In the early twentieth-centuries (period from 1909-1923) some fishermen migrated with their families from the west coast of Jutland to the small island, Gjøl, in the Limfjord. While the migration of the fishermen moving to Gjøl paralleled the migration of other West coast fishermen moving to other Limfjord villages, the trajectory of these particular fishermen was described in a novel by Hans Kirk from 1928. In this study I have wanted to find out if there were conflicts between the emigrants and the inhabitants caused by religious differences. And I wanted to see how the cultural meeting took place and how the emigrants happened to be integrated at Gjøl?
My investigation shows that some of the fishermen migrated because, they wanted to get away from the Sea, while others migrated because they saw an opportunity to make better fishing revenue further east in the Limfjord, where they had been fishing during the summer months in previous years.
My study shows that the religious divisions did create conflicts at the Island, but the conflicts were not only caused by religion. They also resulted from social divisions and fears of disturbances of the hierarchy among the inhabitants at Gjøl. On the other hand, the fishermen were well integrated in the fishing community, in which some of the fishermen from the west coast undertook leadership positions and pushed the community to question and change previous practices.