Henrik Wilhjelm

By Aage Rydstrøm-Poulsen - emeritus, Ilisimatusarfik

A great friend of Greenland, Greenland researcher, author, priest, teacher, and rector in Greenland, honorary doctor at Ilisimatusarfik and University of Copenhagen, has passed away.

Henrik Wilhjelm passed away on 25 May this year, shortly before his 90th birthday. Having lived a full life, he died peacefully and quietly surrounded by his loved ones, just as he wished. He is survived by his wife Ellen, three children, and several grandchildren. He looked back with gratitude on a long and extraordinarily influential life in Greenland, where the country and its people remained in his heart until the very end. Henrik understood better than anyone that the true Greenland is not only seen with the eyes, but first and foremost with the heart.

Henrik Wilhjelm was born on 29 November 1935, in Odder, where his father was a pastor. At the age of 29, he graduated with honours from Aarhus University in 1962 with a degree in theology and immediately became an assistant professor there. But after only two years, he left Aarhus. He wanted to move on; the world was much bigger, especially to the north for Henrik. From childhood, he had longed for the north, a longing awakened during a vacation in northern Norway, where he attended church and encountered a people close to nature who came sailing to attend church. But his fascination with the northern peoples increasingly turned to the vast country and its people to the northwest. Already during his studies, he became interested in Greenland, and in 1964 he applied to become a teacher in a Greenlandic settlement. However, the Ministry of Greenland (in Denmark at that time) did not think that such a talented theologian should go to such a small place, so instead he became a teacher at the teachers' college in Nuuk and a priest for the Danes in the town. But after only a year, Henrik's fascination drove him onward; he wanted to find the true indigenous Greenlandic people and their language. He now succeeded in becoming a teacher and priest in a settlement on Disko Bay with 200-300 people who only spoke Greenlandic. Henrik was the only Dane, and so the Greenlandic language progressed. In an interview with Kristeligt Dagblad (24 July 2002), he said, “When you know a little Greenlandic, there is an incredible openness among Greenlanders, and you feel very welcome”.

Henrik met his wife Ellen in Greenland, where she had also travelled to work as a teacher. The family moved to Denmark in 1979, but according to Henrik, they did not really thrive there. He returned to Greenland from 1981 to 1991. And during those ten years, and in the years that followed as an emeritus in Femmøller on Mols with many visits to Greenland, he came to serve the Greenlandic people to the highest degree. In 1981, he became a teacher at the teachers' college in Nuuk, later becoming its rector and head of the catechist training program. In 1997, he published “De store opdragere” (“The great educators”) about the Greenlandic teachers' colleges, and in 2001, Henrik published the famous book with the almost autobiographical title "Af tilbøielighed er jeg grønlandsk" (“By inclination, I am Greenlandic”) about the German Herrnhut missionary and pro-Greenlandic linguist Samuel Kleinschmidt (1814-1886), who was the first to give the Greenlanders grammar, a spelling system, and a translation of the entire Bible into Greenlandic. Finally, in 2008, Henrik's book "De nye grønlændere" (“The new Greenlanders”) was published, about the extensive work and great importance of the Greenlandic catechists for Greenlandic society.

For Henrik Wilhjelm, this amounted to no less than 40 years of involvement in the Greenlandic church and education system. Henrik had a special love for Greenlandic hymn singing, which he experienced as an expression not only of words, but especially of feelings, a song that sublimely “carries” the congregation (Wilhjelm's expression), with the music merely accompanying. According to an interview in Kristeligt Dagblad, he found that widespread Greenlandic Christianity “is illuminated by Jesus' faith and message” and that “God is behind it all as a personal father”. As an academic, Henrik Wilhjelm helped lay the foundation for theological education at Ilisimatusarfik, where he was a guest lecturer and speaker at the Theological Association on Kuannia's Christmas message. This message is now read at Ilisimatusarfik at the winter solstice, when the Greenlandic darkness is at its deepest and the light begins to return.

When Henrik Wilhjelm received an honorary doctorate in theology from University of Copenhagen in 2002, the recommendation stated: “Henrik Wilhjelm's exceptional linguistic competence, combined with his thorough and sober source studies, has enabled research efforts that are so significant in terms of quality and importance for all future research in this field that they are worthy of being rewarded with a doctorate in theology”. He was awarded the Greenlandic Society's Rink Medal in 2010, and in 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Ilisimatusarfik.

Henrik's love for Greenland and the Greenlanders lasted until the end, and his extensive and highly acclaimed efforts will be of the utmost importance for all future understanding of Greenland and the Greenlandic people.

In his memory.