Tommy White

April 29, 2010

Global Studies
Mr. Elsen

Roald Amundsen

Before I started this paper, I had no idea on who to write about. I tried looking

everywhere online for an idea of a famous Norwegian that was interesting enough to write

about. Finally, I found a website (www.infonorway.com) with a list of about 40 different

historical figures from Norway. I clicked on a couple of the people and read the summaries

about them. The only ones that really seemed interesting to me were Leif Erikson (who lived

so long ago that little information is known about him) and Roald Amundsen, a polar

explorer. He seemed like an interesting enough pick. My only question was pretty much:

“What did this guy do to be remembered?” I had never heard of Amundsen before this, so I

really had no idea.

From www.infonorway.com were a few links to informational websites about Roald

Amundsen. The first one I decided to visit was www.south-pole.com. Here I found a brief

description of Roald’s life. He was born in 1872 near Oslo, Norway’s capital city. He began his

career of adventure at age 15 after quitting his studies of medicine. He became most famous

for his exploration of the Antarctic, beginning in 1899 with fellow explorer Adrien de

Gerlache on what was known as the Belgica Expedition. The author of the webpage also

says that Amundsen was the first to travel the Northwest Passage, which goes through the

Arctic Circle above Canada, in 1903. He also had plans to become the first explorer to sail to

the North Pole and back, but he was beat to it by Robert Peary. Peary’s discovery influenced
Amundsen, who decided to do the opposite of Peary. After years of exploring the Arctic

circle, Amundsen would be the first to travel to the Antarctic Circle and reach the South

Pole.

There was a lot more information at www.south-pole.com, but I wanted to have a

few sources. So I headed back to the links at www.infonorway.com, and clicked on the

www.pbs.org page. Here I found even more information about the man. He was born into a

family of merchant sea captains and ship owners. He spent his childhood dreaming of being

the most successful polar explorer to live. He was so determined, that he would sleep with

his windows open in the frigid arctic nights to condition himself for his travels.