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Greenland place names.
By Tony Higgins, Denmark
It is sometimes difficult to work out the correct spellings of place names in Greenland, unless you know the reasons behind them.
Names after people and ships are written as two words, e.g Rigny Bjerg, Milne Land, Scoresby Land, Jameson Land, Paul Stern Land. Names after objects and animals are one word, e.g Renland, Klitdal, Føhnfjord, Daneborg. The genitive “s” has sometimes been in favour and sometimes not: one of the last decisions made by the Place Name Committee, shortly before responsibility was handed over to the Greenlanders (see below), was to remove them all. But the Committee made a mess of this, briefly having Watkin Bjerg, Hink Land, and Hasting Gletscher. Fortunately, they they were persuaded to change them back to Watkins Bjerg, Hinks Land and Hastings Gletscher (two after people, the last after the Hastings aircraft used by the British North Greenland expedition). Places named after living persons are not permitted, unless you happened to be a member of the Danish Royal family.
However, there are many oddities and exceptions. Scoresbysund is one word because it was named after the fjord Scoresby Sund (not the person Scoresby); Mestersvig is one word because it was named after the bay Mesters Vig (the bay itself was named after the chief engineer or “Maskinmester” of the ship Antarctic).
The Place Name Committee stopped considering names proposed by climbing expeditions in the 1960s, because they were “foreign-sounding” The Committee in Copenhagen was disbanded in 1983, and from January 1984 Greenland has been responsible for its own place names. This was a natural move after Greenland was granted home rule in 1979, and one of the first changes made was to abandon the Danish names for Greenland towns. These days, expeditions do not have to follow any “rules”, and can name peaks as they wish, but Danish and Greenland authorities are under no obligation to recognize them, or place them on their official maps. Tsavagattaq, seems a wonderfully appropriate climbers’ name for the “official” Grundtvigskirken.
