This “work-in-progress” presentation presents some early work on the alleged famines that were reported in Denmark’s North Atlantic territories of Greenland and Iceland in the mid-nineteenth century. It will reflect in particular on the following questions:
· To what extent were these reports of famine based on first-hand testimony, and in particular how differ-ently were the Danish perceptions of the situations compared with those of the local / indigenous inhabitants.
· As opposed to the Danish “hungersnød”, what terms were used especially by the indigenous population of Greenland for was being experienced? In the Icelandic case, were these periods of shortage perceived a national or regional crises?
· Could these famine reports be a means of promoting intervention / closer integration (e.g. via transport / infrastructure, “education”) into the Danish realm. Did the growth of nationalist sentiment in Iceland prompt a desire in Copenhagen (among the ruling / administrative elites, but also the merchant classes) to demon-strate that imperial rule was benevolent / paternalistic?
As an example, rumours of famine in Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) in June 1857, including appalling stories from “Holsteinsborg (Sisimut) and Sukkertoppen (Maniitsoq) caused the Copenhagen newspaper Dagbladet to comment that: “even if Greenland did not bring in a single shilling to the Treasury, it would be Denmark’s duty to protect its inhabitants against famine or give up any sovereignty over the country.” What followed on from this episode, and how can indigenous voices be amplified to give an alternative to the “top-down” perspective provided by the Copenhagen press / government sources? This leads to a final, key research question:
· Is this theme something that an outside researcher should be engaging with, even if they bring perspectives from other imperial contexts (British, French) by way of comparison? Is collaboration viable or possible? Are the research problems reasonable?
The paper hopes to raise these questions without an expectation of finding immediate answers.

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