Paperback
978-1-77212-598-6Size: 6" x 9"
Pages: 224
epub
978-1-77212-614-3Pages: 224
Pages: 224
The Fur Trader
From Oslo to Oxford House
By Einar Odd Mortensen Sr.
With Gerd Kjustad Mortensen
Edited by Ingrid Urberg and Daniel Sims
The Fur Trader is a critical edition of Einar Odd Mortensen Sr.’s personal narrative detailing the years (1925–1928) he spent as a free trader at posts in Pine Bluff and Oxford Lake in Manitoba during the waning days of the fur trade. Mortensen’s original narrative has been translated from Norwegian to English, and supplemented with a scholarly introduction, thorough annotations, a bibliography, and a reading guide. This additional material presents the author as a product of Norwegian culture at the time, and guides the reader through a close reading of Mortensen’s interpretations of his work and travels, the people he encountered, the Indian Residential School system, and Indigenous participation in the First World War. Mortensen’s insights and experiences will be of interest to scholars, students, and enthusiasts of the fur trade and contribute to literary, Indigenous, and Scandinavian studies.
Book details
Publication date: August 2022Features: 1 map, 28 photographs, 2 illustrations, reading guide for students and book clubs
Keywords: fur trade free trader Indigenous Oxford Lake Pine Bluff Scandinavian Norway Oslo narrative oral history primary document Pelshandleren Hudson’s Bay Company travel journey voyageur trapper beaver
Subject(s): SOCIAL SCIENCE / Indigenous Studies, History, History / Canadian History, Creative Writing, Creative Writing / Auto/biography & Memoir, HISTORY / Canada / Post-Confederation (1867-), LITERARY CRITICISM / General, fur trade free trader Indigenous Oxford Lake Pine Bluff Scandinavian Norway Oslo narrative oral history primary document Pelshandleren Hudson’s Bay Company travel journey voyageur trapper beaver, Canadian History, Biography, Canadian History / Indigenous Studies / Fur Trade, Northern Manitoba
Publisher(s): The University of Alberta Press
Book details
Publication date: August 2022Features: 1 map, 28 photographs, 2 illustrations, reading guide for students and book clubs
Keywords: fur trade free trader Indigenous Oxford Lake Pine Bluff Scandinavian Norway Oslo narrative oral history primary document Pelshandleren Hudson’s Bay Company travel journey voyageur trapper beaver
Subject(s): SOCIAL SCIENCE / Indigenous Studies, History, History / Canadian History, Creative Writing, Creative Writing / Auto/biography & Memoir, HISTORY / Canada / Post-Confederation (1867-), LITERARY CRITICISM / General, fur trade free trader Indigenous Oxford Lake Pine Bluff Scandinavian Norway Oslo narrative oral history primary document Pelshandleren Hudson’s Bay Company travel journey voyageur trapper beaver, Canadian History, Biography, Canadian History / Indigenous Studies / Fur Trade, Northern Manitoba
Publisher(s): The University of Alberta Press
Einar Odd Mortensen Sr..
Gerd Kjustad Mortensen. Gerd Kjustad Mortensen is the daughter-in-law of Einar Odd Mortensen Sr. She holds a M.Ed. and has taught at Oslo College, Hamar College, and at the University of Stavanger.
Ingrid Urberg. Ingrid Urberg is Associate Professor of Scandinavian Studies at Augustana Campus, University of Alberta.
Daniel Sims. Daniel Sims is a member of the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation. He is Associate Professor of First Nations Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia.
"[In The Fur Trader,] Mortensen’s narrative complements the many factual and fictional stories of Norwegians’ settlement successes and failures in North America during the mass migration of Scandinavians to the United States and Canada in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nearly one hundred years later, Dr. Ingrid Urberg and Dr. Daniel Sims have contextualized within the contemporary scholarly landscape the narrative of this European migrant’s encounter with Indigenous and non-Indigenous people during his stay in Manitoba... The disciplinary pairing and collaboration of these two scholars of Scandinavian studies and First Nations studies increases the accessibility of the original text for all lifelong learners... [They provide the] necessary tools to unpack and situate Mortensen’s narrative in broader discourses of history, literature, environmental studies, Indigenous studies, and Scandinavian studies." Melissa Gjellstad, Prairie History, Spring 2023
“The Fur Trader provides an outsider view of life in the fur trade in the 1920s and is a text to be studied for its perspective and tone as much as for its content. Readers who enjoy travel, exploration, and fur trade history will find this book interesting and useful.” Winona Wheeler, University of Saskatchewan
“The Fur Trader recovers and contextualizes a young Norwegian‘s engaging account of his encounters with the Canadian north during his three years as a fur trader in northern Manitoba in the 1920s.” Guðrún Björk Guðsteinsdóttir, University of Iceland
Introduction xi
Ingrid Urberg & Daniel Sims
Map xli
1 | North of the 53rd Parallel 1
2 | Alone at the Trading Post 17
3 | From Camp to Church 27
4 | From Greenhorn to Old-Timer 47
5 | Sons of the Wilderness 57
6 | Hudson’s Bay versus Free Trader 89
7 | Towards New Hunting Grounds 97
8 | Days at Oxford Lake 113
Epilogue 127
A Personal Perspective on the Author and the Book
Gerd Kjustad Mortensen
Reading Guide and Discussion Questions 137
Notes 141
Bibliography 167
Einar Odd Mortensen Sr..
Gerd Kjustad Mortensen. Gerd Kjustad Mortensen is the daughter-in-law of Einar Odd Mortensen Sr. She holds a M.Ed. and has taught at Oslo College, Hamar College, and at the University of Stavanger.
Ingrid Urberg. Ingrid Urberg is Associate Professor of Scandinavian Studies at Augustana Campus, University of Alberta.
Daniel Sims. Daniel Sims is a member of the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation. He is Associate Professor of First Nations Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia.
"[In The Fur Trader,] Mortensen’s narrative complements the many factual and fictional stories of Norwegians’ settlement successes and failures in North America during the mass migration of Scandinavians to the United States and Canada in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nearly one hundred years later, Dr. Ingrid Urberg and Dr. Daniel Sims have contextualized within the contemporary scholarly landscape the narrative of this European migrant’s encounter with Indigenous and non-Indigenous people during his stay in Manitoba... The disciplinary pairing and collaboration of these two scholars of Scandinavian studies and First Nations studies increases the accessibility of the original text for all lifelong learners... [They provide the] necessary tools to unpack and situate Mortensen’s narrative in broader discourses of history, literature, environmental studies, Indigenous studies, and Scandinavian studies." Melissa Gjellstad, Prairie History, Spring 2023
“The Fur Trader provides an outsider view of life in the fur trade in the 1920s and is a text to be studied for its perspective and tone as much as for its content. Readers who enjoy travel, exploration, and fur trade history will find this book interesting and useful.” Winona Wheeler, University of Saskatchewan
“The Fur Trader recovers and contextualizes a young Norwegian‘s engaging account of his encounters with the Canadian north during his three years as a fur trader in northern Manitoba in the 1920s.” Guðrún Björk Guðsteinsdóttir, University of Iceland
Introduction xi
Ingrid Urberg & Daniel Sims
Map xli
1 | North of the 53rd Parallel 1
2 | Alone at the Trading Post 17
3 | From Camp to Church 27
4 | From Greenhorn to Old-Timer 47
5 | Sons of the Wilderness 57
6 | Hudson’s Bay versus Free Trader 89
7 | Towards New Hunting Grounds 97
8 | Days at Oxford Lake 113
Epilogue 127
A Personal Perspective on the Author and the Book
Gerd Kjustad Mortensen
Reading Guide and Discussion Questions 137
Notes 141
Bibliography 167
