Fridtjof Nansen: From the Arctic Ice to a Passport for Refugees

He crossed Greenland on skis.

He let his ship freeze into the Arctic ice.

Then, after a terrible war, he gave stateless refugees something they badly needed: a passport.

This is the story of Fridtjof Nansen.

Hello, and welcome to Bright Lives English.

Real stories. Real English.

Today's level is B2.

In this story, listen for five new words.

Expedition. An expedition is a long, organised journey to explore a place or to do research.

He led an expedition across Greenland.

Drift. When something drifts, it moves slowly, carried along by water or moving ice.

The past is drifted.

The ship drifted slowly with the ice.

Refugee. A refugee is a person who has to leave their country because of war or danger.

Many refugees had no home and no papers.

Stateless. If you are stateless, no country accepts you as its citizen, so you cannot get a passport.

The passport helped stateless people travel.

Humanitarian. Humanitarian work helps people who are suffering, especially because of war or disaster.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work.

Now, one pattern: not only did he, but he also.

It adds a second, surprising fact, with extra emphasis.

He explored, and he also saved lives.

Not only did he explore, but he also saved lives.

Notice that did comes before he.

Ready? Let's begin.

Fridtjof Nansen was born near Oslo, in Norway, in 1861.

As a boy, he loved skiing and spent long days outdoors in the forests and snowy hills.

Later, he studied animals at university and became a talented young scientist.

In 1888, he planned something nobody had ever done: an expedition across the frozen ice cap of Greenland.

His plan was bold.

The team would start on the empty east coast, so there was no easy way back.

Six men crossed the ice on skis, pulling heavy sledges behind them.

They climbed more than two and a half kilometres high and faced temperatures of minus forty-five degrees.

Not only did they reach the west coast, but they also made the first crossing of Greenland.

Next, Nansen dreamed of the North Pole.

Years earlier, pieces of a lost ship had drifted all the way across the Arctic Ocean, from Siberia to Greenland.

So he had an unusual idea: let a ship freeze into the ice and drift with it.

He built a special ship called Fram, with a round, very strong body.

When the ice pressed hard, the ship did not break.

Instead, it was pushed up and sat on top of the ice.

For almost three years, Fram slowly drifted across the Arctic.

But the ship was drifting too slowly.

So, in 1895, Nansen and one companion, Hjalmar Johansen, left the ship with skis, dogs and sledges.

Not only did they leave the safe ship, but they also went further north than anyone before them.

The ice was rough and their food was running low, so they turned back.

They spent a long, dark winter in a small stone hut on a frozen island.

In 1896, they met a British explorer by chance and finally sailed home to Norway.

Nansen became a famous explorer and a professor.

But after the First World War, the League of Nations asked him to do a very different job.

It asked him to bring prisoners of war home.

Many had waited for years, far from their families.

It was a huge humanitarian task, with little money and few ships.

Not only did he organise ships and trains, but he also persuaded governments to pay for them.

In about two years, more than four hundred thousand prisoners returned home.

Then came another crisis.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees had escaped the war in Russia.

In 1921, the new Soviet government took away their citizenship.

Suddenly, they were stateless.

Without passports, they could not travel or work legally.

In 1922, Nansen created a new travel document for them.

People called it the Nansen passport.

Not only did it give stateless refugees an identity, but it also let them cross borders and find work.

More than fifty countries accepted it.

That same year, Nansen won the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, and he gave the prize money to help others.

Not only did he explore, but he also saved lives.

He died in 1930.

Today, a United Nations refugee award carries his name.

Let's review. He led an expedition across Greenland.

The ship drifted slowly with the ice.

Many refugees had no home and no papers.

The passport helped stateless people travel.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work.

And remember: not only did he explore, but he also saved lives.

Nansen's story teaches us: courage is not only for adventures.

It is also for helping others.

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