Mathias Storch

Who is Mathias Storch?

Mathias Storch was a Greenlandic Lutheran priest and writer, born in 1883 in Nuuk (then known as Godthåb) during the era of Danish colonial administration. Trained within the Danish-run seminary system that prepared Greenlanders for the priesthood and catechist work, he became a public figure in Greenlandic community life in the early twentieth century. In 1914 he published Sinnattugaq (also rendered Singnagtugaq, "A Greenlander's Dream"), the first novel ever written by a Greenlander in the Greenlandic language. The book follows a young man, Pavia, who falls asleep over his studies and dreams of Greenland two hundred years in the future: educated, bilingual, and self-governing, in sharp contrast to the colonial conditions of Storch's own time. The novel voiced early Greenlandic aspirations for education, equality, and self-determination, and criticized aspects of Danish rule and schooling, while also arguing for cooperation with sympathetic, progressive Danes. It is regarded today as a foundational text of modern Greenlandic-language literature and a landmark in Greenland's political and cultural awakening.

Sources: Mathias Storch, Sinnattugaq (1914) · Inuit Literatures database (Université du Québec à Montréal), "Singnagtugaq"