The character of Stockholm Sven is inspired by a real Spitsbergian hunter about whom we know almost nothing. (I have changed his surname, in case he should have any living descendants who might take issue with this imagined history.) Sven is referenced several times by Christiane Ritter in her memoir, A Woman in the Polar Night (1938)—maybe the most famous book ever written about Svalbard—though she never met him. This story, in turn, references her.
According to certain dubious sources, Sven’s face was mutilated in an avalanche during his first winter in the mines of Longyear, after which he became self-conscious and monastic. He served for a time as steward at Camp Morton before removing to Raudfjorden. There he built his hut, which still stands, in the 1920s, and dwelt—entirely alone—for the remainder of his life. Presumably.