and researches in the Arctic countries'. A crater on the Moon is named after him: the Egede crater on the south edge of the Mare Frigoris (the Sea of Cold). The historical fiction novel "The Prophets of Eternal Fjord" narrates a tale of a missionary priest under Egede's instruction embarking upon Greenland to convert its indigenous peoples to Christianity. Statues of Hans Egede stand watch over Greenland's capital in Nuuk and outside of Frederik's Church (Marmorkirken) in Copenhagen. Egede's statue at Frederick's Church in Copenhagen was vandalized with the word "decolonize" spray-painted on its base on June 20, 2020, during worldwide protests against memorials of colonial figures. Another Egede statue in Nuuk, Greenland was likewise vandalized ten days later. In a subsequent vote, 921 voted to keep the statue while 600 wanted it removed. Hans Egede gave one of the oldest descriptions of a sea serpent, now believed to have been a giant squid. On 6 July 1734 he wrote that his ship was off the Greenland coast when those on board "saw a most terrible creature, resembling nothing they saw before. The monster lifted its head so high that it seemed to be higher than the crow's nest on the mainmast. The head was small and the body short and wrinkled. The unknown creature was using giant fins which propelled it through the water. Later the sailors saw its tail as well. The monster was longer than our whole ship". Gallery References Sources Bobé, Louis Hans Egede: Colonizer and Missionary of Greenland (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1952) Ingstad, Helge. Land under the pole star: a voyage to the Norse settlements of Greenland and the saga of the people that vanished (translated by Naomi Walford, Jonathan Cape, London: 1982) Garnett, Eve To Greenland's icy mountains; the story of Hans Egede, explorer, coloniser missionary (London: Heinemann. 1968) Barüske, Heinz Hans Egede und die Kolonisation Grönlands (Zeitschrift für Kulturaustausch, vol. 22 (1972) Nr.1) External links Hans Egede entry in online Norwegian history book (in Norwegian) Hans Egede on Norwegian stamp SS Hans Egede 1686 births 1758 deaths 18th-century Norwegian Lutheran clergy University of Copenhagen alumni People from Harstad Danish explorers Norwegian polar explorers Scandinavian explorers of North America Greenlandic polar explorers City founders Norwegian Lutheran missionaries Lutheran missionaries in Greenland Norwegian emigrants to Greenland Greenlandic Lutheran clergy 17th-century Danish translators Norwegian translators Translators to Inuit Danish Lutheran missionaries Missionary linguists