5 stars for A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter.
My interest in the Northern Arctic and Polar Night is highly piqued after re-reading Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. The author shared titles of books she referred to in writing Dark Matter; this was how I am introduced to "A Woman in the Polar Night". Keen to find out more, I bought the book. I am a sucker for books mentioned in the books I read. In fact, I am keen to get hold of some other books quoted until I realise that it is next to impossible. Not for lack of trying, some of these book are simply not available for sale. I shall touch more on these later on under (*).
I am surprised that A Woman in the Polar Night is the only book ever written by Christiane Ritter, an Austrian, the first European woman (from central Europe) to spend winter so far north. What is even more surprisingly is that she was born in 1897 and died in 2000 at the of 103. Our lifetimes actually overlapped! This book was a bestseller throughout Europe and has never been out of print in its original language, German.
In her book, the author shares why she joins her husband for a year on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, and how acutely aware she is of the perils of living in a tiny ramshackle hut on the shores of a lonely fjord, two hundred and fifty miles away from the nearest human settlement (their nearest neighbour being sixty miles away in another hut). Initially horrified of the freezing cold and bleak landscape filled with nothing but stones and rocks and ghastly anxious about the lack of vitamins (which in all likelihood will lead to scurvy and death), she eventually settles into the rhythm of life and begins to cherish the beauty and simplicity of the far north.
In the memoir, the Austrian Ritter talks about her encounters with seals, polar foxes and polar bears among others such as the eider ducks, gulls and other wildlife. She shares the indescribable enchantment of the Arctic night and the bewildering magic light of the Aurora. She recounts her experience with pack ice, iceberg and ice floes and why the need to gather everything such as driftwood, planks, raw rubber, and even clothes washed up by storms on the foreshore - everything is valuable and might be useful.
This classic memoir tells of the author's emotional transformation and inspiring journey to freedom, happiness and fulfilment in the adventure of a lifetime.
P/S:
While a bear post was often mentioned in author Michelle Paver's Dark Matter, it is only from reading this memoir that I truly grasp the purpose of the bear post - a tall wooden post bleached snow- white - that was set about two yards from their Grey Hook hut's window.
A "bear post" in the historical and literary context of Spitsbergen (Svalbard) is a wooden post or stake traditionally set up outside remote trapper cabins to lure, position, or spot polar bears so they could be shot for food, skin, or self-defense.
A quick search in Google confirms the historical Use of Trapper Bear Posts as follows:
(1) Luring Predators: Early Arctic trappers and hunters used these bleached driftwood or timber posts to hang bait or blubber, enticing curious or hungry polar bears close enough to the cabin to be targeted by firearms.
(2) Gunsight Alignment: The post acted as a fixed reference point or killing marker in the snow, making it easier to aim accurately during the blinding whiteouts or pitch-black months of the polar night.
(3) Literary Symbolism: In Arctic fiction and memoirs—such as Michelle Paver's ghost story Dark Matter (set in Spitsbergen) or Christiane Ritter’s A Woman in the Polar Night—the weathered bear post also serves as a haunting, atmospheric relic of human survival and the grim predator-prey dynamic on the ice.
(*)
Under the Pole Star is a 1937 book detailing the Oxford University Arctic Expedition, 1935-6, written by expedition leader A.R. Glen and assisted by N.A.C. Croft. Sadly, this book is an out-of-print, antiquarian title from 1937. Copies are exclusively available through specialized rare book dealers and collectible marketplaces only.
The Diaries of Thorleif Bjertnes is a historical non-fiction record documenting the brutal realities of an overwintering trapping expedition in the high Arctic. His diaries were preserved in the archives of the Svalbard Museum. In Year 2000, his daughter compiled and published them under the title The Diaries of Thorleif Bjertnes: Nordaustlandet 1933-1934. Unlike romanticized versions of Arctic exploration Bjertnes' journals provide a raw look at the intense psychological and environmental strains of polar survival. The diaries explicitly describe the harsh trapping life, interpersonal hostility, and the "Arctic Dread". Sadly, finding a commercial copy of this physical book is incredibly difficult as it was never mass-produced for the public.
I found out that the material colloquially referred to by author Michelle Paver and historians as "The Diaries of Thorleif Bjertnes: Nordaustlandet 1933-1934" is actually an archival record rather than a widely distributed retail book. The original handwritten journals, logs and photos belong to the family estate and are officially held in the physial vaults of the Svalbard Museum Archive (Catalog Reference: A-1005 - Thorleif Bjertnes) in Longyearbyen, Norway. While a limited, privately bound translation/transcript was compiled by his daughter, Lee Carmody, to donate alongside the museum's permanent collection, it did not receive a standard ISBN print run for commercial online storefronts like Amazon or AbeBooks.
