Peter Freuchen: From Poo Daggers to Killing Nazis
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we cover the life of one of the world’s greatest explorers, survivalists, Nazi Hunters, movie producers, and authors of the past hundred years: Peter Freuchen. Never heard of him? Well, get ready for a story full of jail breaks, fecal daggers, and peg legs!
Peter Freuchen was born in 1886 to a businessman who drove him hard to excel at school. Young Peter, however, had different plans. He dropped out of a prestigious medical school and took all the money he had to go on a truly epic adventure. He met up with his friend Knud Rasmussen and took a ship that sailed as far north from Denmark as any ship would travel. Then, they took sled teams and pushed 600 miles deeper north. There, they discovered the Inuit people, and their lives changed forever.
They were the first white men to learn their language and embrace their culture. They learned how to fish, hunt, and track in the extreme North. While there, Freuchen found an Inuit bride and killed polar bear. They established a base camp called Thule Trading Station, and from there launched several death defying expeditions.
On the third such expedition, Freuchen was buried in an ice cave and had to dig out with a dagger made of his own poo and cut all of his toes off with a pair of clamps and a hammer. After crawling back to base camp, he had to have his frost bitten foot replaced with a peg. And he kept right on adventuring.
After he lost his wife to the Spanish flu, he traveled and lectured and even made Oscar winning film adaptions of some of his memoirs. He got all political and ran a magazine in Denmark and ultimately found himself there when the Nazis invaded. He became a key figure in the resistance and talked smack any time a Nazi said anything bad about Jews, and Hitler himself ordered his capture.
He was captured and sent to a camp in France to be executed, but he escaped. Did I mention the peg leg? Oh, and while he was escaping he met a fashionista from New York who worked for Vogue magazine and helped her escape as well, marrying her and moving to New York. Like you do. So, if you want to hear about the baddest of the bad, a bulletproof adventurer the likes of which even Steve Irwin would have marveled at, this is the episode for you.
Visit our Sources:
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/peter-freuchen-13661.php
https://culturacolectiva.com/history/peter-freuchen-biography-badass-explorer-wife
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Freuchen
https://allthatsinteresting.com/peter-freuchen
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/peter-freuchen-13661.php
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/an-irving-penn-portrait-for-the-coldest-days-of-winter
https://avauntmagazine.com/peter-freuchen/
https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/3425/the-remarkable-life-of-peter-freuchen
Visit our online store to find Sofa King Podcast shirts, stickers and other merchandise.
Join our email list to get the latest Sofa King Podcast news.
