Editing Roald Amundsen (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:Amundsenboy.jpg|thumb|alt=A young Roald Amundsen is depicted in 1875 during his childhood years.|Roald Amundsen as a young boy in 1875]]
Amundsen was born into a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains in [[Borge, Østfold|Borge]], between the towns [[Fredrikstad]] and [[Sarpsborg]]. His parents were Jens Amundsen and Hanna Sahlqvist. Roald was the fourth son in the family. His mother wanted him to avoid the family maritime trade and encouraged him to become a doctor, a promise that Amundsen kept until his mother died when he was aged 21. He promptly quit university for a life at sea.<ref name="Thomas" />

Amundsen was in the [[Uranienborg, Norway|Uranienborg]] neighbourhood an occasional childhood playmate of the pioneering Antarctica explorer [[Carsten Borchgrevink]].<ref name="k491">{{cite web | title=This small rock holds the story of Antarctic exploration before the Heroic Age | website=Museums Victoria | url=https://museumsvictoria.com.au/article/first-rock-from-antarctica/ | access-date=28 June 2024}}</ref><ref>Huntford (''Last Place on Earth''), p. 28</ref>

When he was fifteen years old, Amundsen was enthralled by reading [[John Franklin|Sir John Franklin]]'s narratives of his overland Arctic expeditions. Amundsen wrote "I read them with a fervid fascination which has shaped the whole course of my life".<ref name="Life">{{cite book | title=My Life as an Explorer | publisher=Doubleday, Page & company | author=Amundsen, Roald | year=1927 | location=Garden City, NY}}</ref>