. It makes electricity and provides the power that drives huge ships across the seven seas and amongst many other things it has been the cause of clever technicians being able to realize man's oldest and most fantastic dreams and hankering : to rise into the air and conquer Space. From the time the principle of the first airplane was discovered its development has been explosive until we have arrived at the machines of today that fly at a thousand of miles an hour and more and are driven by engines of tens of thousands of horsepower. The modern airplane upset a not very gifted Prophet’s view of the immutability of the status NE Greenland and reduced it’s eternity to a few decades, or to be exact form 1910 when I still believed that there were things that could endure forever until about 1950 when one such lone monster went flying over the desolate country around the mouth of Danmarks Fjord where I had experienced the most bitter hours of my own long life and seen the expected number of my days shrink to a few weeks, months at the most. In the belly of this monster were comfortable, soft chairs in which sat officials who as they flew along at a low, but safe height looked for level stretches of ground in the wilderness. Those men had the power and the intention to violate the immutability of the wilderness and say where they could and should build a landing ground. Thus putting an end to the abiding desolation. They found what they sought, near the place where Iver and I had rested in 1910 and spoken frankly of the future that for us could hardly have been a future at all...."
The post script is especially interesting as Mikkelsen credits the internal combustion engine with the huge technological advances in the past century, most especially with the taming of the Artic wilds of Greenland, and points out how much progress happened in the short 2 decades following his adventure in that frozen wilderness.
"Time and again I have been asked what north-east Greenland is like and now I have tried to answer that question as I have described it in this book. Such was NE Greenland when it was discovered, explored and mapped and such it must have been for millions of years since it was first clothed in its cap of ice and life there was exterminated. I in my simplicity never doubted that it would remain thus for all eternity a harsh and desolate land without any means of supporting life for even the Eskimos on the coast had died out. It was so utterly wrong in my view of NE Greenland’s eternal immutability was due first and foremost to the invention and improvement of the internal combustion engine. At the beginning of this century the petrol engine was a heavy, clumsy and unreliable thrall in man's service ,yet in a couple of decades it became the master of mankind or at least a fantastic creator of the energy without which modern society cannot exist. Directly or indirectly the motor plays a part in all man’s undertakings. It makes electricity and provides the power that drives huge ships across the seven seas and amongst many other things it has been the cause of clever technicians being able to realize man's oldest and most fantastic dreams and hankering : to rise into the air and conquer Space. From the time the principle of the first airplane was discovered its development has been explosive until we have arrived at the machines of today that fly at a thousand of miles an hour and more and are driven by engines of tens of thousands of horsepower. The modern airplane upset a not very gifted Prophet’s view of the immutability of the status NE Greenland and reduced it’s eternity to a few decades, or to be exact form 1910 when I still believed that there were things that could endure forever until about 1950 when one such lone monster went flying over the desolate country around the mouth of Danmarks Fjord where I had experienced the most bitter hours of my own long life and seen the expected number of my days shrink to a few weeks, months at the most. In the belly of this monster were comfortable, soft chairs in which sat officials who as they flew along at a low, but safe height looked for level stretches of ground in the wilderness. Those men had the power and the intention to violate the immutability of the wilderness and say where they could and should build a landing ground. Thus putting an end to the abiding desolation. They found what they sought, near the place where Iver and I had rested in 1910 and spoken frankly of the future that for us could hardly have been a future at all...."
December 8, 2023
A few weeks ago my husband asked me to find something to watch together, and while browsing Netflix I found Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s adaptation of this very memoir. We were absolutely enthralled, and I decided it had to be the next sad boat book I read. I’m so very glad I did.
Ejnar Mikkelsen and his team were sent to Greenland in order to find out what happened to the previous Danish expedition to eastern Greenland, taking the lives of the expedition leader and two other men. It was imperative to find the journals of these men, to learn what they had discovered about this desolate land. Mikkelsen outfits a boat called the Alabama and takes his men to eastern Greenland in 1909 to find the materials belonging to the previous expedition. But when it’s clear the mechanic Mikkelsen had hired wasn’t up to the job, a mechanic from a ship nearby volunteers to join the expedition. It is this man, Iver P. Iversen, that also volunteers to accompany Mikkelsen north to where Mylius-Erichsen and his men died, in order to try to recover their journals and materials, leading to these two men spending the next three years with only each other for company.
It’s amazing how desolate Greenland was at the time. Mikkelsen does wax a bit preachy at the end, bemoaning how easy it is now to traverse Greenland and to even survive winter in relative comfort, compared to his and Iversen’s travails, including bouts of scurvy and the very real possibility of dying of starvation. Admittedly, he and Iversen barely survived the trek to recover the expedition’s materials; a few more days out on the ice would have resulted in their deaths. I don’t blame Mikkelsen for becoming a bit salty regarding the use of the food in the cairns, how the tinned food had been broken open and strewn about for the dogs, though none of it was dog food. That food would absolutely have made all the difference to Mikkelsen and Iversen, instead of them reaching their destination on the knife’s edge of starvation.
Mikkelsen was quite fortunate to have ended up with Iversen as his partner on this journey. I’ve read too many accounts where everything falls apart because of interpersonal issues. Mikkelsen and Iversen each made conscious decisions to remain as positive as possible and to take the best care of each other that they could. Everything was share and share alike; even as Mikkelsen was clearly in charge, he never took more than his fair share of anything. It’s a testament to how emotionally strong these men were that they never let differences in opinion ruin their friendship; it’s only the relationships with their imaginary girlfriends that cause a rift, but even that was quickly mended.
Being a book, this memoir goes in greater detail than does the movie, but Coster-Waldau did an excellent job of bringing this material to life. I recommend both this book and the movie highly.
Ejnar Mikkelsen and his team were sent to Greenland in order to find out what happened to the previous Danish expedition to eastern Greenland, taking the lives of the expedition leader and two other men. It was imperative to find the journals of these men, to learn what they had discovered about this desolate land. Mikkelsen outfits a boat called the Alabama and takes his men to eastern Greenland in 1909 to find the materials belonging to the previous expedition. But when it’s clear the mechanic Mikkelsen had hired wasn’t up to the job, a mechanic from a ship nearby volunteers to join the expedition. It is this man, Iver P. Iversen, that also volunteers to accompany Mikkelsen north to where Mylius-Erichsen and his men died, in order to try to recover their journals and materials, leading to these two men spending the next three years with only each other for company.
It’s amazing how desolate Greenland was at the time. Mikkelsen does wax a bit preachy at the end, bemoaning how easy it is now to traverse Greenland and to even survive winter in relative comfort, compared to his and Iversen’s travails, including bouts of scurvy and the very real possibility of dying of starvation. Admittedly, he and Iversen barely survived the trek to recover the expedition’s materials; a few more days out on the ice would have resulted in their deaths. I don’t blame Mikkelsen for becoming a bit salty regarding the use of the food in the cairns, how the tinned food had been broken open and strewn about for the dogs, though none of it was dog food. That food would absolutely have made all the difference to Mikkelsen and Iversen, instead of them reaching their destination on the knife’s edge of starvation.
Mikkelsen was quite fortunate to have ended up with Iversen as his partner on this journey. I’ve read too many accounts where everything falls apart because of interpersonal issues. Mikkelsen and Iversen each made conscious decisions to remain as positive as possible and to take the best care of each other that they could. Everything was share and share alike; even as Mikkelsen was clearly in charge, he never took more than his fair share of anything. It’s a testament to how emotionally strong these men were that they never let differences in opinion ruin their friendship; it’s only the relationships with their imaginary girlfriends that cause a rift, but even that was quickly mended.
Being a book, this memoir goes in greater detail than does the movie, but Coster-Waldau did an excellent job of bringing this material to life. I recommend both this book and the movie highly.
March 16, 2025
Published in 1955, more than forty years after the actual events, this is a narrative memoir of Ejnar Mikkelsen’s explorations and travels in north-east Greenland during the years 1909 to 1912. The book recalls three sledging journeys completed by Mikkelsen and his companion, Iver Iversen, that were followed by a period of many months during which they were stranded and hoping to be rescued. The first of their journeys (September to December 1909) was a 700 mile trek with sledges and dogs from Shannon Island, north along the coast to 79 Fjord and return. The second, (April to December 1910) was a 1200 mile trip with sledges and dogs, from Shannon Island, north across the interior ice cap of Greenland to Danmarks Fjord, with a return to Shannon Island along the east coast.The purpose of these two journeys was to find and recover journals and notebooks from the failed Danmark Expedition, the members of which had all perished in 1907. The third journey (Spring 1911) was a 400 mile trek, without dogs, to an unnamed island north of Skaer Fjord to recover a rifle and the diaries and journals that Mikkelsen and Iversen had cached there during a moment of panic on their return from Danmarks Fjord in 1910.
The above descriptions may seem straightforward but the journeys themselves were nothing of the sort. Things went wrong. Danger was everywhere. The weather was unpredictable and frequently extreme. Accidents happened. Dogs died and were eaten. Game was scarce. Frostbite, illness and hunger was ever-present. At the same time, many things worked out well. These two travellers were resourceful, optimistic, collaborative and at times, quite lucky. They survived everything and lived to tell their story.
This was a totally engaging read! The writing style is terse and somewhat understated. Mikkelsen doesn’t dramatize and doesn’t play on the reader’s emotions. Events are mostly described in a matter of fact manner. Along with his descriptions of the physical aspects of these sledging journeys, Mikkelsen frequently describes the weather, the landscapes and the Arctic skies - with special regard for the presence and impact of sunlight, the moon and the aurora borealis. He also devotes quite a bit of space to his thoughts and reflections, his dreams, his companionship with Iversen and their exchanges of ideas and opinions. These elements make the book more than just a tale of physical adventure and survival. They also highlight the mental ingredients that underlie the endurance and collaboration required for survival in such extreme conditions. All said, this was a very worthwhile and rewarding read. The book has so many positive features - among them, an uplifting, happy ending. Easily 4+ stars.
The above descriptions may seem straightforward but the journeys themselves were nothing of the sort. Things went wrong. Danger was everywhere. The weather was unpredictable and frequently extreme. Accidents happened. Dogs died and were eaten. Game was scarce. Frostbite, illness and hunger was ever-present. At the same time, many things worked out well. These two travellers were resourceful, optimistic, collaborative and at times, quite lucky. They survived everything and lived to tell their story.
This was a totally engaging read! The writing style is terse and somewhat understated. Mikkelsen doesn’t dramatize and doesn’t play on the reader’s emotions. Events are mostly described in a matter of fact manner. Along with his descriptions of the physical aspects of these sledging journeys, Mikkelsen frequently describes the weather, the landscapes and the Arctic skies - with special regard for the presence and impact of sunlight, the moon and the aurora borealis. He also devotes quite a bit of space to his thoughts and reflections, his dreams, his companionship with Iversen and their exchanges of ideas and opinions. These elements make the book more than just a tale of physical adventure and survival. They also highlight the mental ingredients that underlie the endurance and collaboration required for survival in such extreme conditions. All said, this was a very worthwhile and rewarding read. The book has so many positive features - among them, an uplifting, happy ending. Easily 4+ stars.
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