Chapter VII: The Voyages of the Norsemen: Discovery of Iceland and Greenland (2)

Various later writers have interpreted this to mean that Gunnbjörnskerries lay to the west of Iceland, and far from the great land that Gunnbjörn saw; but the earliest notices (in the Hauksbók and Sturlubók) do not warrant such a view. It has even been suggested as possible that Gunnbjörnskerries lay in the ocean between Iceland and Greenland, but were destroyed later by a volcanic outbreak. In the Dutchman Ruysch's map of 1508 an island is marked in this ocean, with the note that: "This island was totally consumed in the year 1456 A.D."[240] It is inconceivable that such an island midway in the course between Iceland and Greenland should have entirely escaped mention in the oldest accounts of the voyages of Eric the Red and later settlers in Greenland, to say nothing of the circumstance that it would certainly have been mentioned in the ancient sailing-directions (e.g., in the Hauksbók and Sturlubók) for the voyage from Iceland to Greenland. Nor are there any known banks in this part of the ocean which might indicate that such an island had existed. It is in itself not the least unlikely that Gunnbjörn reached some islands of the Greenland coast, and that these in later tradition received the name of Gunnbjörnskerries.

That they were gradually transferred by tradition to a place where islands were no longer to be met with, or which in any case was unapproachable on account of ice, appears from the description of Greenland ascribed to Ivar Bárdsson (probably written in the fifteenth century), where we read:[241]

"Item from Snæfellsnes in Iceland, which is shortest to Greenland, two
days' and two nights' sail, due west is the course, and there lie
Gunnbjörnskerries right in mid-channel between Greenland and Iceland.
This was the old course, but now ice has come from the gulf of the sea
to the north-east ['landnorden botnen'] so near to the said skerries,
that none without danger to life can sail the old course, and be heard
of again."

Later in the same statement we read:

"Item when one sails from Iceland, one must take his course from
Snæfellsnes ... and then sail due west one day and one night, very
slightly to the south-west[242] to avoid the before-mentioned ice
which lies off Gunnbjörnskerries, and then one day and one night due
north-west, and thus he will come straight on the said highland Hvarf
in Greenland."

This description need not be taken to indicate that the Gunnbjörnskerries were supposed to lie in the midst of the sea between Iceland and Greenland; some place on the east coast of Greenland (e.g., at Angmagsalik) may rather be intended, which was sighted on the voyage between Iceland and the Eastern Settlement (taking "Greenland" to mean only the settled districts of the country). The direction "due west, etc.," for the voyage to the Eastern Settlement is too westerly, unless it was a course by compass, which, although possible, is hardly probable. But as we shall see later there is much that is untrustworthy in the description attributed to Ivar Bárdsson.

A later tradition of Gunnbjörn's voyage also deserves mention; it is found in the "Annals of Greenland" of the already mentioned Björn Jónsson of Skardsá (1574-1656), which he compiled from older Icelandic sources, with corrections and "improvements" of his own. He says there ("Grönl. hist. Mind.," i. p. 88) that the reason why Eric the Red

"sailed to Greenland was no other than this, that it was in the memory
of old people that Gunnbjörn, Ulf Kråka's son, was thought to have
seen a glacier in the western ocean ('til annars jökulsins i
vestrhafnu'), but Snæfells-glacier here, when he was carried westward
on the sea, after he sailed from the Gunnbjörn's islands. Iceland was
then entirely unsettled, and newly discovered by Gardar, who sailed
around the country from ness to ness ('nesjastefnu'), and called it
Gardarsholm. But this Gunnbjörn, who came next after him, he sailed
round much farther out ('djúpara'), but kept land in sight, therefore
he called the islands skerries in contradistinction to the holm [i.e.,
Gardarsholm]; but many histories have since called these islands land,
sometimes large islands."

This last statement is in any case an explanatory "improvement" by Björn Jónsson himself, and doubtless this is also true of the rest. According to this the Gunnbjörnskerries lay even within sight of Iceland. In this connection it is worth remarking that his contemporary Arngrim Jónsson imagines ("Specim. Island.," p. 34) the Gunnbjörnskerries as a little uninhabited island north of Iceland. This would agree best with the little Meven-klint, which lies by itself in the Polar Sea fifty-six nautical miles north of land, and perhaps it is not wholly impossible that it was rumours of this in later times that gave rise to the ideas of the Gunnbjörnskerries, which however by confusion were transferred westward.

It was long before any attempt was made, according to the narratives, to search for the land discovered by Gunnbjörn. In Hauk's Landnámabók [c. 122] we read:

[Sidenote: Snæbjörn Galti and Rolf of Raudesand]

"Snæbjörn [Galti, Holmsteinsson] owned a ship in Grimså-os, and Rolf
of Raudesand bought a half-share in it.[243] They had twelve men each.
With Snæbjörn were Thorkel and Sumarlide, sons of Thorgeir Raud, son
of Einar of Stafholt. Snæbjörn also took with him Thorodd of Thingnes,
his foster-father, and his wife, and Rolf took with him Styrbjörn, who
quoth thus after his dream:

'The bane I see
of both of us,
all dolefully
north-west in the sea,
frost and cold,
all kinds of anguish;
from such I foresee
the slaying of Snæbjörn.'

"They went to seek for Gunnbjörnskerries, and found land. Snæbjörn
would not let any one land at night. Styrbjörn went from the ship and
found a purse of money in a grave-mound ['kuml,' a cairn over a
grave], and hid it. Snæbjörn struck at him with an axe, and the purse
fell. They built a house, and covered it all over with snow ['ok lagdi
hann i fonn']. Thorkel Raudsson found that there was water on the fork
that stuck out at the aperture of the hut. That was in the month of
Goe.[244] Then they dug themselves out. Snæbjörn made ready the ship.
Of his people Thorodd and his wife stayed in the house; and of Rolf's
Styrbjörn and others, and the rest went hunting. Styrbjörn slew
Thorodd, and both he and Rolf slew Snæbjörn. Raud's sons and all the
others took oaths [i.e., oaths of fidelity] to save their lives. They
came to Hálogaland, and went thence to Iceland, and arrived at
Vadil." There both Rolf and Styrbjörn met their death.

It is possible that this strange fragmentary tale points back to an actual attempt at settlement in Greenland, due to Snæbjörn and Rolf having to leave Iceland on account of homicide. The attempt may have been abandoned on account of dissensions, or because the country was too inhospitable. From the genealogical information the voyage may possibly be placed a little earlier than Eric the Red's first voyage to Greenland [cf. K. Maurer, 1874, p. 204]. Whereabouts in Greenland they landed and spent the winter is not stated; but the fact that the snow first began to thaw in the month of "Goe" would point to a cold climate, and this agrees best with the east coast of Greenland. But the story is so obscure that it is difficult to form any clear opinion as to its general credibility; the grave-mound and the purse of money must in any case have come from elsewhere. The circumstance that on their return they sailed first to Norway and thence to Iceland may be derived from a later time, when there was no direct communication between Greenland and Iceland, but the communication with Greenland took place by way of Norway.

[Sidenote: Eric the Red]

The greatest and most important name connected with the discovery of Greenland is without comparison that of Eirik Raude (Erik the Red). The description of this remarkable man (in the Landnáma and in the Saga of Eric the Red) forms a good picture; warlike and hard as the fiercest Viking, but at the same time with the superior ability of the born explorer and leader to plan great enterprises, and to carry them out in spite of all difficulties. He was a leader of men. He was born in Norway (circa 950); but on account of homicide he and his father Thorvald left Jæderen and went to Iceland about 970. They took land on the Horn-strands, east of Horn (Cape North). There Thorvald died. Eric then married Tjodhild, whose mother, Thorbjörg Knarrar-bringa (i.e., ship's breast), lived in Haukadal. Eric therefore moved south and cleared land in Haukadal (inland of Hvamsfjord, north of Snæfellsnes) and lived at Eirikstad by Vatshorn. Eric quarrelled with his neighbours and killed several of them. He was therefore condemned to leave Haukadal. He took land on Brokö and Öksnö, islands outside Hvamsfjord; but after fresh conflicts and slaughter he and his men were declared outlaws for three years, at the Thorsnes thing, about 980. Eric then fitted out his ship, and a friend concealed him, while his enemies went all round the islands looking for him.

"He told them [i.e., his friends] that he meant to seek the land that
Gunnbjörn, Ulf Kråka's son, saw when he was driven west of Iceland and
found Gunnbjörnskerries. He said he would come back for his friends,
if he found the land. Eric put to sea from Snæfells-glacier;[245] he
arrived off Mid-glacier, at the place called Bláserk. [Thence he went
south, to see whether the land was habitable.] He sailed westward
round Hvarf [west of Cape Farewell] and spent the first winter in
Eiriksey near [the middle of] the Eastern Settlement. Next spring he
went to Eiriksfjord [the modern Tunugdliarfik, due north of
Julianehaab; see map, p. 265] and gave names to many places. The
second winter he was at Eiriksholms by Hvarfsgnipa [Hvarf Point]; but
the third summer he went right north to Snæfell[246] and into
Ravnsfjord.[247] Then he thought he had come farther into the land
than the head of Eiriksfjord. He then turned back, and was the third
winter in Eiriksey off the mouth of Eiriksfjord. The following summer
he went to Iceland, to Breidafjord. He passed that winter at Holmlåt
with Ingolf. In the spring they fought with Thorgest [Eric's former
enemy], and Eric was beaten. After that they were reconciled. That
summer Eric went to settle the land that he had found, and he called
it Greenland; because, said he, men would be more willing to go
thither if it had a good name."

"[Eric settled at Brattalid in Eiriksfjord.] Then Are Thorgilsson says
that that summer twenty-five ships sailed to Greenland from
Borgarfjord and Breidafjord; but only fourteen came there--some were
driven back, others were lost. This was sixteen winters before
Christianity was made law in Iceland."[248] This would therefore be
about 984.

Eric the Red's first voyage to Greenland is one of the most remarkable in the history of arctic expeditions, both in itself, on account of the masterly ability it shows, and for the vast consequences it was to have. With the scanty means of equipment and provisioning available at that time in the open Viking ships,[249] it was no child's play to set out for an unknown arctic land beyond the ice, and to stay there three years. Perhaps, of course, he did it from necessity; but he not only came through it alive--he employed the three years in exploring the country, from Hvarf right up to north of Davis Strait, and from the outermost belt of skerries to the head of the long fjords. This was more than 500 years before the Portuguese came to the country, and exactly 600 before John Davis thought himself the discoverer of this coast.

But not only does Eric seem to have been pre-eminent, first as a fighter and then as a discoverer; as the leader of the colony founded by him in Greenland he must also have had great capabilities; he got people to emigrate thither, and looked after them well; and he was regarded as a matter of course as the leading man and chief of the new free state, whom every one visited first on arrival. His successors, who resided at the chief's seat of Brattalid, were the first family of the country.

Immigration to Greenland must according to the saga have gone on rapidly; for in the year 1000 there were already so many inhabitants that Olaf Tryggvason thought it worth while to make efforts to Christianise them, and sent a priest there with Eric's son Leif. Eric's wife, Tjodhild, at once received the faith; but the old man himself did not like the new doctrine, and found it difficult to give up his own. Tjodhild built a church at some distance from the houses; "there she made her prayers, and those men who accepted Christianity, but they were the most. She would not live with Eric, after she had taken the faith; but to him this was very displeasing." In Snorre's Heimskringla we read that men called Leif "the Lucky [see Chap. ix.]; but Eric, his father, thought that one thing balanced the other, that Leif had saved the shipwrecked crew and that he had brought the hypocrite ['skæmannin'] to Greenland, that is, the priest."

The Norsemen established themselves in two districts of Greenland. One of these was the "Eastern Settlement" [Österbygden], so called because it lay farthest to the south-east on the west coast, between the southern point, Hvarf, and about 61° N. lat. It corresponds to the modern Julianehaab District. It was the most thickly populated, and it was here that Eiriksfjord and Brattalid lay. In the whole "Settlement" there are said to have been 190 homesteads ["Grönl. hist. Mind.," iii. p. 228]. Ruins of these have been found in at least 150 places [cf. D. Bruun, 1896; G. Holm, 1883].

[Sidenote: The Western Settlement]

The other district, the "Western Settlement" [Vesterbygden], lay farther north-west between 63° and 66-1/2° (see map, p. 266), for the most part in the modern Godthaab District, and its population was densest in Ameralik-fjord and Godthaabsfjord. There are said to have been ninety homesteads in this settlement. Many ruins of Norsemen's stone houses are still found in both districts, and they show with certainty where the settlements were and what was their extent.

On the east coast of Greenland, which is closed by drift-ice for the greater part of the year, the Norsemen had no permanent settlement, and it was only exceptionally that they were able to land there, or they were sometimes wrecked in the drift-ice off the coast and had to take refuge ashore. Several places are, however, mentioned along the southern part of the east coast, where people from the Eastern Settlement probably went hunting in the summer.

[Sidenote: Population]

[Sidenote: Bishops]

The population of the two settlements in Greenland can scarcely have been large at any time; perhaps at its highest a couple of thousand altogether. If we take it that there were 280 homesteads, and on an average seven persons in each, which is a high estimate, then the total will not be more than 1960. But the long distances caused the building, after the introduction of Christianity, of a comparatively large number of churches, namely, twelve in the Eastern Settlement (where the ruins of only five have been found) and four in the Western Settlement, besides which a monastery and a nunnery are mentioned in the Eastern Settlement. About 1110 Greenland became an independent bishopric, although it is said in the "King's Mirror" that

"if it lay nearer to other lands it would be reckoned for a third part
of a bishopric. But now the people there have nevertheless a bishop
of their own; for there is no other way, since the distance between
them and other people is so great."

The chief's house Garðar in Einarsfjord (Igaliko) became the episcopal residence. There is a fairly complete record of the bishops of Greenland down to the end of the fourteenth century. During the succeeding century and even until 1530 a number of bishops of Greenland are also mentioned, who were appointed, but never went to Greenland.

[Sidenote: Norse literature in Greenland]

Even if the conditions of life in the Greenland settlements were not luxurious, they were nevertheless not so hard as to prevent the development of an independent art of poetry. Sophus Bugge points out in "Norrœn Fornkvædi" [Christiania, 1867, p. 433] that the "Atlamál en grœnlenzku" of the Edda is, as its title shows, from Greenland, and was most probably composed there. Finnur Jónsson [1894, i. pp. 66, 68 ff.; 1897, pp. 40 ff.] would even refer four or five other Edda-lays to Greenland, namely: "Oddrúnargrátr," "Goðrúnarhvot," "Sigurðarkviða en skamma," "Helgakviða Hundingsbana," perhaps also "Helreið Brynhildar." As regards the two last-named, the assumption is certainly too doubtful, but in the case of the other three it is possible. The "Norðrsetu-drápa," to be mentioned later (p. 298), was composed in Greenland; and the so-called "Hafgerðinga-drápa" may be derived thence; in the Landnámabók, where one or two fragments of it are reproduced, it is said to have been composed by a "Christian man (monk ?) from the Southern isles" (Hebrides), on the way thither. The fragments of lays on Furðustrandir and Wineland, which are given in the Saga of Eric the Red, may possibly also be from Greenland. The fact that the "Snorra-Edda" gives a particular kind of metre, called "Grönlenzkr háttr,"[250] agrees with the view that Greenland had an independent art of poetry.

The Greenland lays like the Atlamál are perhaps not equal to the best Norse skald-poetry; but there runs through them a weird, gloomy note that bears witness of the wild nature and the surroundings in which they were composed.

[Sidenote: Ruins]

[Sidenote: Food]

Within the fjords of both the ancient Greenland settlements many ruins of former habitations have been found (see maps, pp. 265, 266, 271); most of these are found in the Eastern Settlement or Julianehaab District [cf. especially D. Bruun, 1896; also G. Holm, 1883]. In a single homestead as many as a score of scattered houses have been found; among them was a dwelling-house, and around it byres and stables for cattle, horses, sheep and goats, with adjoining hay-barns, or else open hay-fences (round stone walls within which the hay was stacked and covered with turf), besides larders, drying-houses, pens for sheep, fenced fields, etc. There were also fenced outlying hayfields with barns and with summer byres for sheep and goats, for they had even mountain pastures and hayfields. Near the shore are found sheds, possibly for gear for boats, sealing and fishing, but, on the other hand, there are no actual boathouses. Ruins of several churches (five in the Eastern Settlement) have also been found. The dwelling-houses were built of stone and turf, like the Icelandic farmhouses; in exceptional cases clay was also used, while the outhouses were mostly built with dry stone walls. For the timber work of the roofs drift-wood must have been usually employed. The winter byres were of course made weatherproof. The size of the byres shows that the numbers of their stock were not inconsiderable, mostly sheep and goats; only where the level lands near the fjords offered specially good pasture was there any great number of horned cattle. Everywhere in the neighbourhood of the ruins stone traps are found which show that the Greenlanders occupied themselves in trapping foxes; a few large traps have been thought to have been intended for wolves (?), which are now no longer to be found in southern Greenland. Near the main buildings are found great refuse heaps ("kitchen middens"), which give us much information as to the life they led and what they lived on. Great quantities of bones taken from five different sites in the Eastern Settlement (among them the probable sites of Brattalid and Gardar) have been examined by the Danish zoologist, Herluf Winge [cf. D. Bruun, 1896, pp. 434 ff.]. The great predominance of bones of domestic animals, especially oxen and goats, and of seals, especially the Greenland seal or saddle-back (Phoca grœnlandica), and the bladder-nose or crested seal (Cystophora cristata), show that cattle-rearing and seal-hunting were the Greenlanders' chief means of subsistence; and the latter especially must have provided the greater part of their flesh food, since as a rule the bones of seals are the most numerous. Curiously enough, few fish-bones have been found. As we know with certainty that the Greenlanders were much occupied in fishing, this absence now is accounted for by fish-bones and other offal of fish being used for fodder for cattle in winter. Various reindeer bones show that this animal was also found in ancient times in the Eastern Settlement, where it is now extinct. Besides these, bones of a single polar bear and of a few walrus have been found, which show that these animals were caught, though in small numbers; a few bones of whale have also been found. There are, strangely enough, comparatively few bones of birds. The bones of horses that have been found belong to a small race and the cattle were of small size and horned.

[Sidenote: Life and conditions]

In the otherwise very legendary tale, in the Saga of the Foster Brothers (beginning of the thirteenth century), of Thormod Kolbrunarskald's voyage to Greenland and sojourn there, to avenge the death of his friend Thorgeir, we get here and there sidelights on the daily life of the country, which agree well with the information afforded by the remains. We hear that they often went to sea after seals, that they had harpoons for seals ("selskutill"), that they cooked the flesh of seals, etc. From the "King's Mirror" (circa 1250) we get a good glimpse of the conditions of life in Greenland in those days:

"But in Greenland, as you probably know, everything that comes from
other lands is dear there; for the country lies so distant from other
lands that men seldom visit it. And everything they require to assist
the country, they must buy from elsewhere, both iron (and tar) and
likewise everything for building houses. But these things are brought
thence in exchange for goods: buckskin and ox-hides, and sealskin and
walrus-rope and walrus-ivory." "But since you asked whether there was
any raising of crops or not, I believe that country is little assisted
thereby. Nevertheless there are men--and they are those who are known
as the noblest and richest--who make essay to sow; but nevertheless
the great multitude in that country does not know what bread is, and
never even saw bread."...

"Few are the people in that land, for little of it is thawed so much
as to be habitable.... But when you ask what they live on in that
country, since they have no corn, then [you must know] that men live
on more things than bread alone. Thus it is said that there is good
pasture and great and good homesteads in Greenland; for people there
have much cattle and sheep, and there is much making of butter and
cheese. The people live much on this, and also on flesh and all kinds
of game, the flesh of reindeer, whale, seal and bear; on this they
maintain themselves in that country."

We see clearly enough from this how the Greenlanders of the old settlements on the one hand were dependent on imports from Europe, and on the other subsisted largely by hunting and fishing. It appears also from a papal bull of 1282 that the Greenland tithes were paid in ox-hides, seal-skins and walrus-ivory.

It has been asserted that Greenland at that time possessed a more favourable climate, with less ice both on land and sea than at present; but, amongst other things, the excellent description in the "King's Mirror," to be mentioned directly, shows clearly enough that such was not the case. Many will therefore ask what it was that could attract the Icelanders thither. But to one who knows both countries it will not be so surprising; in many ways South Greenland appeals more to a Norwegian than Iceland. It lies in about the same latitude as Bergen and Christiania, and the beautiful fjords with a number of islands outside, where there are good channels for sailing and harbours everywhere, make it altogether like the coast of Norway, and different from the more exposed coasts of Iceland. Inside the fjords the summer is quite as warm and inviting as in Iceland; it is true that there is drift-ice outside in early summer, but that brings good seal-hunting. There was, besides this, walrus-hunting and whaling, reindeer-hunting, fishing in the sea and in the rivers, fowling, etc. When we add good pasturage on the shores of the fjords, it will be understood that it was comparatively easy to support life.

The grass still grows luxuriantly around the ruins on the Greenland fjords, and might even to-day support the herds of many a homestead.