#greenland visit

[andiatas]

The Royal Court confirms: Mary hit in Greenland

On Thursday, Queen Mary was hit by a scooter in Greenland. The incident happened when the Queen, the King, Princess Josephine, and Prince Vincent arrived in the country's capital, Nuuk.

Photo: Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix

A video in Ekstra Bladet's possession shows this, just as the royal house's communications department confirms to Ekstra Bladet that a minor clash occurred. However, the communications department said no one was injured in the collision.

Shaking voice

In the video, Queen Mary is standing in a densely packed crowd when a scooter suddenly hits her. Several spectators gasp in amazement. Then, a PET guard steps in and tries to get the scooter to move back.

- Back with you, back, says the PET guard to the person on the scooter, who says in a trembling voice:

- I do not know what happened.

The video shows Queen Mary not falling over when the scooter hits her in the side but being pushed forward and off balance. She is clearly shaken but does not say anything after the incident.

Translation and editing for clarity done by me of an article by Josephine Nedergaard for Ekstra Bladet, published on July 5, 2024.

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

Places to visit...

Kalaallit Nunaat

[seoafin]

Why are you going to iceland? (Also I constantly remember some teacher explaining that bc of colonialism naming, Iceland is actually the green place and Greenland is the ice place?) Do you also know Icelandic??

just for fun! iceland has always been on my bucketlist (as is seeing the northern lights) and now that i've graduated from uni im taking a year off to travel! (before selling my soul to corporate) if i had more time i would take a ship from iceland to denmark so i could pass the faroe islands but alas ��� i also briefly considered applying for a research opportunity in iceland but i ultimately chose something else. i do not know icelandic!

[gay-jesus-probably]

Fun fact: The worlds largest beaver dam is in Wood Buffalo National Park (Alberta, Canada), and it's visible from space. Beavers do not fuck around.

[visit-the-world]

Visit Nuuk, Greenland.

Here are 8 tourist attractions:

National Museum and Archives

Nuuk Water Taxi

Nuuk Art Museum

Nuuk Cathedral

Qornok

University of Greenland

Nuuk Center

Sisorarfiit-Skiliften

[erismourn]

Pondering the fact that I have paid vacation and could theoretically visit friends in America but I also do not particularly want to go to America for a number of reasons

[shawonmakemoney715]

11 Must-Visit Tourist Attractions in Greenland. Greenland is an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark, with a population of less than 60,000 and the largest non-continental island on Earth. It can truly be said to be a world apart. Travelers and enthusiasts visiting Antarctica for the first time are impressed with all kinds of icebergs and glaciers. Blue, white, floating on an everlasting blue sea an unforgettable sight from the land coming from a forest of eternal ice miles deep. Read this full article ...click here

[lauralot89]

You know what it's time for?

WEIRD SHARKS THAT'S WHAT IT'S TIME FOR

(IDs are in the image descriptions)

Pocket Shark

Pocket sharks are named for two small pocket glands appearing behind their pectoral fins. These glands are theorized to be luminous. Pocket sharks look like tiny, tiny sperm whales.

Angular Roughshark

Also called the pig-faced shark or the pig fish, angular roughsharks grow to be about 3 feet 4 in long on average. I personally think they're more bat-faced.

Goblin Shark

Found in the deep sea, goblin sharks are known for being able to extend their jaws like a grabber tool made of teeth. Wikipedia says that these sharks' "flabby bodies" suggest that they are sluggish in nature.

Cookiecutter Shark

The cookiecutter shark only grows to about 20 inches in length, but that doesn't stop it from biting into orcas, great whites, or humans. It suctions onto its meal with its lips and then goes to town. It removes perfect circles of flesh, hence its name.

Wobeggong Shark

Wobeggong refers to twelve species of carpet shark, so-named for their resemblance to a shag rug. They dwell on the bottom of the sea floor and wait for smaller fish to swim nearby.

Swell Shark

Swell sharks like to hide in crevices of algae-covered rocks, waiting for prey to swim by. They are so named not because they're really swell (though they are) but because as a defense mechanism, they can swell up to double their size by swallowing sea water.

Greenland Shark

The Greenland shark has high concentrations of urea in its body. It is theorized to have a lifespan of 250 to 500 years, and it can grow up to 23 feet long. Greenland sharks have been found with moose and reindeer in their stomachs. Because of the shark's toxic levels of urea, its flesh must be fermented or otherwise treated before consumption.

Viper Dogfish

Like the goblin shark, the viper dogfish's jaws can protude from the rest of its head, though its coloring means the viper dogfish looks significantly more Xenomorphish when doing so. This small shark is a member of the lanternshark family, and its underside glows.

Pointy-Nosed Blue Chimaera

Also know as the abyssal ghostshark, this deep sea shark has a venomous spine on its dorsal fin used for defense.

Genie's Dogfish Shark

Genie's dogfish shark is a small species found in the gulf of Mexico and the west Atlantic Ocean. It has real life anime eyes.

Ninja Lanternshark

The ninja lanternshark is a small bioluminescent shark. It is all black except for white markings around its eyes and mouth. It reaches about a foot and a half in length.

Frilled Shark

The frilled shark is sometimes called a living fossil, as it is basically unchanged in the past 80 million years. They are named for their teeth, which each have three points.

Epaulette Shark

Epaulette sharks are named for the large spots behind their pectoral fins. These sharks frequently visit tidal pools and have adapted to long periods of oxygen deprivation by shutting down non-essential neural functions. Epaulette sharks often "walk" with their fins on the sea floor rather than swim.

Horn Shark

Similar to the epaulette sharks, horn sharks like to walk on the sea floor with their fins. However, these sharks have sharp spines to deter predators.

This Ridiculousness

A prehistoric shark, helicoprion lived 20 million years ago and was apparently part buzzsaw. A fossil unearthed in Idaho in 2014 showed that these sharks had no teeth in their upper jaw, and a whorl of teeth in their lower jaw. It's a shame Junji Ito wasn't introduced to this shark during the writing of Uzumaki.

[moonstruckmoony]

LATE MERMAY POST - Because last month my job was very hectic and this weekend happens to be June already 😔

I wrote a quick small drabble below that goes with this drawing, enjoy

SharkMerman!Sebastian x IceBettaMermaid!Winter (MC) ❄️🩵🧜🏻‍♂️🧜🏻‍♀️

Sebastian is a magical shark merman that loves exploring new places and has a voracious appetite for adventure. While exploring the Greenland Sea, he encountered and fell in love with Winter, a rare mythical species of Betta mermaid that could live in icy seawater. He discovered after talking with her that there are currently only three of these Betta merfolks in the entire Arctic ocean, including her.

He could only see her a couple of times a week because his body could not withstand the icy temperature and his self-warming spell could only last for a day. During the remainder of the time, he would have to return to his home in the Northern Atlantic Ocean.

When she first met Sebastian, Winter was enthralled with his vast knowledge and intellect, as well as his witty and charming attitude. He has a kind and loving heart, despite the fact that he could be rather crafty at times and his stubborn disposition occasionally left her shaking her head.

Sebastian adores her quirky personality and caring nature, and he became even more enamored with her when he discovered that she possesses both intelligence and curiosity that rivals his. And Merlin’s bloody tail, while he finds her beauty captivating, her desire for knowledge is as powerful and forceful as the Gulf Stream, and he’s a goner for her. When he comes to visit her place, they always spend time together, whether it's going on long swims exploring places or simply chatting for hours.

Driven by a desire to see each other frequently, he trained his body to become more tolerant of the cold while she increased her tolerance to warmer waters. He would teach her spells to keep her body chilly while he practiced his self-warming charms to last even longer than before.

Even though their training allowed them to spend days or even weeks together, their enchantment doesn't endure long enough for their liking.

Nevertheless, they are resolute to search for a way to remain together, indefinitely, without the use of their magic.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

I actually have more lore on this drabble involving Ominis and other characters but I'll leave it like this for now, indefinitely

EDIT: omg I TOTALLY FORGOT but I meant to give some credits! I eyeballed some poses (by floorsdelluna) and background (from this painting i found in pinterest)

[thatonegenshinsimp]

Something’s Fishy Here (Merperson!reader)

Notes: My contribution to Mermay 2024 while I still have motivation to write this month.

Characters: Alhaitham, Diluc Ragnvindr, Wriothesley, Dainsleif, Neuvilette, Capitano

Warnings: mentions of physical violence

Masterlist

Alhaitham (Lemon Shark)

Sumeru was known as the land of kelp. It was a large kelp forest before the reefs of Fontaine and after the clear waters of Liyue and Mondstadt.

You, being one of the more curious members of the merfolk, had been traveling alone for a time.

Sumeru, as it happened, was one of the places you’d been wanting to visit the most.

That was when you first met Alhaitham, a lemon shark merman who was a tad more standoffish than most others of his subspecies.

You were a beta fish merperson, your tail frilled and colorful. It was one of your only defense mechanisms save for the shorter claws you had compared to other more aggressive merfolk that came from harsher places.

Alhaitham was, by all standards, a good lover to you. He treated you well and kept you safe if ever he saw someone as a threat.

One time, you accidentally flipped him over while you were bothering him and that was the day you realized what Tonic Immobility was.

He likes nuzzling your neck and is practically attached at the hip to you all evening after a long day apart from you.

Diluc Ragnvindr (Red Snapper)

You were a shark, so you often tended to be a bit of a loner.

That’s why you were so surprised to find that you had feelings for Diluc, a Red Snapper merman.

Diluc didn’t really know how to react when he found you were often there to help whenever he needed assistance, but he figured out why when you bared your teeth at Donna when she tried to make him uncomfortable and get in his personal space.

Soon enough, he plucked up the courage to ask you to be with him. He noticed you looked rather excited when he asked, and you happily said yes to him.

He definitely laughs when he realizes you can go into tonic immobility.

He doesn’t do it often, given that you’re in a trance for almost fifteen minutes every time he does it, but he does find it heavily amusing.

He likes staying close to you, given he rarely gets to have a break from work, so you usually help him with his work when you’re not working for the Adventurers Guild.

Wriothesley (Great White Shark)

Shark Wriothesley is the best Wriothesley

You were a swordfish merperson, but you quite liked being around Wriothesley even before you got into a relationship with him.

There’s a lot of hunting competitions between the two of you.

Wriothesley, despite knowing you can hold your own, definitely fights for you whenever you two get into any skirmishes with others because of his more instinct driven nature that rears its head in fights.

His territory is the Meropide Trenches that separate the north and south hemispheres of Fontaine’s waters.

He hates it when you flip him over. His tonic immobility lasts for a little over ten minutes, but he still hates it because it stresses him out.

He’s fiercely protective of you, but it’s because he loves you and doesn’t want you getting hurt.

Dainsleif (Greenland Shark)

He’s definitely a Greenland Shark merman in my personal opinion.

Khaenri’ah used to be a reef system, but during a tectonic shift, was sucked deeper down in the ocean, resulting in a tsunami due to the colliding tectonic plates.

The tsunami wiped out many in the population, which were sharks, and Dainsleif, cursed by the Seven alongside the other pureblood Khaenri’ahn people, slowly became a Greenland Shark, but his tail remained the same deep royal and navy blue colors it had always been, despite the fins morphing over time to tolerate the far lower depths of the sea.

That was when he met you, a snailfish merperson, who lived closer to the deeper depths of the trenches.

You got along well with him, and often visited him given how easily you traveled to the deeper parts of the trenches without any trouble.

He’s a tad more protective, but that’s because he doesn’t want to lose you as he has most of not all of the other people in his life.

Neuvilette (Swordfish)

Neuvilette is a swordfish merman, I’ll die on this hill.

Instead of being protective and possessive of you, he mostly just tries to avoid situations where you would need his protection.

He likes giving you gifts, it’s one of the ways he expresses his love for you.

Suddenly, your home is filled with little trinkets and shiny things he finds whenever he’s out and about in the reefs.

He also speaks to the melusines, who swim around with you when you’re unable to see him due to his work.

He likes physical touch, it’s one of the things that calms him down in the rare occasions where he gets angry.

Though he rarely shows it, he does often worry about you, even if you can defend yourself.

Capitano (Great White Shark)

Another shark merman.

Capitano is one of the larger shark merfolk, so he usually doesn’t even need to fight for someone to get the message to leave if they bother you.

You’d wandered into his territory by accident, but you, being a remora fish merperson, immediately thought he was friend shaped and swam up to say hi.

He’s perplexed by you. Few to none of the other merfolk in these waters swim within half a mile of his territory, but he’s certainly not one to refuse the company of someone as kind as you, so he lets you explore.

He slowly grows to realize he has feelings for you, and it’s only when he sees Dottore, a tiger shark, going after you that he realizes that he’d rather fight someone to the death than see you hurt.

After all, it ought to be only him biting you, and certainly not to kill you.

After that incident, he asks if you’ll be in a relationship with him, and you say yes.

He’s a good lover, and provides most anything you wish for.

He’d raze the whole ocean if only to see you happy.

[goodqueenaly]

Bit of a niche question, how would noble children be socialised with their peers rather than servants and retainers? Bran of course knows the Cerwyn heir very well who is half a day away and has family at Winterfel besides and Catelyn wonders if Jeyne used to be playmates with the squires from Casterly Rock who were murdered. I assume that noble children would occasionally be brought along to big occasions but would there be less incidental ways to bind the next generation early?

The first and likely most common way is probably exactly what you mention - visits between aristocratic families. You mention the Cerwyns visiting with the Starks relatively frequently, given the physical closeness of Castle Cerwyn to Winterfell, but it’s also worth noting that Halman and Benfred Tallhart did the same, as Bran remembers during that same event. Likewise, Arya recalls visiting White Harbor twice with Lord Eddard , while Catelyn recalls visiting the Twins as a girl; neither mentions specifically meeting, say, Wylla and Wynafryd or the many children and grandchildren Walder was already accumulating even in Catelyn’s youth, but I think it would have been virtually impossible for the aristocratic in each such instance not to have met and interacted with each other. These visits not only would give the adults the chance to talk business and renew bonds of fealty or alliance, but also potentially lay the groundwork for future dynastic pairings or continuations of such alliances between their children; in turn, interactions between these children might often be in such situations specifically targeted or formalized as much as they were personal (think of, say, young Alys Karstark being paired in dances with Robb Stark, or Joffrey and Tommen practicing in the yard with Robb and Bran).

(Which is not to say these interactions would always be positive - think of, say, Sam’s visit to the Arbor in his youth, and his cruel treatment by the Redwyne twins.)

Fostering, too, provides a very natural (by Westerosi standards) means for aristocratic children to socialize with peers outside of their immediate families. The examples of fostering throughout the series (and the history of Westeros) are too numerous to list for the purposes of this ask, but it’s worth noting as a very general point that fostered children are raised as virtual siblings with the children of the household in which they stay. While it’s certainly possible for fostered children to be relatives of the families with whom they are fostered, the dynastic distinction between these children allows for early lessons in how to identify, address, and interact with members of other families, not to mention how to (potentially) build friendships - think of, say, Robert and Ned in the Eyrie, or the pro-greenlands King Harmund II Hoare. (Which, again, is far from a guarantee - think of Jaime’s linger criticism of his fellow page and squire at Crakehall, Merrett Frey.)

Nor is fostering necessarily the only way for members, specifically children, of different Westerosi aristocratic families to find themselves in or around other households. Jeyne Poole and Beth Cassel were (and are) not very high-ranking aristocrats, certainly not equal to the Starks in terms of position, but as the scions of (I think) hereditary aristocratic officer families of Winterfell, Beth and especially Jeyne were seen as entirely suitable companions to the Starks, specifically Sansa. Too, if we take, say, Casterly Rock as an example, we can see a household of mixed aristocratic families (and, by extension, children): Kevan’s sons and daughter would have grown up not just with their cousin Tyrek Lannister, but also (thanks to Genna’s refusal to live away from Casterly Rock) some of their Frey cousins, “Red” Walder Frey and the grandsons of Cleos Frey - all descendants of Tytos Lannister, but from distinct branches (and, for the Freys, distinct paternal dynasties), which would strengthen those establish bonds.

Too, while not typical, it is nevertheless possible to have children brought into the household of a royal court. Magraery’s household as queen, for example, has included not just adult aristocratic Reach women but also younger girls from her homeland: not only her extended Tyrell cousins Megga, Elinor, and Alla but also little Alysanne Bulwer, children who may never have interacted with one another in their ordinary upbringings but would now have the opportunity to do so. Likewise, King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne took into their household their half-sister Jocelyn Baratheon when she was only six years old, to be raised as essentially an extra child of the royal couple within the household at King’s Landing (though of course the extent to which F&B, and by extension GRRM, ignores Jocelyn as a character never ceases to make me mad).

These are all examples rather than a finite list, of course, and it’s probably also worth noting that from an early age, aristocratic Westerosi children are prepared, through work and play, to recognize and interact with their social equals and superiors. We see from the experience of the Stark children that the study of heraldry is a key part of their education, setting them up early to recognize other families by their dynastic sigils. Too, one of aristocratic Westeros’ familiar childhood games is “come-into-my-castle”, a game which Tyrion remembers is “meant to teach [highborn children] courtesy, heraldry, and a thing or two about their lord father's friends and foes”. So from the first, highbor Westerosi children are socialized to interact with the wider (blue-blood) world around them.

Of course, it me, so I have to mention what this ask immediately made me think of from The Royal Succession, book four of The Accursed Kings:

The most surprising aspect of this dinner was the number of children present; for Eudes of Burgundy, having made it a condition of his own attendance that his niece, Jeanne of Navarre, should be present as some reparation for the outrage done her at the Assembly, the Count of Poitiers had decided to bring his three girls, the Count of Valois his latest offspring by his third marriage, the Count of Evreux his son and daughter, who were still of an age to play with dolls, the Dauphin of Viennois his little Guigues, the betrothed of the Regent’s third daughter, and the Duke of Burgundy his three children. There was continual confusion over Christian names; Blanches, Isabelles, Charleses and Philippes abounded; when someone cried ‘Jeanne!’ six heads turned together.

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

Places to visit...

Kalaallit Nunaat

[gabriellademonaco]

King Frederik X and Queen Mary’s 1st official visit to Greenland after ascension: Day 6 - Official Dinner

[theroyalsandi]

BREAKING NEWS!!!

King Frederik X and Queen Mary will carry out state visits to Sweden (May 6-7), Norway (May 14-15), the Faroe Islands (June 11-14) and Greenland (June 29 - July 8). The Royal Yacht Dannebrog will function as the residence during those trips. | February 09, 2024

[worstjourney]

The Millennials' Polar Expedition

A year ago today (23 Nov 2022), I launched Worst Journey Vol.1 at the Scott Polar Research Institute. This is the text of the speech I gave to the lovely people who turned up to celebrate.

As many of you know, my interest in the Terra Nova Expedition was sparked by Radio 4’s dramatisation of The Worst Journey in the World, now 14 years ago.  The story is an incredible story, and it got its claws into me, but what kept me coming back again and again were the people.  I couldn’t believe anyone so wonderful had ever really existed.  So when I finally succumbed to obsession and started reading all the books, it was the expedition members’ own words which I most cherished.  These were not always easy to come by, though, so plenty of popular histories were consumed as well.  Reading both in tandem, it soon became clear that, while there were some good books out there, there was a lot of sloppy research in the polar echo chamber as well.

I also discovered that no adaptation had attempted to get across the full scope of the expedition.  There has never been a full and fair dramatic retelling, all having been limited by time, budget, or ideology from telling the whole story truthfully.  I was determined that my adaptation would be both complete and accurate, and be as accountable as possible to those precious primary documents and the people who wrote them.

So the years of research began.  I moved to Cambridge to be able to drop in at SPRI and make the most of the archives.  Getting to Antarctica seemed impossible, but I went to New Zealand to get at least that much right, and on the way back stayed with relatives in Alberta, the most Antarctic place I could realistically visit.  I gathered reference for objects wherever I could.  Because Vol.1 takes place mainly on the Terra Nova, which is now a patch of sludge on the seabed off Greenland, I cobbled together a Franken-Nova in my mind, between the Discovery up in Dundee and the Star of India in San Diego.  I spent a week on a Jubilee Sailing Trust ship in order to depict tall-ship sailing correctly.  I’m sure I’ve still got loads of things wrong, but I did all I could, to get as much as I could, right.

But still, everyone I met who had been to Antarctica said, “you can’t understand Antarctica until you’ve been there, and you can’t tell the story without understanding Antarctica; you have to go.”  So I applied to the USAP’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, with faint hope, as they do “Ahrt” and I draw cartoons.  But I must have blagged a good grant proposal, because a year after applying, I was stepping out of a C-17 onto the Ross Ice Shelf.  The whole trip would have been worth it just to stand there, turn in a circle, and see how all the familiar photographs fit together.  But the USAP’s generosity didn’t stop there, and in the next month I saw Hut Point, Arrival Heights, the Beardmore Glacier (including the moraine on which the Polar Party stopped to “geologise”), and Cape Crozier, and made three visits to the Cape Evans hut.  Three!  On top of the visual reference I got priceless qualitative data.  The hardness of the sound.  The surprising warmth of the sun. The sugary texture of the snow.  The keen edge on a slight breeze.  The way your fingertips and toes can start to go when the rest of you is perfectly warm.  The SHEER INSANITY of Cape Crozier.  The veterans were right – I couldn’t have drawn it without having been there, but now I have, and can, and I am more grateful than I can ever adequately express.  With all these resources laid so copiously at my feet, all I had to do was sit down and draw the darn thing.  Luckily I have some very sound training to back me up on that.

Now, this is all very well for the how of making the book, and, I hope, interesting enough. But why?  Why am I putting so much effort into telling this story, and why now?

Well, it means a lot to me personally.  To begin to understand why, you need to know that I grew up in the 80s and 90s, at the height of individualist, goal-oriented, success-driven, dog-eat-dog, devil-take-the-hindmost neoliberalism.  It was just assumed that humans, when you get right down to it, were basically self-interested jerks, and I saw plenty of them around so I had no reason to question this assumption.  The idea was that if you did everything right, and worked really hard, you could retire at 45 to a yacht in the Bahamas, and if you didn’t retire to a yacht, well, you just hadn’t tried hard enough.  Character, in the sense of rigorous personal virtue, was for schmucks.  What mattered was success.  Even as my politics evolved, I still took it as a given that this was how the world worked, and that was how people generally were – after all, there was no lack of corroborating evidence.  So: I worked really hard.  I single-mindedly pursued my self-interest.  I made sacrifices, and put in the time, and fought my way into my dream job and all the success I could have asked for.

And then I met the Terra Nova guys.

What struck me most about them was that even when everything was going wrong, when their expectations were shattered and they had to face the cruellest reality, they were still kind.  Not backbiting, recriminating, blame-throwing, defensive, or mean, as one would expect – they were lovely to each other, patient, supportive, self-sacrificing; in fact the worse things got, the better they were.  They still treated each other as friends even when it wasn’t in their self-interest, was even contrary to their self-interest.  I didn’t know people could be like that.  But there they were, in plain writing, being thoroughly, bafflingly, decent.  Not just the Polar Party – everyone had to face their own brutal realities at some point, and they all did so with a grace I never thought possible.

It presented a very important question:

When everything goes belly-up, and you’re facing the worst, what sort of person will you be?

Or perhaps more acutely: What sort of person would you rather be with?

It was so contrary to the world I lived in, to the reality I knew – it was a peek into an alternate dimension, populated entirely with lovely, lovely people, who really, genuinely believed that “it’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game,” and behaved accordingly.  It couldn’t be real.  There had to be a deeper, unpleasant truth: that was how the world worked, after all.  I kept digging, expecting to hit bottom at some point, but I only found more gold, all the way down.  How could I not spend my life on this?

Mythology exists to pass on a culture’s values, moral code, and survival information – how to face challenges and prevail.  Scott’s story entered the British mythology, and had staying power, because it exemplified those things so profoundly for the culture that created and received it.  But the culture changed, and there were new values; Scott’s legacy was first inverted and then cast aside.  The new culture needed a new epic hero.  You’d think it would be Amundsen, the epitome of ruthless success, but “Make Plan – Execute Plan – Go Home” has no mythic value, so he didn’t stick.  The hero needed challenges, he needed setbacks, and he needed to win, on our terms.

Shackleton!  Shackleton was a winner!  Shackleton told us what we knew to be true and wanted to hear at epic volume: that if you want something badly enough, and try really hard, you will succeed!  (Especially if you can control the narrative.)  Scott, on the other hand, tells us that if you want something badly enough, and try really hard . . . you may nevertheless die horribly in the snow.  Nobody wants to hear that!  What a downer!  I think it’s no coincidence that Shackleton exploded into popular culture in the late 90s and has dominated it ever since: he is the mythic hero of the zeitgeist. I am always being asked if I’ll be doing Shackleton next.  He has six graphic novels already!  That is plenty!  But people still want to tell and be told his story, because it’s a heroic myth that validates our worldview.

That’s why I am so determined to tell the Scott story, because Scott is who we don’t realise we need right now – and Wilson, and Bowers, and Cherry, and Atch, and all the rest.  The Terra Nova Expedition is the Millennials’ polar expedition.  We’ve worked really hard, we’ve done everything we were supposed to, we made what appeared to be the right decisions at the time, and we’re still losing.  Nothing in the mythology we’ve been fed has prepared us for this.  No amount of positive attitude is going to change it.  We have all the aphorisms in the world, but what we need is an example of how to behave when the chips are down, when the Boss is not sailing into the tempest to rescue us, when the Yelcho is not on the horizon.  When circumstances are beyond your power to change, how do you make the best of your bad situation?  What does that look like? Even if you can’t fix anything, how do you make it better for the people around you – or at the very least, not worse?  Scott tells us: you can be patient, supportive, and humble; see who needs help and offer it; be realistic but don’t give in to despair; and if you’re up against a wall with no hope of rescue, go out in a blaze of kindness.  We learn by imitation: it’s easy to say these things, but to see them in action, in much harder circumstances than we will ever face, is a far greater help.  And to see them exemplified by real, flawed, complicated people like us is better still; they are not fairy-tale ideals, they are achievable. Real people achieved them.

My upbringing in the 80s milieu of selfishness, which set me up to receive the Scott story so gratefully, is hardly unique.  There are millions of us who are hungry for a counter-narrative.  My generation is desperate for demonstrations of caring, whether it’s activism or social justice or government policies that don’t abandon the vulnerable.  We’ve seen selfishness poison the world, and we want an alternative.  The time for competition is past; we must cooperate or perish, but we don’t know how to do it because our mythology is founded on competition.  The Scott story, if told properly, explodes the Just World Fallacy, and liberates us from the lie that has ruled our lives: that you make your own luck.  What happens, happens: what matters is how you respond to it.  My obsession with accuracy is in part to honour the men, and in part because Cherry was the ultimate stickler and he’d give me a hard time if I didn’t, but also because, if I’m telling the story to a new generation, I’m damn well going to make sure we get that much RIGHT.  It’s been really interesting to see, online, how my generation and the next have glommed onto polar exploration narratives, not as thrilling feats of derring-do, but as emotional explorations of found family and cooperative resilience.  We love them because they love each other, and loving each other helps get them through, and we want – we need – to see how that’s done.  It’s time to give them the Terra Nova story, and to tell it fully, fairly, and honestly, in all its complexity, because that is how their example is most useful to us.  Not as gods, and not as fools, but as real human beings who were excellent to each other in the face of disaster.  I only hope that I, a latecomer to their ways, can do them justice.