A Woman in the Polar Night

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The writing is part memoir and a travelogue of sorts that does not keep its arc or sights on geographical indicators. Rather, it is a brisk yet deeply philosophical look at nature, the bonds between human and animals, the way human comfort can be stripped down to the barest essential when faced with the existential crisis of survival and the way, the human mind and spirit can wax, wane and make small steps to start all over again when nothing familiar exists except your own solitary self. It is a slim book that carries within valuable insights of how the desperate search for food means having to let go of sentimentality or how the need for human company can be fraught. Ritter's wry commentary over house duties, the depth of her contemplations on life and social ties, her emotional bonding to the animals she grows familiar with, the way she takes to life in sub zero temperatures on her own, all make for a compelling read.

Christiane Ritter- Künstlerin, Abenteurerin, Ehefrau und Mutter, doch vor allem eine Frau, die ihrer Zeit voraus war. This rediscovered classic memoir tells the incredible tale of a woman defying society's expectations to find freedom and peace in the adventure of a lifetime.She agrees, leaving her small daughter with family in Germany and ignoring pleas about this being a "hairbrain" scheme. She arrives in August and she does indeed live for a year with her husband and, as an added bonus, his hunting partner, Karl, a Norwegian. I wondered how she felt when she found, with no warning, that she would be living in a 10x10 hut with not just her husband but a strange man! Her writing is both matter of fact and lyrical, with never a mention of complaint. I think she survived through her good humor and through discovery - the "strange illumination of one's own self" and of seeing the world anew. A rediscovered classic memoir - the mesmerizingly beautiful account of one woman's year spent living in a remote hut in the Arctic Christiane Ritter, an Austrian artist, lived with her husband, a hunter in Spitsbergen, for a year. Hunters lived solitary and dangerous lives but thrived on the challenge. Christiane’s husband, Hermann, invited her to join him and another hunter because they wanted a ‘housewife’. Over the winter, she would be left on her own while they went hunting. No electricity, no facilities, no running water, nothing but a tiny stove to heat the tiny hut which was barely a bunk’s length wide and which would mostly be completely immersed in snow. This would be an adventure in contemporary, tech-driven times but this was 1934. The sweet stories in this book were the ones about a white fox adopting them, as well as a seal later on. And at least neither of these men, who were hunting for both of those animals, harmed them.

Her transformation from the excitement of arriving on the island, which reads like an Enid Blyton style adventure of the day (1930s), to a fear of what she has let herself in for as the sun goes down in October, not to rise until February, is perfectly described. That bright Blyton style descends into a dark cerebal tone; the mental toughness necessary for survival is evident. In 1934, at age 36, Christiane Ritter, an Austrian painter and housewife, agrees to join her trapper husband in Spitsbergen (Svalbard), Norway for one year. This area is solitude and remoteness like no other place on the planet. “Chrissie” has no survival training and no real travel experience. A Woman In The Polar Night is a collection of her poetic reflections on that year - the days, weeks and months filled with beauty, danger and courage, howling winds and crashing ice floes, arctic ptarmigan and polar foxes, northern light and profound darkness. I highly recommend this German classic to anyone who enjoys reading detailed descriptions of the natural world and our tiny place within it. Ritter lived to be 103 years old, so maybe a year immersed in an Arctic landscape with nothing but nature for companionship is worth consideration after all. I’ve been drawn lately to books about people living off the grid. The crazier our society becomes, the more enticing an isolated existence sounds. But maybe not in the Arctic Circle. Maybe somewhere that at least has vegetation and temperatures above freezing. Maybe somewhere with individual days and nights: “For here there are no days because there are no nights. One day melts into the next, and you cannot say this is the end of today and now it is tomorrow and that was yesterday.” It's very much worth the search though, because of the beauty of the writing. The author spent a year in Spitsbergen in the Arctic, with her husband and another hunter, in a tiny cabin miles away from civilization and other people, isolated by the weather and the long polar night. She's able to find the majesty in the landscape and the animals, despite the loneliness and fear when the men leave on hunting expeditions lasting for days. It was such a peaceful read, it acted as a balm, although it did not leave me wishing to experience it for myself. In the valleys the wind howls, over the plain the snow is driven like a glistening river, but calm and unmoved the mountains soar into the star-glittering heavens.”Many nights I fell asleep with Ritter painting images in my mind of sublime, polar land. Her unbending, positive attitude makes her life a joy to follow, and her story an inspiration to read. mulle nii kohutavalt meeldib, kui mõni inimene reisib kohta, kuhu (või asjaoludel, millistel) mina iial ei reisiks, ja siis suudab sellest kirjutada raamatu, mis peaaegu et paneb mu ümber mõtlema. Most of the book was about their surviving the long year, and then her writing about the beauty of the place. I wish that I could see it for maybe a week. väidetavalt on raamat olnud pidevalt trükis alates 1934. aastast, kui ta ilmus, ja tõesti on tegu kuidagi ajatu teosega - võibolla poleks samas kohas elades praegu eriti midagi teisiti (kuigi vajalikud vitamiinid vast võetaks purgiga kaasa, selmet jääkaru peale lootma jääda). kuigi kas seda jääd kliimamuutuste järel enam nii palju on, seda ma ei tea. aga vast külm ja valgus (või selle puudumine polaaröö ajal) ja tähed ja sellised asjad on ikka samasugused.

I think there is an important truth in Ritter’s book. While researching for Losing Eden , the more I saw how strong and varied the evidence is for a connection between nature and mental health, the more I became convinced that we are losing something psychologically important as we continue to disconnect further from the rest of nature. Ritter, writing way before the climate crisis, global species decline and habitat destruction, was sounding an alarm. “I realise that civilisation is suffering from a severe vitamin deficiency because it cannot draw its strength directly from nature,” she wrote. “Humanity has lost itself in the unnatural and in speculation.” Ich bin so froh, es als Hörbuch genossen zu haben, denn beim Lesen hätte ich bestimmt am Schreibstil zu knabbern gehabt. So konnte ich mich einfach fallen lassen und mit der Protagonistin die Polarnacht durchleben und staunen. Ich weiß nicht, woher diese Faszination für Bücher, die im ewigen Eis spielen rührt, aber ich bin jedesmal wieder hin und weg.Northern lights of incredible intensity stream over the sky; their bright rays shooting downward, look like gleaming rods of glass. They break out from a tremendous height and seem to be falling directly toward me, growing brighter and clearer, in radiant lilacs, greens, and pinks, swinging and whirling around their own axis in a wild dance that sweeps over the entire sky, and then, in drifting undulating veils, they fade and vanish. Layout - so on top of being bored to tears with the subject, I actually didn't understand a lot of her writing. Most of the time I had no idea where she even was, she referred to every stopping point as 'the hut' which had me totally lost - taking me yet further out of the story. And I felt she almost wanted her writing to be so 'beautiful' that she never actually got to the point, it was just descriptive words. Obwohl der Inhalt des Buches sehr alt ist, ist es trotzdem interessant und ausgenommen einiger Punkte tatsächlich zeitlos. Klar, über gewisse Dinge/Ansichten muss man einfach hinwegsehen können und man darf nicht vergessen, dass aus dem Jahr 1934 berichtet wird. Wenn man das jedoch kann, wird man mit einem tollen Bericht belohnt. Ritter wrote only this one book. A travel classic, it has never been out of print in German but had been for 50 years in the UK. Pushkin Press reissued the English text in 2019 with a foreword by Sara Wheeler, a few period photographs and a hand-drawn map by Neil Gower.

Dieses Buch erschien erstmals 1938. Die Autorin berichtet von ihrem Jahr in der Arktis, die sie 1934/1935 aufsuchte, um dort mit ihrem Mann und einem Pelzjäger zu leben. Everything breathes the same serenity. It is as though a current of the most holy and perfect peace were streaming through all the landscape. ....this stupendous and glorious world.

When her husband asks Christiane to join him for a year in Spitsbergen, Ritter imagines many days spend cooking and painting while her husband hunts artic foxes. But the Arctic is far from peaceful: normal temperatures are 25 degrees below, hunting foxes, seals, and even polar bears are vital for survival, and in wintertime the sun doesn’t rise for four months. My partner and I have spent weeks looking at cruises to Svalbard. It’s not such an unusual choice any more. We’re drawn to the landscape, the wildlife, the excitement of the experience. We’ve decided not to go because it seems wrong. I’m not saying it’s wrong for everyone but it feels wrong for us. Looking at the convoys of cruise ships rounding Cape Horn and exploring the Alaskan fjords, we don’t feel we want to contribute to the commercialisation of once wild places and would rather leave the wildlife and wild places in peace. I’ll leave the last words to Ritter.