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60 free Fridtjof Nansen trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Fridtjof Nansen trivia quiz follows one of the most varied lives of the modern age. Nansen was a national ski champion and world-record skater before he was twenty, a neuroscientist whose doctoral work helped establish the neuron doctrine, the first man to cross the Greenland ice cap, and the explorer who deliberately froze the Fram into the pack ice to drift towards the North Pole, then left the ship with one companion and a team of dogs to set a Farthest North record that stood for five years. The second half of his life is just as rich, and the quiz covers it: the secret mission that gave Norway its king in 1905, the London ministry, the oceanographic instruments still named for him, and the League of Nations years in which he repatriated more than 400,000 prisoners of war, fought the Russian famine, invented the Nansen passport for stateless people and won the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize. Expect questions on ships, dates, companions, rivals and the odd surprising detail, such as the walrus attack that saved his life and the airship ambition Amundsen beat him to. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Nansen, the Nansen passport and the Nansen bottle, and each question links to the page that establishes it. Fifty-four questions, free, with an explanation after every answer.
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Q 01Nansen was born in 1861 near which capital city, then called Christiania?
Oslo
He grew up at Store Frøen, a rural estate a few kilometres north of the city, swimming, hunting and skiing.
Q 02In which year did Nansen win the Nobel Peace Prize?
1922
He learned of the award while attending the Conference of Lausanne and donated the prize money to relief efforts.
Q 03How did Nansen's six-man team make the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888?
On cross-country skis
The party man-hauled lightweight sledges of Nansen's own design from the uninhabited east coast towards the settled west.
Q 04What record northern latitude did Nansen reach during the Fram expedition?
86°14′
It was almost three degrees beyond the previous record and stood until an Italian expedition passed it in 1900.
Q 05What subject did Nansen study at the Royal Frederick University in Christiania?
Zoology
He later said he chose it because it offered the chance of a life in the open air.
Q 06Nansen's doctoral research on marine creatures helped establish which idea?
Neuron doctrine
He is considered the first Norwegian defender of the theory; Santiago Ramón y Cajal won a Nobel Prize for the same subject in 1906.
Q 07At age 18 Nansen broke a world record in which sport?
Skating
He broke the one-mile skating record and the following year won the first of twelve national cross-country skiing titles.
Q 08At what age did Nansen begin skiing, on improvised skis?
Two
At ten he defied his parents to try the Huseby ski jump and bored into the snow up to his waist.
Q 09On which sealing ship did the young Nansen make his first Arctic voyage in 1882?
Viking
From water samples he showed that sea ice forms on the surface rather than below, and shot seals with the crew.
Q 10Nansen planned the Greenland crossing from east to west. Why?
The party would have no line of retreat
Starting on the uninhabited east coast made it a one-way trip towards settlements, which suited his philosophy completely.
Q 11Who funded the Greenland expedition after Norway's parliament refused?
A Danish businessman
Augustin Gamél's donation was topped up by small contributions from Norwegians, raised by university students.
Q 12Which people, on Nordenskiöld's advice, did Nansen recruit for the Greenland crossing?
Sami
Samuel Balto and Ole Nielsen Ravna came from Finnmark; the Telemark skiers Nansen first approached had turned him down.
Q 13How many days did the Greenland crossing take, from Umivik to Godthaab?
49
The party reached a height of 2,719 metres on the ice cap, where night temperatures fell to minus 45 degrees Celsius.
Q 21Roughly how long was the Fram?
39 metres
At 11 metres wide she looked stubby, but speed mattered less than surviving years locked in ice.
Q 22Who served as second-in-command on the Fram expedition?
Otto Sverdrup
He had crossed Greenland with Nansen and later commanded the Fram alone after Nansen left the ship for the pole.
Q 23In what capacity did the dog-driving expert Hjalmar Johansen sign on to the Fram?
Ship's stoker
Competition for places was so fierce that the army lieutenant took the only position still available.
Q 14What news greeted Nansen on reaching Godthaab in October 1888?
He had secured his doctorate
He had left for Greenland before learning the outcome of his thesis defence, and said the matter could not have been further from his thoughts.
Q 15Why did the party spend seven months in Greenland after the crossing?
No ship would call until spring
The Danish ship Hvidbjørnen finally arrived on 15 April 1889, and Nansen wrote a book, Eskimo Life, from the stay.
Q 16Whom did Nansen marry in September 1889, less than a month after their engagement?
Eva Sars
She was a celebrated mezzo-soprano and pioneer of women's skiing; the couple had first met when he saw two feet sticking out of the snow.
Q 17Whose theory of transpolar drift inspired Nansen's plan for the Fram expedition?
Henrik Mohn
The meteorologist reasoned from Jeannette wreckage found on Greenland's coast that a current crossed the polar sea.
Q 18Wreckage from which sunken American ship suggested a current across the Arctic Ocean?
USS Jeannette
She was crushed off the Siberian coast in June 1881; her relics turned up on the far side of the Arctic in Greenland.
Q 19Which American explorer called the drift plan 'an illogical scheme of self-destruction'?
Adolphus Greely
He later criticised Nansen again, in Harper's Weekly, for leaving his ship to strike for the pole.
Q 20Who designed and built the Fram?
Colin Archer
The naval engineer gave the ship a rounded hull meant to lift her upward when squeezed by pack ice.
Q 24In which year did the Fram leave Christiania on the polar drift expedition?
1893
She departed on 24 June and left Vardø, her last Norwegian port, on 21 July for the Siberian coast.
Q 25Which phenomenon slowed the Fram along the Siberian coast?
Dead water
A layer of fresh water on top of heavier salt water creates friction that drags on a ship's progress.
Q 26At about what rate did the Fram usually drift north through 1894?
Rarely above 1.5 km a day
Nansen calculated the ship might need five years to reach the pole, which is why he began planning a dog-sledge dash.
Q 27On what date did Nansen and Johansen leave the Fram for their dash to the pole?
14 March 1895
Nansen allowed 50 days to cover the 660 kilometres to the pole; they turned back on 7 April.
Q 28What navigational mistake did the pair make on 13 April 1895?
They forgot to wind their chronometers
Without accurate time they could not fix their longitude, and were uncertain of their true position for the rest of the trek.
Q 29Where did Nansen and Johansen spend the winter of 1895-96?
Franz Josef Land
They built a hut of stones and moss and lived for eight months on bear, walrus and seal; boredom, not hunger, was the enemy.
Q 30Which British explorer stumbled upon Nansen at Cape Flora in June 1896?
Frederick Jackson
After an awkward pause Jackson asked "You are Nansen, aren't you?" and got the reply "Yes, I am Nansen."