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EGEDE, HANS (1686–1758)

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 12 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EGEDE, HANS (1686–1758) , See also:Norwegian missionary, was See also:born in the vogtship of Senjen, See also:Norway, on the 31st of See also:January 1686. He studied at the university of See also:Copenhagen, and in 1706 became pastor at Vaagen in the Lofoten islands, but the study of the See also:chronicles of the northmen having awakened in him the See also:desire to visit the See also:colony of Northmen in See also:Greenland, and to convert them to See also:Christianity, he resigned his See also:charge in 1717; and having, after See also:great difficulty, obtained the See also:sanction and help of the Danish See also:government in his enterprise, he set See also:sail with three See also:ships from See also:Bergen on the 3rd of May 1721, accompanied by his wife and See also:children. He landed on the See also:west See also:coast of Greenland on the 3rd of See also:July, but found to his dismay that the Northmen were entirely superseded by the See also:Eskimo, in whom he had no particular See also:interest, and whose See also:language he would be able to See also:master, if at all, only after years of study. But, though compelled to endure for some years great privations, and at one See also:time to see the result of his labours almost annihilated by the ravages of small-pox, he remained resolutely at his See also:post. He founded the colony of Godthaab, and soon gained the affections of the See also:people. He converted many of them to Christianity, and established a considerable See also:commerce with See also:Denmark. See also:Ill-See also:health compelling him to return See also:home in 1736, he was made See also:principal of a See also:seminary at Copenhagen, in which workers were trained for the Greenland See also:mission; and from 1740 to 1747 he was See also:superintendent of the mission. He died on the 5th of See also:November 1758. He is the author of a See also:book on the natural See also:history of Greenland. His See also:work in Greenland was continued, on his retirement, by his son See also:PAUL EGEDE (1708–1789), who afterwards returned to Denmark and succeeded his See also:father as superintendent of the Greenland mission. Paul Egede also became See also:professor of See also:theology in the mission seminary. He published a Greenland-See also:Dan-Latin See also:dictionary (1750), Greenland See also:grammar (1760) and Greenland See also:catechism (1756).

In 1766 he completed the See also:

translation begun by his father of the New Testament into the See also:Green-See also:land See also:tongue; and in 1787 he translated See also:Thomas a Ke`mpis. In 1789 he published a See also:journal of his See also:life in Greenland.

End of Article: EGEDE, HANS (1686–1758)

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