Roald amundsen family tree

Roald Amundsen

Explorer

Modern

Quick Facts:

He led the first expedition to reach the South Pole and was the first person to successfully traverse the Northwest Passage.

Roald Amundsen

Photograph of Roald Amundsen (Credit: National Library of Norway)

Introduction
Roald Amundsen, nicknamed “The Last of the Vikings” was an Arctic explorer, and the first man to reach the South Pole in 1911.A natural explorer, Amundsen was also the first to successfully navigate the Northwest Passage, and reach the North Pole by flight.

Biography
Early Life
The youngest of four brothers, Roald Engeberth Garvning Amundsen, was born July 16, 1872 in the Norway capital of Christiania, present day Oslo. He was the fourth son of Jens Engeberth Amundsen, a wealthy shipping business tycoon. While Amundsen received the best education money could buy, he did not particularly care for school and would often receive barely passing grades. But it was in school that Amundsen would read of the adventures of John Franklin and his expedition to the Northwest Passage.1 This began Amundsen’s fasc

Roald Amundsen is one of history’s most celebrated explorers, famous for navigating the North-West Passage and being the first to reach the South Pole.

Norwegian-born Amundsen was the first person to sail through the North-West Passage, the first man to reach the South Pole and the first to take a transarctic flight across the North Pole.

Early years

Roald Engebreth Gravning Amundsen was born in 1872 in Borge, Norway. At an early age, he became fascinated by polar exploration, sleeping with his bedroom windows open during the worst Norwegian winters to help condition himself for his future career. He even quit university to head to sea with Arctic whaling skippers.

Amundsen's father was a ship owner, and he came from a family of people connected to the sea. His mother had wanted him to be a doctor, a career he began to study for until her death, when he focused his attention on his true interest: exploration. 

North-West Passage

In 1899, Amundsen joined the Belgian ship Belgica, which became the first expedition to winter in the Antarctic. Then, in 1903–06 he became t

1872

Roald Amundsen’s life, in brief

Roald Engebreth Gravning Amundsen is born 16 July. A couple of months later, the family moves from “Tomta” in Borge (Østfold/Viken) to Kristiania (Oslo). Roald Amundsen grows up together with his older brothers Leon, Gustav and Tonni in Uranienborgveien 9.

Read more about Amundsen’s childhood

His father, shipowner Jens Amundsen, dies when Roald is 14 years old. At home, the nanny Betty takes over primary care of the boys. A year later, Roald reads the books by polar explorer Sir John Franklin with fervent interest. In 1889, at the age of 17, he joins the crowd in downtown Oslo celebrating the return of Fridtjof Nansen from his Greenland expedition. 

“For the first time something in my secret thoughts whispered clearly and tremulously: ‘If you could make the Northwest Passage!’”

Read more about Amundsen’s early polar interest

In autumn 1890, Roald starts university and eventually begins studying medicine.&nb

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