Count Eigil Knuth (8 August 1903 – 12 March 1996) was a Danish explorer, archaeologist, sculptor and writer.
[5] His hero was the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen who, in 1888, was the first to cross the Greenland ice cap; the trip was financed by State Councillor Augustinus Gamel, a Danish businessman, and Knuth's maternal grandfather.
[5] Knuth studied building technology at Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and then woodcarving at Val Gardena in Italy between 1926 and 1928.
He published his first book, on the subject of philosophy, in 1927, revealing an affinity with the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.
The following summer, in 1936, Knuth, Robert Gessain, and Michel Perez participated in the French Trans-Greenland Expedition under Paul-Emile Victor, crossing the Greenland inlandsis[7] (ice cap), starting at Christianshåb in the west, and ending at Tasiilaq/Angmagsalik, an Inuit settlement in the east.
[9] With the start of war, Knuth could not return to Greenland as planned, instead, becoming an announcer for Denmark Radio in the Danish resistance movement.
Before his death, Knuth was unable to complete a comprehensive book summarizing his Peary Land archaeological findings.