Gertrud Rask

Gertrud Rask (* around 1673 in the yard Vebostad, Island Kveøy, community Kvæfjord, in northern Norway, † December 21, 1735 in Godthåb / Greenland) was the first wife of the Danish-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede Greenland and mother of the missionary and translator Paul Egede.

Life

Gertrud Rask ( the church records listed as name Gjertrud Nilsdatter Rasch ) was the third of six children of Niels Nielsen Rasch ( around 1641-1704 ) and Nille Nilsdatter († 1716 ). She grew up influenced on by the rough nature of northern Norway. 1707 she married the 13 years younger in Kvæfjord pastor of the Lofoten Island Vaagen, Hans Egede, they four children Paul ( 1709-1789 ), Niels ( 1710-1782 ), Kirstine Matthea ( 1715-1786 ) and Petronelle ( 1716 - 1805) gave birth.

Her husband's plans for Greenland Mission, who assumed concrete form in 1710 at the latest, she sat initially against strong resistance, but eventually bent to his will. 1718 the couple moved with the children to Bergen and sailed from there, after the end of the Northern War, on May 12, 1721 in Greenland, on the west coast they arrived on July 3, 1721. The remains of the house where the couple lived with about 25 people from 1721 to 1728, are still preserved.

Gertrud Rask, even pietistic disposition, supported her husband in missionary work among the native Inuit and worked as a nurse. A 1733 is trailed by a Danish ship smallpox epidemic eventually captured and Gertrude, because the 1735 died. Afflicted her husband traveled in 1736 with their mortal remains back to Denmark. Gertrud Rask was, as well as Hans Egede in 1758, buried in the cemetery of St. Nicholas in Copenhagen.

After Gertrud Rask roads in Greenland and Denmark, a 1923 -built eisgängiges ship, the Church of Qaqortoq, a children's home, a gourmet restaurant in Nuuk, as well as a region in the far north of Greenland are named ( Gertrud Rask country in northwestern Pearyland ).