Grønnedal memorial stone
63028
post-template-default,single,single-post,postid-63028,single-format-standard,eltd-core-1.1.3,borderland-child-child-theme-ver-1.1,borderland-theme-ver-2.3,ajax_fade,page_not_loaded,smooth_scroll,paspartu_enabled,paspartu_on_bottom_fixed, vertical_menu_with_scroll,wpb-js-composer js-comp-ver-8.2,vc_responsive
July 15, 2026
in IKKA project, Obituary, Science Projects

Grønnedal memorial stone

Cover photo by Elin Tollefsen, Grønnedal summer 2014

By joint effort, my ex-husband Lars Teken Christensen and I have donated one of the Ivittuut stones brought home from the first IKKA expedition by the University of Copenhagen as a memorial stone for the fallen soldiers at Naval Base Grønnedal, SW Greenland. Lars served the Danish Navy for many years and was stationed at Grønnedal when I first met him in 1995. When I took my Master’s degree in Geology in 1998 on a project related to the IKKA project I took my Greenland rock collection with me and left it in the custody of my mother in Denmark when I later moved abroad for a research career. A couple of years ago my mother decided it was time to sell her big house in the countryside, and as I was settled in Sweden, I asked Lars whether he would be interested in hosting the larger rocks from Ivittuut (the rest have gone into university rock collections and are used for teaching in Iceland and Sweden). Luckily, Lars agreed and had them cleaned by which they really came to their right again. As Lars is a member of ‘Grønnedalsforeningen’ (https://groennedalsforeningen.dk) he heard of the plans to create a memorial place for the soldiers who lost their lives in Grønnedal and came up with the suggestion that we should donate one of these Ivittuut rocks. Lars and I share a deep love and gratitude towards Grønnedal and all the happy memories from there, both from the nature and from all the people working there, whom I have met over three decades of research expeditions. Thus, no second thoughts but to agree and hope the stone carpenter would be able to work on the odd-shaped rock and add a plate. Here 2-3 years later, the memorial rock was formally revealed at a ceremony in ‘Mindelunden’ in Jutland on the 4th of July as documented here by Grønnedalsforeningen: https://groennedalsforeningen.dk/historie/mindesten-2026/ and as reported by Greenland newspaper Sermitsiaq: https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/kangilinnguits-omkomne-mindet/2402637 (you can find a pdf of the Sermitsiaq article here below, just note that some details are incorrect, but the intension is absolutely correct – to honor the fallen soldiers):

Kangilinnguits-omkomne-mindet_3Download