Olof the Eskimo Lady: A Biography of an Icelandic Dwarf in America

by Inga Dora Bjornsdottir, Maria Helga Gudmundsdottir (Translator)

Ólöf Krarer may be one of America's most effective impostors of the twentieth century. Born in Iceland in 1858, she moved to the United States at age nineteen. Because she was a dwarf, the only job she could get was as the "wife" in a dwarf couple at a circus. It wasn't long before she fabricated a new life for herself, as an Inuit Eskimo from Greenland. It's estimated that Krarer gave more than 2,500 lectures around the country, including talks at universities, on life in Greenland as an Eskimo. Nearly all the information she gave was made up, uninformed, and just plain wrong, but no one, from William Jennings Bryan to Robert Peary, ever disputed her facts. Americans at the time were intensely interested in life in the far North, thanks in part to the first attempts to reach the North Pole. Björnsdóttir puts Krarer in that context and explains how dramatic improvements in railroad transportation and an extreme shortage of entertainment helped drive her popularity. She also describes the role of the circus at the time, attitudes toward dwarfs and other "deviants," and the possible psychological reasons for Krarer's deceptions. This is a fascinating story about a great female con artist, but also an interesting look at the culture and society of America in the late nineteenth century. Krarer on Eskimo ". . . when a baby is born in my country it is just as white as any American baby, and it has light hair and blue eyes. But the mother does not wash it with soft water and soap, as they do in this country, but she goes to work and greases it all over, and the child is never washed from the day he is born till the day he dies, if he remains in that country." Krarer on Eskimo marriage "It is a risky thing in my country to get a wife. A young man has to steal his girl out of her parents' snow-house and get her away into another. If he is caught trying to do this the girl's parents turn right on him and kill him. If he has not enough pluck to steal a girl for himself, he has to live alone, and when he goes to sleep he crawls head first into a fur sack. When he wants to get up he must crawl out backwards. I suppose he is what you would call an old bachelor." Anthropologist Inga Dóra Björnsdóttir studied at the University of Lund, Sweden, and New York University, and received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1992. She has taught anthropology at UC Santa Barbara and has taught and served as an adjudicator at the University of Iceland. She is an active researcher, lecturer, and writer, her chief topics being the relationship between nationality and the construction of gender, masculinity and men's choirs, and feminist movements. She is coauthor of the book Kvinner, Krig og Kjærlighet ( Women, War, and Love ) and of the documentary Ást og stríd ( Love and War ), both of which document research on Icelandic women who married American soldiers during World War II. Born and raised in Iceland, María Helga Guðmundsdóttir is a student of German literature and geology at Stanford University and a translator of English, Icelandic, and German. She was a finalist for Stanford's Boothe Prize for Excellence in Writing in 2005.

Genres: History

248 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Teddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very interesting, a true account of a female imposter. The author sets the story to the time period in which Olof lived. To give a better understanding how she fooled so many people and why the few who knew the truth stayed silent. Not only is the story enjoyable but it also has lots of history in it. And some wonderful old photographs.

[Thordur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Virkilega vel skrifuð ævisaga.

[Kristín · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ég man eftir því að ég heyrði Ólöfu fyrst nefnda þegar ég bjó úti í Winnipeg og var á fyrirlestri sem ég reyndar man ekki lengur um hvað var. Það var eina skiptið sem ég heyrði minnst á hana og bjó ég þó í fjögur ár í Winnipeg og var mjög mikið innan um Vestur-Íslendinga. Það passar reyndar algjörlega við það sem Inga Dóra segir í bókinni, að landar Ólafar vildu sem minnst af henni vita enda ekki kunnað við að lygari kæmi úr þeirra hóp. En það þýddi líka að þeir flettu ekki ofan af henni.

Ólöf Sölvadóttir var íslenskur dvergur sem flutti vestur um haf með fjölskyldu sinni í kringum átján ára aldurinn. Þar bauðst henni í raun ekki annað en að gerast vinnukona ríkra fjölskyldna en það var auðvitað erfiðisvinna sem hefur örugglega oft reynst henni þolraun. Hún fékk því vinnu í sirkus þar sem hún kom fram í furðusýningunni. Það hlýtur að hafa verið ákveðin niðurlæging að sýna sig þannig fyrir peninga en veitti henni þó mun betra líf en það sem áður hafði boðist. Á þessum árum vissu Norður Ameríkanar ekki mikið um Íslendinga og rugluðu þeim oft saman við Inútíta sem á þessum tíma voru oftast kallaðir eskimóar. Þegar Ólöf var því beðin að koma fram og segja frá því hvernig það væri að vera eskimói greip hún tækifærið og næstu 30 árin ferðaðist hún gjörvöll Bandaríkin og hélt fyrirlestra um líf sitt á Grænlandi og síðar Íslandi. Þar laug hún hérumbil öllu þótt hún hafi að einhverju leyti byggt sögu sína á því sem hún hafði lesið um Grænland. Það var ekki fyrr en eftir dauða hennar að sannleikurinn kom í ljós og þá var lítið um hann talað enda skammaðist fólk sín fyrir að láta blekkjast.

Þetta er virkilega áhugaverð saga og Ingu Dóru hefur tekist að búa til býsna heillega frásögn byggða á þeim gögnum sem hún hafði aðgang að þótt hér vanti auðvitað rödd Ólafar sjálfar en hún lét hvorki eftir sig dagbækur né bréf. Helsti galli bókarinnar er sá að Inga Dóra fer stundum svolítið út fyrir efnið til þess að reyna að fylla söguna meira efni en ég hefði í raun frekar viljað aðeins styttri bók en suma þessa útúrdúra. Í heildina séð samt virkalega fín lesning.

[Anna Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loksins kom ég því í verk að lesa þessa bók sem er búin að vera uppí hillu hjá mér í mörg, mörg ár og alltaf á "lesist fljótlega" listanum. Ég byrjaði á henni í gær og gat hreinlega ekki lagt hana frá mér.

[Heidrun Hauksdottir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Merkileg saga.

[Svanhildur Snæbjörnsdóttir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Áhugaverð saga en svolítið endurtekningasöm.

[Roma Giannina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly couldn’t finish this. Even if this weren’t translated, the text is simplistic (as if written by a 5th grader) and uses pretty offensive language —essentially saying dwarves vs. healthy people. Uhhh, a person can be a dwarf AND healthy. Dwarfism has nothing to do with health but is a result of genes. Lots of useless facts and dates for family members we don’t need to know about. I’d like to know the story, but I’m sure Wikipedia has something on her that’s better written.

[Jona Bjarna · Rating 4 out of 5]

True story of a litle liar named Olof Eskimo. An Icelandic dwarf that came to fame and fortune by pretending to be an Eskimo in America. She held numerous lectures about life in Greenland that people believed. Olof was an amazing woman and this story is almost to good to be true.