Vikings in Greenland

Vikings began to settle in Greenland after they realized that Iceland did not have enough fertile farmland to support the number of people who wanted to live there.

By 976, most of the best land had been claimed. Only infertile land was available. That year, Iceland experienced a huge famine.

About 75 years earlier, reports of land farther to the west had begun to filter back to the Vikings in Iceland.

At that time, a Viking named Gunnbjörn Ulfsson was driven off course while sailing from Norway to Iceland. Blown to the west, he saw a new, bleak and rocky coast.

Gunnbjörn did not attempt to land, but when he eventually arrived in Iceland he made it known that he had seen new territory.

The famine and the lack of unclaimed fertile land made Icelanders began to think seriously about moving west.

Eric the Red

Eric the Red was a young settler who had come to Iceland with his father, who had been exiled from Norway for killing a man.

In 982, Eric was outlawed from Iceland for a period of three years as the result of a serious feud. He determined to concentrate on looking for Gunnbjörn's land in the unexplored west.

Eric set off with a band of followers in 982. The company sailed west. After only a few days, they sighted land. The country looked barren and uninviting, so Eric and his men turned south.

Soon, they rounded a cape, and found that the land turned north. The travelers found this coast more pleasant than the one where they had first landed, and decided to pass the winter there.

They called the place where they wintered Eriksey (Eric's island) in the entrance to Eriksfjord.

When spring arrived, Eric and his men started up the coast again, naming many places on their way.

They returned to the south for the second winter, and made another reconnaissance trip the following summer.

After spending yet another winter in Eriksfjord, the party finally returned to Iceland, their period of banishment over.

Back in Iceland, Eric talked at length and with great enthusiasm d the land he had spent the last three years exploring.

Then, after he became involved in new quarrels with old enemies, he decided to return to his new land and colonize it.

Eric called his the land he discovered Greenland, because of its green coast. According to the sagas, he thought the name would encourage others to go there with him.

Eric led a party of would-be colonists to Greenland in the summer of 986. Of between 25 and 35 ships, 14 safely arrived in Greenland.

The number of pioneer settlers was estimated at between 400 and 500. Eric was advised them on the best places to settle.

The majority traveled 40 miles inland from the rocky coast and made their homes around the heads of the fjords. The main center of habitation came to be known as the Eastern Settlement-in the region of the modern port of Julianehab (Qaqortoq)

Archeological remains and information gleaned from sagas tell us that at its height, the Eastern Settle¬ment consisted of 190 farms, 12 churches, a cathedral, a monastery, and a convent.

Because of his previous visit, Eric was recognized as head of the colony. He built himself a large house called Brattahlid at the head of Eriksfjord it.

Other settlers moved north up the coast to found the Western Settlement, around Godthåb Fjord.

Expanding Colonies

Summer after summer, encouraged by glowing reports from friends or relations who had gone ahead, more families arrived, and both settlements expanded and throve.

In Greenland, driftwood, the most important commodity to northern settlers, was in much better supply than in Iceland. Hunting and fishing were excellent. There were many eider ducks, whose down was highly prized.

The Greenland colony survived for more than 400 years. In 1261, Greenland became the farthest outpost of the Norwegian empire.

Norwegian ships made annual journeys between the two countries, bringing the supplies of grain to the Greenlanders needed in exchange for walrus tusks, sealskins and bearskins.

Sometime in the early 1400s, the ships stopped coming and the Greenland colony died out. Nobody knows why. It may have fallen victim to an Eskimo attack or to an epidemic, or the climate may have worsened.