Peder Olsen Walløe was a Dano-Norwegian Arctic

Arctic

The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...

 explorer most noted for his historic exploration of the former Norse settlements on Greenland.

Biography

Peder Olsen Walloe was born on the Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

 island of Bornholm

Bornholm

Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea located to the east of the rest of Denmark, the south of Sweden, and the north of Poland. The main industries on the island include fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked clay, and dairy farming. Tourism is...

. In 1739, he came to Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

 as one of five colonists called by Lutheran missionary Hans Egede

Hans Egede

Hans Poulsen Egede was a Norwegian-Danish Lutheran missionary who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a successful mission among the Inuit and is credited with revitalizing Dano-Norwegian interest in the island after contact...

. He learned to speak the language Kalaallisut and settled as a trader with permission to operate outside the Godthåb

Nuuk

Nuuk, is the capital of Greenland, the northernmost capital in North America and the largest city in Greenland. Located in the Nuup Kangerlua fjord, the city lies on the eastern shore of the Labrador Sea and on the west coast of Sermersooq. Nuuk is the largest cultural and economic center in...

 colony. During 1751-53, Walløe explored the southern coasts of Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

 on behalf of the Danish mission. The aim was to locate the lost Eastern Norse Settlement

Eastern Settlement

The Eastern Settlement was the largest and first of the three areas of Greenland, settled in approximately 985 AD by Norse farmers from Iceland . At its peak it contained approximately 4,000 inhabitants...

 which was commonly believed to be located on the east coast of Greenland. In August 1751, Walloe left Godthaab in a native boat accompanied by two Danish sailors and two Eskimo rowers. The expedition used umiak

Umiak

The umiak, umialak, umiaq, umiac, oomiac or oomiak is a type of boat used by Eskimo people, both Yupik and Inuit, and was originally found in all coastal areas from Siberia to Greenland. First arising in Thule times, it has traditionally been used in summer to move people and possessions to...

s able to navigate in the shallow waters between the coast and the sea ice.

The first year he reached what became Julianehåb District

Qaqortoq

Qaqortoq is a town in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. With a population of 3,230 as of 2011, it is the most populous town in southern Greenland, and the fourth-largest town in the country. The name is western Greenlandic and means "[the] white [one]".- History :The area around...

 where he made certain explorations and spent the winter. On their way southwards he investigated the area of Tunulliarfik Fjord and Hvalsey

Hvalsey

Hvalsey is located near Qaqortoq, Greenland and is the site of Greenland's largest, best-preserved Norse ruins in the area known as the Eastern Settlement .-History:...

, which contained the remains of earlier Norse

Norsemen

Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...

 settlements. The next year he passed Cape Farewell

Cape Farewell

Cape Farewell can mean:* Cape Farewell, New Zealand, northernmost point of the South Island.* Cape Farewell, Greenland, southernmost point in the territory of Greenland....

 and worked a little way up the east coast to an island which he calls Nenese. Walløe constantly struggle with drift-ice and bad weather path along the coast.

Walloe is the first European in modern times who is known with certainty to have landed on the southern part of the east coast. Walløe then settled in Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 and never returned to Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

. He subsequently wrote down reliable and authentic records of the natural and ice conditions on the East Coast. Walløe was the first European who has given a description of the nature and climate of southern Greenland of the great ice occurrence and the great difficulties ice present in the way of movement of goods in these districts. His diaries contain information about the country's population and threw light on the conditions under which colonists in Greenland lived during his time.

Peder Olsen Walløe never received any recognition for his achievement and reaped little profit from his enterprise and perseverance. Afterwards he lived in most miserable circumstances, dying at the age of seventy-seven in the workhouse of the Vartov Church Hospital at Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

.

Peder Olsen Walløe's diaries were published during 1927 in the abstracts by noted Danish archivist and historian Louis Theodor Alfred Bobé (1867-1951). Dr. Louis Bobé was a professor at the University of Copenhagen

University of Copenhagen

The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...

, chairman of the Greenlandic Society (Grønlandske selskabs) (1921-1924) and was appointed Royal Danish historian in 1921.

Other Source

• Bobé, Louis Peder Olsen Walløes dagbøger fra hans rejser i Grønland 1739-53 (Grønlandske selskabs. 1927)
• Bobé, Louis Hans Egede: Colonizer and Missionary of Greenland (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1952)