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Iceland,
many centuries ago. Boas, the eleven-year-old son of a priest, lives in
a village on the north coast. It's been a hard winter during which the
fishermen have not been able to put out to sea and so provisions are dangerously
low. The villagers believe that evil spirits are responsible for their
dire straits.
Then, one day, an ice floe drifts to the coast, bringing with it a strange
little creature. Believing the creature to be a demon, the villagers pursue
it; the arrival of a sudden snowstorm seems to give credence to their
assumption. Boas, however, who finds himself buried by the snowstorm,
has quite a different story to tell when the strange being saves his life
and turns out to be none other than a human being. The boy, who is rather
unkempt and speaks in a strange language, is otherwise of a peaceful disposition.
His manners are bit strange though, because he insists on touching Boas'
nose and uttering the word 'Ikíngut', which Boas takes to be his
friend's name. Boas' father is only too happy to take the boy in to live
with them but the other villagers, who are ill-disposed to the priest
anyway, demand that he hands over the boy so that they can kill the alleged
'demon'. A guardian of the law intervenes in the argument between the
villagers and the priest and decides that Ikíngut should be locked
up in jail. However, with some help from his sister, Ása, Boas
manages to free him. Pursued by the villagers, the two boys escape to
Ikíngut's ice floe and drift out onto the open sea...
Finally, a Norwegian ship finds them and brings them home again, where
they are welcomed with great joy. The ship's captain clears up the whole
mystery by explaining that Ikíngut is an Inuit - an Eskimo boy
- who was blown by the storm from Greenland to Iceland. Finally, they
learn that Ikíngut isn't his name at all. In his language the word
means 'friend'.
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