spitzbergen-3
fb  Spitsbergen Panoramas - 360-degree panoramas  de  en  nb  Spitsbergen Shop  
pfeil Calendar 2025: Spitsbergen & Greenland pfeil
HomeSpits­ber­gen infor­ma­ti­onHisto­ry → Nor­we­gi­an trap­pers

Wintering trappers

History of Spitsbergen

Wan­ny Wold­stad (midd­le) and sons in the 1930s in Horn­sund

Wanny Woldstad (middle) and sons in the 1930s in Hornsund

The Pomors stay­ed for seve­ral cen­tu­ries, until they did not return to Sval­bard any­mo­re in the midd­le of the 19th cen­tu­ry for reasons not enti­re­ly known; the eco­no­mic­al situa­ti­on at home will have play­ed a role, as the hun­ting grounds in the north remain­ed good and soon attrac­ted Nor­we­gi­ans. Their pri­ma­ry tar­get was to catch as many polar foxes and bears as pos­si­ble and to sell the fur in Nor­way. Addi­tio­nal­ly, down of Eider ducks were coll­ec­ted and some­ti­mes they also hun­ted Belugas. Other spe­ci­es such as reinde­er, seals and ptar­mi­gans were most­ly taken for local use. The reason to win­ter was the fact that only the win­ter fur brought good pro­fit, whe­re­as the sum­mer fur was com­pa­ra­tively wort­hl­ess.

Modern trapper’s hut in Bell­sund

Modern trapper's hut in Bellsund

The Nor­we­gi­an trap­per cul­tu­re (if you want to call it that) on Spits­ber­gen goes back to seal­ing from small ships during the sum­mer. This had alre­a­dy been done for quite a while and remain­ed always eco­no­mic­al­ly more important than hun­ting on shore. The first Nor­we­gi­an win­tering in Sval­bard was 1795-96, pro­ba­b­ly in the Isfjord. 1822-23, 16 win­te­rers fol­lo­wed in the Kross­fjord, thus estab­li­shing the tra­di­tio­on of win­ter hun­ting. After seve­ral tra­ge­dies, fur­ther acti­vi­ties remain­ed occa­sio­nal for quite ano­ther while, until 1892 a boom of win­tering expe­di­ti­ons star­ted. Lar­ge­ly inter­rupt­ed only by the second world war, pro­fes­sio­nal hun­ters remain­ed in Sval­bard until 1973, when polar bears beca­me total­ly pro­tec­ted inter­na­tio­nal­ly. Today, only a few adven­tur­ous indi­vi­du­als prac­ti­ce this old-fashio­ned pro­fes­si­on.

Trap­per hut Bjør­ne­borg on Halv­må­neøya, sou­the­as­tern Sval­bard

Trapper hut Bjørneborg on Halvmåneøya

Accor­ding to the regi­on, eit­her polar fox or polar bear could be more important. The fox was trap­ped with woo­den traps which kil­led the fox with a hea­vy weight of stones in order not to dama­ge the fur. Polar bears were hun­ted most­ly in eas­tern parts of Sval­bard, whe­re sea ice is abun­dan­dt. They were hun­ted with self-shots, with poi­so­ned bait (alt­hough this was soon dis­ap­pro­ved) and, when­ever the occa­si­on aro­se, with the rif­le. When­ever pos­si­ble, young bears whe­re cap­tu­red ali­ve to be sold to zoos for good money. The Nor­we­gi­an sys­tem of trap­ping was to live in a rela­tively lar­ge main sta­ti­on and to use a num­ber of smal­ler huts during the regu­lar hun­ting trips in the polar win­ter to enlar­ge their ter­ri­to­ry.

Polar bear skulls, Halvmåneøya

115 polar bear skulls: The result of a sin­gle sea­son. 1937, Halv­må­neøya, sou­the­as­tern Sval­bard

Vir­tu­al tours to some of Svalbard’s most famous trap­per sta­ti­ons:

  • Fred­heim: Hil­mar Nøis’ home in Tem­pel­fjord.
  • Bjør­ne­borg on Halv­må­neøya has been one of the most famous places for hun­ting polar bears.
  • Heimøya, Ryke Yse­øya­ne: one of Svalbard’s most remo­te trap­pers’ huts.
  • Hyt­te­vi­ka: home of Wan­ny Wold­stad (and others) north of Horn­sund.
  • Gråhu­ken: built as “Kapp Hvi­le” by Hil­mar Nøis, but today pro­ba­b­ly bet­ter known as “Rit­ter hut”.
  • André­e­tan­gen: the hut that “Isbjørn­kon­gen” (the polar bear king), Hen­ry Rudi, built on Edgeøya in 1946.

Hun­ting expe­di­ti­ons during the ear­ly years of the 20th cen­tu­ry com­pri­sed seve­ral per­sons, often 4 to six, whe­re­as later the ten­den­cy went towards smal­ler par­ties with two per­sons or even one sin­gle man who win­tered on his own. This mark­ed the chan­ge from an indus­try which was orga­nis­ed by trade­men in nor­t­hern Nor­way to a life­style of indi­vi­du­als with a well-deve­lo­ped desi­re for per­so­nal free­dom and a calm social envi­ron­ment.

‘Polar bear king’ Hen­ry Rudi with young polar bear at Bjør­ne­borg

Polar bear king - Henry Rudi with young polar bear at Bjørneborg

Figu­res like Hil­mar Nøis, Arthur Oxaas, ‘Polar bear king’ Hen­ry Rudi as well as very few women such as Wan­ny Wold­stad, who win­tered seve­ral times in the Horn­sund with her child­ren in the 1930s, achie­ved some­ti­mes legen­da­ry sta­tus and are well-known until the day today. Their tales influence the idea many (most­ly Nor­we­gi­ans) still have of life in the Arc­tic. Recent years, new edi­ti­ons of the old dia­ries of trap­pers have been published as well as a num­ber of modern books about the ‘Fang­st­mans­pe­ri­ode’.

Polar bear self shots on Hopen and at the west coast of Spits­ber­gen (1)

Polar bear self shots on Hopen and at the west coast of Spitsbergen (1)

Polar bear self shots on Hopen and at the west coast of Spits­ber­gen (2)

Polar bear self shots on Hopen and at the west coast of Spitsbergen (2)

Back

BOOKS, CALENDAR, POSTCARDS AND MORE

This and other publishing products of the Spitsbergen publishing house in the Spitsbergen-Shop.

last modification: 2021-01-05 · copyright: Rolf Stange
css.php