Thor Heyerdahl Biography, Cognac, Museum, Quotes, Spouse, Children, Theory, Death

Thor Heyerdahl Biography

Thor Heyerdahl was one of the history’s most famous explorers born on 6 October 1914, Larvik, Norway and died on 18th April 2002. He was  a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany, and geography. He was also a director and writer, known for Galapagos (1955), Aku-Aku (1960) and Kon-Tiki (1950).

Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian explorer, adventurer, and ethnologist. He orchestrated many transoceanic expeditions in primitive boat replicas and contributed several substantial theories to the geographic and scientific communities.

He attended Oslo University, where he studied zoology. In 1936, Heyerdahl went to live on the Pacific island of Fatu Hiva. He made his world-famous voyage from Peru to French Polynesia aboard the Kon-Tiki in 1947. His book about this adventure became an international hit. In 1953, Heyerdahl led an archaelogical expedition to the Galapagos Islands. Two years later, he traveled to Easter Island. In his later years, Heyerdahl excavated pyramids in Peru and the Canary Islands.

He documented his many travels in multiple books and documentaries, and has given important lectures worldwide on the basis of migratory patterns of early civilizations. Always having been interested in zoology, he spent many years of his childhood exploring the wilderness of his family’s summer log cabin. Following in his mother’s footsteps, he went on to pursue a degree in zoology, as well as geography, before turning to ethnology. His constant travels impacted his personal life deeply,leading to several unsuccessful relationships.He fathered five children over his lifetime.

Thor Heyerdahl

Heyerdahl’s studies have influenced several institutes, museums, and have been the basis of many other published works regarding his theories. One of his own grandchildren went on to replicate one of his earliest transoceanic expeditions. His work inspired multiple scientific studies, into the migration patterns of the South American people, by several independent scientists over the last 100 years. He has been bestowed over twenty-one scientific honors and awards, as well as earning over eight National Decorations from a handful of countries.

Thor Heyerdahl Żony/ Thor Heyerdahl Spouse/ Thor Heyerdahl Wife

Thor Heyerdahl was first married to Liv Coucheron-Torp in the year 1936. The couple had two sons; Thor Jr and Bjørn. The marriage ended in divorce in 1947.

He married his second wife Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen in 1949. They had three daughters: Annette, Marian and Helene Elisabeth. They were divorced in 1969 where Heyerdahl blamed their separation on his being away from home and differences in their ideas for bringing up children.

Heyerdahl married his third wife Jacqueline Beer in 1991. The couple lived in Tenerife, Canary Islands and were very actively involved with archaeological projects, especially in Túcume, Peru, and Azov until his death in 2002.

Thor Heyerdahl Barn/ Thor Heyerdahl Children

Heyerdahl has five Children three daughters: Marian Heyerdahl, Helene Elisabeth Heyerdahl and Annette Heyerdahl and two Sons Bjørn Heyerdahl and Thor Heyerdahl, Jr.

Thor Heyerdahl Death

Thor died on April 18, 2002, in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, where he had gone to spend the Easter holidays with some of his closest family members. The Norwegian government gave him a state funeral in Oslo Cathedral on April 26, 2002. He is buried in the garden of the family home in Colla Micheri. He was an atheist

Thor Heyerdahl Theory

During World War II, Heyerdahl served in the Free Norwegian military group as a parachutist. He served to cultural anthropology after the war, seeking to prove that people of Polynesia had ancestral ties to the ancient Peruvians. This theory went against all prevailing scientific thought at the time, which held that the islands were populated by people from South Asia.

To prove his theory, Heyerdahl enlisted five friends to join him on an amazing journey. He built Kon-Tiki, a roughly 40-foot log raft out of balsa wood, similar to those used in ancient times. On April 28, 1947, Heyerdahl and his crew departed Callao, Peru. They spent 101 days at sea, eventually crashing into an atoll and then taking shelter on a small island in the South Sea. During their dangerous voyage, Heyerdahl and his crew faced rough seas, sharks and even curious whales while covering approximately 4,300 miles.

A skilled storyteller, Heyerdahl wrote about his experiences in the best-selling book Kon-Tiki. The work was a global hit and was translated into 65 languages. A documentary about the voyage also won an Academy Award in 1951. While hugely popular with the public, Heyerdahl found himself under fire from the scientific community for his journey. It was widely felt that Heyerdahl’s aquatic adventure did little to substantiate his claims regarding the cultural ancestry of Polynesia.

Thor Heyerdahl Cognac

Thor Heyerdahl cognac is named after the pioneer of the same name, known for his Kon-Tiki expedition. This cognac consists of Eau de Vie from different areas in the cognac district.

Thor Heyerdahl Pioneer 40% 1L
Ingredients
ugni blanc grapes, sugar 6,0 g/l, water
Wine Quality
VSOP

Thor Heyerdahl Ra

The Ra expeditions is a book by Thor Heyerdahl published in 1970. In the book the author recounts the planning for his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in an Egyptian reed boat and describes the voyage made by himself and his crew.

Originally published: 1970
Author: Thor Heyerdahl
Children: 5
Alma mater: University of Oslo
Awards: Mungo Park Medal (1950)
Fields: Ethnography; Adventure

Fatu Hiva Thor Heyerdahl

Fatu-Hiva – Back to Nature is a book published in 1974 by archaeologist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl detailing his experiences and reflections during a one-and-a-half-year stay on the Marquesan island of Fatu Hiva in 1937-38. The book was based on Heyerdahl’s original report Paa Jakt efter Paradiset, which was published in Norway in 1938, but because of the outbreak of World War II was never translated and rather forgotten.

Originally published: 1974
Author: Thor Heyerdahl

Thor Heyerdahl Kon Tiki – Thor Heyerdahl Kontiki

The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas (Norwegian: Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen) is a 1948 book by the Norwegian writer Thor Heyerdahl. It recounts Heyerdahl’s experiences with the Kon-Tiki expedition, where he travelled across the Pacific Ocean on a balsa tree raft. The book was first published in Norway on 2 November 1948, and sold out in 15 days.

Originally published: 1948
Author: Thor Heyerdahl
Page count: 235
Country: Norway
Published in english: 1950
Genres: Biography, Travel literature

Thor Heyerdahl Ship | Schiff

Thor Heyerdahl originally named Tinka, later Marga Henning, Silke, and Minnow, was built as a freight carrying motor ship with auxiliary sails at the shipyard Smit & Zoon in Westerbroek, Netherlands, in 1930. One of the two original owners was Detlef Soitzek, who had sailed with the Norwegian anthropologist, zoologist, ethnologist and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl on his Tigris expedition in 1977/1978, and suggested to name the ship after the famous researcher and adventurer. The ownership of the ship was subsequently turned over to an association.

Name: Thor Heyerdahl
Owner: Segelschiff Thor Heyerdahl gemeinnützige Fördergesellschaft mbH
Launched: 1930
Refit: In 1979-1983 as a three-masted topsail schooner
Homeport: Kiel
Status: Active
Length: 49.48 m overall (formerly 49.83 m); hull: 42.50 m
Beam: 6,53 m
Height: 29 m
Draft: 2.90 m (formerly 2.55 m)
Propulsion: 400 PS Deutz-Diesel, 6 cylinders, * 1951, 400/min max.
Sail plan: three-masted topsail schooner (830 m²)

Thor Heyerdahl Film

Kon-Tiki

Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl (Pål Sverre Hagen) suspects that the South Sea Islands were originally colonized by South Americans. In 1947 despite his fear of water and inability to swim, Heyerdahl decides to prove his theory. He and five companions set sail from Peru on a balsa-wood raft built from an ancient design. Their only modern equipment is a radio, and they must navigate using the stars and ocean currents. After three exhausting months at sea, they achieve their goal.

Initial release: 24 August 2012 (Norway)
Directors : Joachim Rønning , Espen Sandberg
Screenplay : Petter Skavlan
Nominations: Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Languages: Norwegian, English, French, Swedish

Thor Heyerdahl Quotes

1. I was in uniform for four years, and I know that heroism doesn’t occur from taking orders, but rather from people who through their own willpower and strength are willing to sacrifice their lives for an idea.
2. I don’t believe in war as a solution to any kind of conflict, nor do I believe in heroism on the battlefield because I have never seen any.
3. In fighting nature, man can win every battle except the last. If he should win that too, he will perish, like an embryo cutting its own umbilical cord.
4. I have never been able to grasp the meaning of time. I don’t believe it exists. I’ve felt this again and again, when alone and out in nature. On such occasions, time does not exist. Nor does the future exist.
5. In my experience, it is rarer to find a really happy person in a circle of millionaires than among vagabonds.
6. One learns more from listening than speaking. And both the wind and the people who continue to live close to nature still have much to tell us which we cannot hear within university walls.
7. Circumstances cause us to act the way we do. We should always bear this in mind before judging the actions of others. I realized this from the start during World War II.
8. I also believe that when one dies, one may wake up to the reality that proves that time does not exist.
9. We have always been taught that navigation is the result of civilization, but modern archeology has demonstrated very clearly that this is not so.
10. A civilized nation can have no enemies, and one cannot draw a line across a map, a line that doesn’t even exist in nature and say that the ugly enemy lives on the one side, and good friends live on the other.

Thor Heyerdahl Books

1. Kon-Tiki
2. Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island
3. The Ra Expeditions
4. Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature
5. The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings
6. Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day: Memories and Journeys of a Lifetime
7. Easter Island
8. In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memior
9. The Maldive Mystery
10. Early Man and the Ocean: A Search for the Beginnings of Navigation & Seaborne Civilizations
11. Kon-Tiki Man: An Illustrated Biography of Thor Heyerdahl
12. American Indians in the Pacific; The Theory behind the Kon Tiki Expedition
13. Pyramids of Tucume: The Quest for Peru’s Forgotten City
14. På jakt efter paradiset:: et år på en sydhavsø
15. Reader’s Digest: Airs Above the Ground / Up the Down Staircase / Those Who Love / Kon-Tiki / How Far to Bethlehem?
16. The Art Of Easter Island
17. Ingen grenser
18. Men at Sea: The Best Sea Stories of All Time
19. Archaeological Evidence of Pre-Spanish Visits to the Galapagos Islands
20. Jakten på Odin : på sporet av vår fortid
21. Thor Heyerdahl som tegner
22. Sea Routes to Polynesia
23. Ra
24. Canoe Adventure
25. Skjebnemøte vest for havet : de beseiredes historie
26. Mistérios das Rotas Oceânicas
27. Albatros, Enciclopedia del Mar
28. Vikingler
29. Zwischen den Kontinenten
30. Let the Conquered Speak: The Many Discoveries of America
31. Thor Heyerdahl’s Search for Odin. Ancient Links between Azerbaijan and Scandinavia?
32. Tales of The Sea: An Illustrated Collection of Adventure Stories
33. Reader’s Digest Great Biographies: Lee And Grant, A Duel Biography – Impressionist, A Novel Of Mary Cassatt – The Life And Death Of Lenin – Kon Tiki, Across The Pacific
34. Condensed Books. The Tigris Expedition/The Key to Rebecca Horowitz & Mrs Washington/Bullet Train/The Last Enemy
35. Waste In Norway Until 2010
36. Reader’s Digest Condensed Books Vol 4 1965
37. Heritage and Identity: Shaping the Nations of the North
38. Reminders about a publisher: authors of Harald Grieg

Thor Heyerdahl Vgs | Thor Heyerdahl Videregående Skole

Thor Heyerdahl High School (Thor Heyerdahl videregående skole) is an upper secondary school in Larvik, Norway. The school is named after the explorer Thor Heyerdahl, who was born in the city.

It is among the country’s largest with over 1,580 students and 300 employees and offers 10 programmes or courses of instruction. It was split between several locations until a new building, built as a combined project with Arena Larvik, opened on 17 August 2009. For more information click here.

Thor Heyerdahl Museum

Kon-Tiki museum is a museum in the Bygdøy peninsula in Oslo, Norway. The museum’s exhibitions, accompanied by informative texts in many languages, present the breadth of Heyerdahl’s life’s work, from his first trip to Fatu Hiva, to the voyages with the Kon-Tiki, the Ra, the Ra II and the Tigris, as well as the expeditions to the Galàpagos Islands, Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and Tùcume in Peru.

The Museum was originally built to house the Kon-Tiki, a raft of balsa wood of pre-Columbian model that Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl used to sail from Peru to Polynesia in 1947. Vist the museum and experience original vessels and up-to-date exhibits on Heyerdahl’s expeditions.

For more information click here.