A Life in the Service of Science and Humanity

(Originally published by the United Nations High Commissionerfor Refugees and the Norwegian Refugee Council in collaboration with theCultural Office of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the occasionof the centenary of the birth of Nansen in 1961). 

Childhood and Youth 

Nansen was born in Norway on 10 October 1861, and grew to manhood at Frøen,on the outskirts of Christiania (now Oslo). His childhood home has nowbeen engulfed by the expanding suburbs of the capital, but in the 1860sthe district was still retained its unspoiled rural character. Only a stone'sthrow from the Nansen home were vast expanses of forest and open country,offering unrivalled facilities for hunting, fishing and skiing, leisure-houractivities which early made their marks on his character. Nansen's motherwas passionately fond of skiing, at that time a sadly neglected nationalsport and one which was considered almost exclusively a male preserve.His father was a lawyer and the family were in comfortable circumstances.Nonetheless, the children received a spartan upbringing: They were taughta simple and frugal mode of life, quickly grew hardy and tenacious, andat a tender age mastered the art of fending for themselves in the wildsof nature. The parents attached primary importance to the inculcation intothe children of sound moral qualities - integrity, independence and courage. 

Fridtjof Nansen's outdoor pursuits as a boy were in many ways to proveof vital importance to him. They developed his love and feeling for nature;made him frugal, self-reliant, enduring and companionable, strengthenedhis will and taught him to know his own strength and abilities. His loveof the out-of-doors and his early ripening sense of kinship with natureproved determining factors when in 1880 he entered the University of Christiania:his choice of subject fell on zoology. 

In the spring and summer of 1882, while still at university, he tookpart in an expedition to Jan Mayen on board the sealer Viking, avoyage that was to have a momentous influence on his future career. Thisgave him his first experience of the Arctic, and he was immediately captivatedby the solitude and the silence, by the wild, majestic beauty of the tracklesswaters with their awe-inspiring scenery - scenery which by its very harshnessconstituted a challenge to a young man's resources, strength and ambition,to his mind and his body. Even afterwards the polar regions were to exerta particular pull on him by virtue of their vastness and savagery: here,amid the icy wastes, he could put himself to the test, staking all he possessedof moral and physical courage, of will-power and endurance, of qualitiesof leadership and physical prowess. The Arctic was a man's world. 

For some time to come, however, his attentions were claimed by scienceand study. In the autumn of 1882 he took up an appointment at the BergenMuseum, where he completed his first independent piece of research, aninvestigation into the intricacies of the nervous system of lower animals.A thesis on the same subject gained him his doctor's degree at the Universityof Christiania in 1888. 

Across Greenland on Skis 

As early as the year following his expedition to Jan Mayen, Nansen beganto consider plans for a journey across Greenland, the world's largest island.The interior of this barren land had remained completely unexplored, andin scientific circles of the time the most diversified and remarkable theorieswere held on conditions there. Nansen was keen to ascertain for himselfwhat the country was like and felt that skis were the most suitable meansof progression in these inhospitable regions - the aeroplane was, of course,still many years in the future. He had made a public announcement of hisintentions in 1887, and in 1888, together with five companions, he puthis plan to the test - and triumphed. 

Like all Nansen's schemes, the Greenland project was simple and bold,but needed thorough preparation, based on the ability to foresee unknownproblems and difficulties. His intention was to cross the ice-cap fromeast to west. This choice of direction was highly characteristic of Nansen,involving as it did a journey from the uninhabited and altogether desolateeast coast to the settlements of the west. There could be no turning back;the party would have no choice, they would have to push on. Burning hisboats and cutting off his own line of retreat was then, as ever, Nansen'sway. 

At the outset, the body of expert opinion decried his plan as madness.No one believed that skiers, without dogs and sledges, could traverse theinland ice, and was deemed indefensible not to have a base to fall backon. But the 27-year-old zoologist had his own way.

In the face of great difficulties and after serious delays caused byice and weather, Nansen and his companions were set ashore on the eastcoast of Greenland in the vicinity of the Sermilik Fjord. Owing to theseinitial setbacks they were unable to commence the ascent of the glacieruntil 15 August, by which time the brief Arctic summer was drawing to aclose. The journey proved unbelievably hazardous and exhausting, the partyhaving to climb to nearly 9,000 feet above sea- level and pick its waybetween yawning fissures in the ice; at times the thermometer dropped to-45º C. Equipment and supplies were confined to what they were ableto carry on their backs and pull after them on sledges made from skis,and they suffered agonies owing to a deficiency of fat, the result of incorrectlymade-up pemmican. But despite every hazard and privation they achievedtheir object. By the end of September they had completed the descent tothe west coast, and early in October they reached human habitation at Godthaab,where they spent the winter. 

The expedition made a decisive contribution to scientific knowledgeof the interior of Greenland - which many experts had previously held tobe free of ice - and did much to promote world-wide interest in skiing.

The Voyage of the Fram 

The Greenland crossing, however, was destined soon to be completely overshadowedby Nansen's next expedition to the polar regions, on board the Fram. 

Once again his plan was based upon a brilliantly simple, though boldlyconceived and highly unorthodox idea, and once again the body of expertopinion dismissed it as folly. As far back as 1884 Nansen had read thatwreckage from the American vessel Jeanette, which foundered offthe New Siberian Islands, had been recovered close to the southern tipof Greenland. The wreckage must have been carried across the Polar Seawith the ice, a fact which pointed to the existence of a westerly oceancurrent in that region. Nansen's novel idea was to sail a ship as far eastas possible, off the coast of Siberia, and allow the vessel to be frozenin, in the hope that it would be carried across the Pole or a point closeto it. 

It was a revolutionary conception, and the plan required the most painstakingpreparatory work. Every difficulty and hazard that might conceivably bemet had to be foreseen and guarded against. Nansen afterwards confessedthat he had taken steps to meet five times as many problems as the expeditionactually encountered.

The primary task was to build a ship that could withstand the pressureof the ice. Nansen himself supervised the design and the construction.The hull of the vessel, characteristically christened the Fram ("Forward"),was made exceptionally strong, and her lines below the waterline were farrounder than customary. As a result, when the pack became jammed hard togetherand exerted tremendous pressure on her hull, the ship slipped free andwas lifted clear instead of being crushed to pieces. 

The expedition set out in the summer of 1893, the Fram steeringan easterly course which took her along the Siberian coast. In Septemberthe drift with the ice began. Nansen's theory proved well founded, andthe ship was carried in a north-westerly direction. After a year in thegrip of the ice, however, he was compelled to accept the disappointingfact that his course would not take him as far north as he had hoped, andthe ship would not pass very close to the actual Pole. 

He then came to the bold resolve to leave the ship, together with achosen companion, Hjalmar Johansen, and to press on northwards across thepackice, using skis, sledges drawn by dogs, and kayaks, with the aim ofpenetrating as far north as possible, perhaps to the very Pole. Again Nansenplanned to burn his boats behind him, and to set off into the unknown,with supplies sufficient for one hundred days, and the knowledge that,to survive, he and his companion would have to make their own way backto firm ground and the world of men. The Fram, meanwhile, wouldcontinue her drift. 

Nansen and Johansen set out in March 1895, the position of the Framat that time being 84º latitude. Thrown entirely on their own resources,their progress constantly impeded by hummocks of ice and the open leadswhich appeared without warning in their path, they struggled on acrossthe frozen seas towards an unknown fate alone and completely cut off fromthe civilized world. This was the testing time. 

After a journey of incredible danger and privation, across almost impassablemasses of ice - which to make matters worse, was drifting south - the explorersreached a latitude of 86º14'N, the closest to the Pole a human beinghad ever been, before they were forced to turn back, as their own provisionsand the food for the dogs were rapidly approaching a dangerously low level.They had been away from the ship for 132 days before their southward trekbrought them within sight of land. They made their way to one of the desolateislands of Franz Josef Land, and there were forced to spend the winter,existing in the most primitive conditions in a shelter built of rocks,ice, and hides; their stocks of fuel were almost exhausted, and for foodthey had to rely on the polar bears that fell to their guns. In the summerof 1896 they resumed their long journey to the south, travelling by kayakuntil finally they encountered the British explorer Frederick Jackson andthe members of his party at Cape Flora. 

Jackson took them back to Norway on his ship, the vessel disembarkingthem on their home soil in August; no word had been received from themsince the expedition set out in 1893. The Fram returned almost atthe same time, having emerged from the ice north of Spitsbergen. She haddrifted for three years, which was precisely what Nansen had counted onwhen he laid his plans. 

The exploits of the Fram and her crew attracted world-wide attentionand ensured for Nansen a reputation unequalled by any other polar explorerof the time. Great admiration was aroused equally by his epoch-making ideasand plans, the results of scientific investigations, his organizing abilitiesand qualities of leadership, and his courage, resolution, and physicalprowess in the face of the harshest natural conditions against which aman could conceivably pit himself. 

The scientific results achieved were of great importance and to someextent revolutionary. One important fact that emerged from the expedition'sobservations - which were collated and published in a six-volume scientifictreatise - was that the Polar Sea is several thousand fathoms deep andcompletely devoid of islands; formerly, many authorities had held the viewthat this sea was shallow and interspersed with relatively large tractsof land. The scientific data brought back by Nansen also proved of greatvalue in study of the earth's magnetism and the aurora borealis, and alsoin the fields of arctic meteorology, oceanography, and zoology. 

Nansen, who in 1897 was appointed professor of zoology at the Universityof Christiania, gradually acquired a keen personal interest in oceanography,and in 1908 took over a professorship in this subject, a branch of sciencein which he did invaluable pioneer work. 

The account of the Fram expedition which he wrote for the laypublic proved a best-seller all over the world, and he was invited to lecturebefore all the foremost geographical societies. The fame he had won andthe authority he had acquired as a result of his exploits were to proveof inestimable value when he came to tackle the almost superhuman problemsthat lay ahead - tasks far removed from those on which he was engaged atthe turn of the century. 

Politics and Diplomacy 

There was nothing Nansen wanted more than to be able to continue his explorations.He did succeed in taking part in a number of oceanographic expeditions,afterwards publishing some sensational accounts of his findings about heNorwegian Sea. He also embarked on the planning of new polar expeditions,including one which he hoped to lead to the South Pole. This project wasdestined never to be completed, however: Other more urgent tasks engagedall his attention, and as the years slipped away he was forced graduallyto lay aside virtually all work of a scientific character. This entaileda major personal sacrifice, as nature, exploration and research were thesubjects that lay closest to his heart. 

But the other demands made upon him, first by his own country, laterby millions of helpless people abroad, became increasingly pressing. Asense of obligation and compassion drove him to set aside his own desires,to sacrifice his own ambitions to help those less fortunate than himself,and to perform acts of mercy without regard to his own inclinations andconvenience. 

In 1905 Norway dissolved her uneasy union with Sweden, after close ona century of political controversy. This was a tricky operation, by nomeans without its dangers, and the shadow of armed conflict and internationalcomplications hung heavily over the two nations. In this fateful year forNorway Nansen played a very important role, both by virtue of his effortsto obtain the unified support of his people for the Norwegian Government'sresolute line of action and by explaining the Norwegian position and engenderinggoodwill for her cause among leading statesmen and the peoples of the world.In the chancelleries of Europe no door was closed to the famed explorer,and he rendered invaluable aid by publishing informatory articles in theworld's press. He also exercised a considerable influence on the NorwegianGovernment in its internal discussions regarding the settlement of thecrisis, and he was appointed by the newly independent Norwegian state tobe its first minister in London (1906-1908), where his personal standingwas high. 

During the First World War, Nansen, acting on behalf of the NorwegianGovernment, brought a difficult and important assignment to a successfulconclusion. Owing to the intensified blockade that resulted from the entryof the United States into the war in 1917, the supply position of neutralNorway threatened to become acute. Nansen was despatched to Washingtonas the head of a delegation charged with the task of negotiating with theAmerican authorities for a relaxation of the embargoes on certain goods.In this he was successful, a favourable agreement being concluded in thespring of 1918 after a great many difficulties had been overcome. 

Repatriation of Prisoners of War 

The war made an indelible impression of Fridtjof Nansen. The mass slaughterof men in the flower of their youth, the ravages wrought among women andchildren and the aged by starvation and disease, the unbelievable materialdestruction, the deterioration of moral values, with its resultant brutalization,glorification of violence, and the blunting of the finest instincts - thesethings grieved and appalled him. Thus he looked upon the prevention ofthe recurrence of such destruction as a task that overshadowed all else;and, as did so many others, he pinned his hopes on the League of Nations,on the efforts of the new world organization to preserve peace, to laythe foundations of an international judicial system to promote disarmament,and to help alleviate the indiscribable need and sufffering left in thewake of the war. 

From the outset Nansen was actively dedicated to the concept of theLeague of Nations and to its policy, and from the inaugural meeting tohis death he headed the Norwegian delegation in Geneva. In this capacityhe devoted himself untiringly, despite many setbacks and disappointments,to the work of establishing a system of collective security and to bringingthe nations of the world to a point where international disputes wouldbe settled in the courtroom and at the conference table instead of on thebattlefield. But as matters turned out, first and foremost he was destinedto play the leading role in international humanitarianism both inside andoutside the framework of the League. 

The first major task to which he successfully applied himself was therepatriation of prisoners of war, a problem which the League of Nationsfirst took up in the spring of 1920. Even at this late juncture, one yearand a half after the armistice, hundreds of thousands of prisoners stillremained in Siberia and other parts of Asiatic Russia, while considerablenumbers were dispersed about the countries of south-east Europe. Theseunfortunates were legally free, and the countries in which they were locatedwere more than willing to part with them; their dilemma was that owingto the chaos and impoverishment caused by the recent conflict and its immediateaftermath, the countries concerned lacked the means to repatriate the menleft in their charge. Not only were they hampered by lack of funds andtransport, but in many placed the whole machinery of government had brokendown under the stress of circumstances, and the administration had disintegrated.

The plight of the prisoners in Siberia was the most desperate: theywere starving, their clothing was in rags, medical aid and supplies werecompletely lacking, and they were without proper shelter; if they werenot brought out before the winter of 1920-1921 set in, it was feared thatthe majority would die of starvation, exposure or disease. 

The League of Nations Council came to the conclusion that if there wereto be any possibility of saving the prisoners - in some cased even theirwhereabouts and numbers were unknown - relief measures would have to beplaced in the hands of a man of international reputation for probity andability. The Council's choice fell upon Nansen. At first he refused becauseof scientific work, but finally allowed himself to be persuaded into takingon the assignment as the League of Nations High Commissioner for Prisonersof War. This decision was prompted both by compassion for the unfortunatesstill languishing in prison camps and by the fact that it was vital, ifthe League were to enjoy complete confidence, that its first major incursioninto the field of practical organization should be carried out as quicklyand as efficiently as possible - and he wished to do all he could to enhancethe reputation of the League.

Nansen soon proved himself to be the right man for the job. In the firstplace he was an outstanding organizer on the purely practical plane, and,in the second place, he possessed such personal authority and enjoyed -a tribute to his firm character - such a trust that he could establishcontact, mediate, and promote co-operation between governments and factionsthat were at loggerheads with one another. Not the least of his worrieswas the important task of building up a certain measure of mutual trustbetween the isolated Government of the newly emerged Soviet Union and thecountries of the west. 

Nansen negotiated with governments and made arrangements to build upefficient administrative machinery, raised money and obtained credit, securedsupplies of food and clothing and medicaments, borrowed ships, and coordinatedthe efforts of the principal humanitarian organizations. It was a stupendousundertaking, but in the course of eighteen months it was successfully completed.Some 450,000 ex-prisoners of war from twenty-six different countries werereturned to their homes - which for many of them was tantamount to beingsaved from certain death. 

The Refugees

While he still had his hands more than full with the repatriations of prisonersof war a new burden was laid upon Nansen's broad shoulders. This was reliefwork among the millions of political refugees whom the first world warand ensuing revolutions and civil disturbances had driven from their homes.These unfortunate people, uprooted and hunted, were dispersed throughoutEurope and Asia and would not, or could not, return to their own countries.Many of them were completely without the necessities of life end did notknow where they might settle; without work, poverty-stricken, lonely andunwanted, they were shunted back and forth from country to country. Numbersof them were in such dire need and extremes of wretchedness that theirmaintenance required substantial sums of money. This was another reasonfor wishing to find them a place where they might once again settle down,to provide them with employment, and to help them to lead worthy humanlives once more. 

In february 1921 the International Red Cross urged the League of NationsCouncil to do something about the refugees, and in August of the same yearthe Council asked Nansen to take on this added burden. Again he declaredhis willingness, although the task was of far greater magnitude and presentedmore difficulties than repatriating prisoners of war. In the first placeit involved many more human beings and in the second place, generally speakingit was not simply a matter of returning the victims to their own countries,but finding them new homes; thirdly, it was very hard indeed to obtainresidence and work permits for them in countries where economic crisesand unemployment were the order of the day. 

A special problem was presented by the fact that many of the refugeeswere without passports or identification papers, a circumstance which complicatedtheir relations with the authorities. Nansen solved this difficulty simplyand radically by introducing a new form of passport, a kind of internationalproof of identity, which he induced more than fifty governments to recognize.

Insuperable as this obstacle had appeared, it nevertheless proved tobe the simplest part of the whole business. Far more difficult were theproblems of finding permanent homes for the refugees, providing them withwork, and starting them off to a new life. Here Nansen encountered bothapathy and active opposition; but, as was his custom, re refused to admitdefeat. He negotiated with the authorities in country after country, hagglingand persuading, and succeeded in getting things done while yet engagedin an unceasing and enervating struggle to arouse the conscience of theworld. All the time his efforts were hampered by lack of funds, so muchso that some sections of the refugee population were threatened with massstarvation; often the only way he could save them was to draw upon hisown private resources. 

Unlike the repatriation of prisoners of war, relief work on behalf ofthe refugees could not be brought to a proper conclusion. It had to becontinued, year in, year out, for the rest of Nansen's life and beyond.It had not been completed when the Second World War broke out, causingtremendous new problems with which the United Nations and humanitarianbodies are still having to contend. To the end of his days Nansen himselfworked unsparingly for the refugee cause, and was instrumental in settingup a number of international organizations devoted to their interests.After his death the work was carried on under the aegis of the League ofNations, inter alia through what became known as the Nansen Office; andafter the second world war the United Nations assumed the burden. 

Famine in Russia

Having charge of refugee relief work was a task which should have beenmore than sufficient for one man. But barely had Nansen taken up his dutiesin 1921 than yet another overwhelming task was pressed upon him. The RedCross asked him to direct the work of saving millions of Russians fromdying of starvation during the famine that followed in the wake of thefirst world war, the revolution, the civil war, and a wholesale failureof crops, an the same time as widespread and virulent epidemics took theirtoll of the exhausted populace. 

In many respects this was the greatest and most difficult of all thehumanitarian work Nansen tackled; in no other instance was the need soacute, the numbers threatened so vast, and the numbered saved so large.In the Ukraine and along the Volga, millions of emaciated, exhausted peoplewere completely devoid of the means of subsistence - and the dread Russianwinter was fast approaching. Many, beyond caring, surrendered quietly todeath; others left all they held dear and in desperation set out to wanderaimlessly about the parched steppe, in the vain hope of finding somethingwith which to appease the gnawing pangs of hunger, but as a rule findingnothing more substantial that grass, bark and earth to eat. Hundreds ofthousands of children were left by the wayside. Men and beasts alike werestarving; in some places the peasants fought with the birds for the lastfew grains among the stubble, while reports from elsewhere hinted at cannibalism.

This time the relief work met with even greater political difficultiesthan before. The Russian civil war was only just over, and in many partsof the world the Soviet regime was feared and hated. The Communist Governmentwas regarded with profound distrust, and many politicians looked upon aidto the starving Russian peasants as camouflaged support of bolshevism.Once again Nansen could make no progress with the League of Nations orwith most of the governments he approached; at every turn, he found himselfup against a blank wall. 

The consequence was that, in addition to directing the tremendous organizationalmachinery which was an integral part of the relief work, both inside andoutside Russia, he had personally to take charge of the task of raisingfunds by appealing to the general public directly, over he heads of itspolitical leaders. He wrote reams; made fervent speeches; travelled ceaselessly,lecturing and appealing; organized collections; begged and entreated -and dipped deep into his own pocket to aid relief work. In 1922 he wasawarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of the refugees,and a Danish publisher, Christian Erichsen, presented him with a sum equalto the prize money. All this Nansen devoted to relief. 

Provision of aid to starving Russia extended over a period of two years,to the autumn of 1923, by which time the worst of the famine was over.Other organizations, notably the American Red Cross, assisted in this greatwork. It is of course impossible to measure with any accuracy just whatNansen and his associates accomplished; but it is estimated that they savedthe lives of more than seven million persons, of whom six million werechildren. But Nansen was never the same after these terrible years. Thehorrors he had witnessed in Russia, and the tremendously exhausting workhe had so unstintingly performed left their marks. He realized - and apainful realization it was - that he had now relinquished his scientificactivities for good, and that in future only for brief periods would beable to make his escape into the great outdoors and the solitude he lovedso well. 

Mass Evacuation

Nevertheless, while still engaged in helping, the famine victims and refugees,he shouldered yet another tremendous burden. During the Greco-Turkish war,in the autumn of 1922, the Greeks suffered a decisive defeat in Asia Minor,and as a result were compelled to withdraw from Turkish territory. Theretreating army was accompanied on its flight back to Greece by streamsof Greek refugees, families which had lived in Asia Minor and Turkish Thracefor generations, but which had been ejected or had fled in panic, leavingbehind all they could not carry on their backs or drag after them in carts.Some million people were involved, and all of them, completely lackingthe necessities of life, poured into tiny unprepared Greece. This mighteasily have led to catastrophe, as Greece did not possess anything approachingthe means to support this sudden influx of impoverished refugees. 

The Greek Government turned in its hour of need to Nansen and urgedhim to organize international relief work. This he did, this time withthe backing of the League of Nations and various European governments,with regard both to funds and to supplies of food, clothing, medicine,etc. The measures taken served to stave off the immediate disaster, butdid not constitute a permanent solution to the problem. The question stillremained of what was to be done with a million people, uprooted lock, stockand barrel from their homes. With relations between the two countries asstrained as they were, they could not hope to return to their former homesin Turkey. 

But there was a large Turkish minority living in Greece and many ofthem, feeling their existence threatened, were desirous of returning totheir native land. Nansen therefore evolved a bold and highly unconventionalplan for an interchange of these two groups. When first mooted, this ideamet with bitter opposition in many quarters in both countries, and theplan was loudly condemned elsewhere as irresponsible and impracticable,criticisms by no means new to Nansen. But this time too, as in his youngerdays, he would not allow himself to be stopped by doubts and hesitationsand objections when he himself was convinced that he had found the solution.The exchange plan was marked by the simplicity and breadth of vision thatwere typical of all Nansen's enterprises, and his efforts to persuade boththe Greek and the Turkish Government to adopt it were finally crowned withsuccess. 

This, however, was not the end of the matter by a long chalk. The workhad to be organized and, not least, financed. Both tasks fell to Nansen.He managed to raise an international loan of no less the £12 millionsterling, and with this at his disposal was able to effect the exchange.It proved to be the greatest mass exchange of peoples in history: one millionand a quarter Greeks were transported from Turkish to Greek territory,while half a million Turks were sent the other way, thus enabling sometwo million distresses people to start new lives together with their fellowcountrymen. 

What this meant to these unfortunates may readily be imagined. Thereis considerable evidence to indicate that this mass evacuation has beena factor of great political importance in the relationship between thetwo countries concerned, as they have been spared the grave problems andantagonisms attaching to minorities which have so poisoned the atmospherebetween many other nations. 

In the course of his work in Greece and Turkey Nansen encountered numbersof Armenian refugees, and this led to his subsequent concern with the Armenianproblem as a whole. The tragic history of the Armenians made a profoundimpression on him, and he devoted many years of hard work to the realizationof President Wilson's concept of providing the Armenians with a nationalhome and the setting up of an independent Armenian state. One of the bitterestdisappointments of his life resulted from the fact that this problem defiedall attempts at finding a solution, the political obstacles proving insurmountable.

Although Nansen was a strongly built, robust man with nerves capableof standing up to any emergency, the almost inhuman burden of work he boreduring the 1920s gradually took its toll. His powers were sapped not leastby the many disappointments that came his way, by the dashed hopes, theexpectations that came to naught when his appeals to the magnanimity andcharity of politicians were met with pettiness and intrigue, callousnessand apathy, narrow-minded national egotism and sheer human inertia. Herealized that he could have done so much more for the unfortunate peoplehe tried to aid, had he but received greater help and support from thosewith influence and power; but all too often he was compelled to bear theburden alone. 

Those who were close to him have related how, during these exhaustingyears, he was often grey and haggard from fatigue; but he carried on tillhe dropped. He dies on 13 May 1930, not quite sixty-nine years of age,his great heart worn out by all that had been asked of it. In token ofits esteem his country buried him on 17 May, its national day - an unprecedentedhonour. 

The Man and his Work

In any attempt to portray Fridtjof Nansen and his magnificent and diverseachievements it soon becomes apparent that it was not his intellectualand artistic gifts that constituted the main feature of his character,though these talents were of a truly imposing, not to say universal, nature.His greatness sprang first and foremost from his moral qualities.He was what might be termed a moral genius, an upright and noble personality,a practical idealist, independent, incorruptible, and indomitable, uncompromisinglyself-sacrificing, a man devoid of guile and to whom the concept of self-indulgencewas entirely foreign. Despite his talents he achieved nothing without effort;things did not simply fall into his lap. "By nature I am weak,"he once remarked. "What character I have stems from my strict upbringing."What he omitted to say, but might well have added, was that this upbringingwas in large measure, something for which he himself was responsible; itwas self-discipline. He was a man of strong will, and one who invariablyset himself the highest standards. 

A man may, of course, be both talented and of noble character withoutnecessarily achieving very much. That Nansen accomplished such great thingsas an explorer and scientist, as a diplomat, politician, and humanitarian,is attributable to the fact that he was both a thinker and a man of action,that his mind could visualize the whole, the broad outline, and also copewith the many practical details. He may appear as a rule to have been lucky,but generally such luck as he had was of a "calculated" variety, basedon systematic groundwork which left as little as possible to chance. Thisapplies both to the thorough analyses he always made of a plan, or problem,in broad outline and to the thousand-and-one tiny, but essential detailsof that plan, details which might have caused the best of schemes to founder. 

It has often been said that much in Nansen's character bore the stampof simplicity. This is quite true, but it was the large-scale simplicitythat marks men of genius and of outstanding accomplishments, a simplicityfar removed from the primitive and uncomplicated, one which is bound upwith the ability to take an over-all view, the vital thread in a mass ofdetails, pare away the incidental and nonessential, discover the main principles,and make a synthesis. 

Some people may see something naive in Nansen's faith and will and powerof action, and it must be admitted that he was in no way one of those sophisticatedpersons who are filled with doubts and anxieties. What constituted so muchof his greatness and so often brought him success was his capacity at thecrucial moment, after painstaking analysis and consideration, to cast asideall doubts and to back his decision with his life if need be. 

He assumed the mantle of a moral leader of rare stature in the presentcentury precisely because of his "naive" faith in such simple, fundamentalvalues as the dignity of man, humanity, and compassion. Never did he ceaseto proclaim these values - not in words alone, but also in deeds. Neverdid he tire in his endeavours to put them into effect in his own works;or to be more accurate, though frequently tired, never did he give wayto fatigue or despondency. By his own example he showed the world whatunselfish actions and self-sacrifice really are, not only by devoting adoubled Nobel Prize to relief work, but also by giving up his scientificinterests and dedicating ten years of his life to the service of his fellows.This latter was a sacrifice that cost him dear, far more so that the giftof money. 

And he sacrificed still more - his health. In the international fieldhe literally worked himself to death. Thus it is not strictly correct tosay that he died of a heart failure; he died because his heart never failed.

When in 1926 the students of St. Andrews University did him the greathonour of electing him rector, he made a speech in which he praised - inaddition to such qualities as courage and self-reliance - first and foremostthe spirit of adventure, the urge to accomplish things. This was at alltimes one of his principal qualities. In his younger days he staked hisvery life on his polar expeditions, leaving himself no line of retreat.In his later years he just as uncompromisingly staked his fortune and scientificinterests, his life and health, to aid suffering humanity. For his deedsin both fields his name will ever be remembered and honoured throughoutthe world. 

Quotations from Nansen

"The first great thing is to find yourself, and for that you needsolitude and contemplation: at least sometimes. I tell you, deliverancewill not come from the rushing, noisy centres of civilization. It willcome from the lonely places." 

"I have always thought that the much-praised "line of retreat" isa snare for people who wish to reach their goal .... Always looking back,they end by getting nowhere. The traveller of the right mettle may considerwell, but then he takes one road and sticks to that."

"Beware of obstinacy and foolhardiness. For a strong man there isa great danger in resistance and contradiction. It takes a superior manto allow himself to be convinced in the heat of argument by the logic ofanother." 

"We are just as little desirous of inflicting humiliation as we areof suffering it. Such desires, aside from being bad politics, are the markof inferior breeding. It is, therefore, reasonable and politic for us ---to try to help Sweden by concessions and liberality, so that the dissolutionof the Union may be carried through without the Swedish people's feelinghumiliated."