Arnarsaq

Who is Arnarsaq?

Arnarsaq, was an Inuit translator, interpreter and missionary, assistant to Paul Egede, Hans Glahn, and J. Sverdrup from Greenland. She and Hans Punngujooq translated the Bible into the Inuit language. She had an important position in the Danish missionary among the Inuit on Greenland in the 18th century, and has also been portrayed in fiction.

Arnarsaq came to Paul Egede in 1736 and asked to be taught how to come to God; she converted and was baptized in 1737, and was allowed to keep her original name instead of being given a name from the Bible at her baptism, which was unusual. She is described as a critical debate partner of Egede. In her Bible translation, she prevented censorship and was able to present it the way she saw it: her interpretation of Christianity is considered to have had a large impact upon the version of Christianity accepted by the Inuit. She followed Egede to Denmark in 1740. She visited the Danish royal court in 1740, where she was presented with an Inuit boy to the court as a curiosity. In 1741, she was sent as a missionary to Greenland, where she rivaled the missionaries of the Moravian Church.