VIKING ADVENTURES

 Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about

VIKINGS IN GREENLAND

Many of us have heard the tale of troublesome Erik the Red, who found his way to Greenland after being exiled from Norway and Iceland for murder. It is said that he named Greenland somewhat misleadingly in order to persuade his countrymen to settle there – well, astonishingly it worked, and his original voyage in AD 984 officially marks the start of the Viking era in Greenland.

Between AD 984 and an unknown year in the 1400s, the Vikings (or Norsemen) of Greenland represented European civilisation’s most remote outpost. They lived in two settlements on Greenland’s west coast. ‘Western Settlement’ which actually lay more north than west of ‘Eastern Settlement’, was located at the head of what we know as Nuuk Fjord today. Eastern settlement was much bigger (around two or three thousand inhabitants to Western settlement’s 500) and was spread all over the area that we now know as South Greenland.

Although the Norsemen built a thriving society in Greenland that lasted for over 400 years, the reason for their disappearance remains one of Greenland’s greatest mysteries. There are many theories but there’s no general agreement on how and why the whole society vanished at some point in the 1400s.

South Greenland is famous for its Norse history and blue icebergs, and you can easily reach both on daytrips from the airport in Narsarsuaq.

Norse Greenland society was a delicate balance. Back in Norway and Iceland, Viking society relied on livestock farming, the production of dairy products like butter, cheese and skyr (Icelandic yoghurt), and on the status of the church. Translating this lifestyle to a climate as harsh and remote as Greenland required the development of a complex, interdependent economy. Everything was intricately planned, and society was rigidly structured. Generally speaking, it worked, but it also left society vulnerable, as failure of just one of the components could send everything into crisis.

There are 5 long-term concerns with which the Norsemen continually battled throughout their time in Greenland.

1. Natural Resources

Although the south is the lushest part of the country, Greenland’s natural resources are not sufficient enough to support a large farming society. Much of the livestock the Norse brought with them from Norway turned out to be unsuitable for Greenland’s colder climate. The grazing season for cows was shorter than what they were used to, meaning that cattle had to be kept indoors for a longer period of the year and fed on hay – which needed to be grown and harvested.

As a result of the difficulty with farming, the Norse turned to hunting to supplement their food supply. They began hunting reindeer and seals on a large scale soon after they arrived in Greenland. The Vikings had some experience of hunting from Norway and Iceland, and the large-scale, communal, tightly coordinated nature of the hunt for these animals was somewhat suited to their previous knowledge.

Scholars in the past have argued that the Vikings’ downfall was their apparent lack of learning from the Inuit in this respect. The Inuit had developed clever and efficient ways of hunting whales and ringed seals, and although the Norse probably witnessed them hunt, it appears that they never tried to master these techniques themselves. Hunting in heavy boats made of wood rather than the Inuit’s lithe kayaks made of sealskin, the Norse were arguably at a disadvantage in terms of hunting.

However, some argue that there simply was not a food shortage in Greenland urgent enough to encourage a drastic overhaul of the hunting strategies that appeared to have been working well for the Norsemen so far.

2. Climate Change

At the time the Vikings arrived in Greenland, and up until about the year 1300, the climate was relatively mild – perhaps slightly warmer than Greenland’s weather today. These conditions were favourable for growing hay and pasturing animals. However, gradually the climate became cooler and more variable, until the ‘Little Ice Age’ hit in the early 1400s. The colder weather made it much harder to grow hay and clogged the ship lanes between Greenland and Norway with sea ice, so that it was harder to get ships to the remote Norsemen.

There was no way that the Norse could have foreseen the upcoming cold cycle the way that we can foresee climate changes today, yet they tackled these challenges head on, increasing their reliance on sheep and goats, which are less choosy than cows when it comes to grazing.

3. Contact with Norway

Norway was Norse Greenland’s main trading partner, and originally had a high demand for goods that it could only get from Greenland, like ivory from walrus tusks. However, when Norway could once again trade with Asia and East Africa for elephant ivory, they had less demand for Greenland’s exports.

Norway also had its own problems to contend with, such as the Black Death (1349-50), which gradually made sending ships to Greenland less of a priority. Less contact with Norway meant that the Greenland Norse gradually lost touch with their identity as Christians and Europeans.

4. Contact with the Inuit

The Inuit migrated from the Canadian Arctic to Northwest Greenland in around the year AD 1200, which meant that the Vikings and Inuit shared Greenland for centuries. It is highly likely that the two groups had contact with each other, but we don’t know how well-established or favourable their relations were. Many scholars today believe that, in general, the two groups traded and respected each other’s settlements.

5. Conservative Outlook

Greenland Norse society was very hierarchical. Religion and the church were the pillars of society, and this justified great differences in social status and wealth. Some reports have blamed this apparent dependence on the church for the collapse of Norse Greenland, claiming that the Norse prioritised relations with their European counterparts over adapting fully to the conditions of living in Greenland.

An oft-cited example of this is the long-range walrus hunt that was an important activity for the colony right until its end. These hunts secured luxury goods like walrus ivory and furs which the Norse exported to Europe. Some scholars have argued that the time, manpower and boats used for these missions, in hindsight, was misdirected.

However, recent research has suggested that the motive behind the Norsemen settling in Greenland might actually have been primarily to access these Arctic luxuries, which explains why so much emphasis was put on the walrus hunt, especially in the later years when Norse society began to decline.

and as always have a chilled day from the Viking