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114-479: Leif Erikson , also known as Leif the Lucky ( c.  970s  – c.  1018 to 1025 ), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America , approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus . According to the sagas of Icelanders , he established a Norse settlement at Vinland , which is usually interpreted as being coastal North America. There

228-547: A "middle settlement". In contrast to the Inuit, who needed immediate access to the open sea as hunters and fishermen, the agricultural Grænlendingar settled in the protected areas at the end of the long fjords . The climatic conditions there were more favorable for agriculture and pasture farming. According to current estimates, the total number of Icelanders in Greenland was a maximum of 5,000 to 6,000 people, most of whom lived in

342-413: A Norse site located at the northern tip of Newfoundland. It has been suggested that this site, known as L'Anse aux Meadows (carbon dating estimates 990–1050 CE and tree-ring analysis dating to the year 1021) could be Leifsbudir. The Ingstads demonstrated that Norsemen had reached North America about 500 years before Christopher Columbus . Later archaeological evidence suggests that Vinland may have been

456-500: A Romanesque arch in the east facade. Another door and two slit windows are in the south wall. The window niches expand inwards in a funnel shape - a design that is also seen in early churches in the British Isles. The gables are approximately 5m high. There are a few wall niches, but no decoration inside the church. The roof, which is no longer preserved, was originally made of wood and sod. The appearance corresponds to churches in

570-454: A bell tower with bronze bells, both of which were particularly valuable imported goods. To the south of the church and connected by a tiled path, there was a large building complex with several rooms and a hall measuring 16.75 × 7.75 m as the bishop's residence. The farm included a well and two large stables - the larger of which was 60 m long - which could accommodate 100 cows, as well as several storehouses and farm buildings. This also included

684-485: A blacksmith shop have also been preserved. On the site, slightly separated from the main complex, was the earth-walled church of Brattahlíð, of which only sparse remains remain today (a reconstruction was built on the site a few years ago) and what is now known as the church built by Thjodhild applies. A cemetery was excavated around the church containing 144 skeletons, 24 of which were children, 65 men, 39 women and 16 adults whose gender could not be determined. About half of

798-620: A central structure in the style of a longhouse , which was built on a foundation of field stones made of alternating peat sods and layers of stone. The construction method may have been adopted by the Inuit, as it was already known to the Eskimos of the Saqqaq culture (2400–900 BC). The simple roof structure was made of driftwood (in some farms also made of whale bone) and was covered with sod. A practical and artfully executed water supply and drainage system made of covered canals irrigated and drained

912-505: A church or chapel and a bathhouse, similar to a sauna . Many farms also had remote "Saeters", huts that were only used in the summer months for harvesting hay on remote pastures, a system similar to the Maiensäße in the Alps . The traditional name is misleading in that this settlement is located on the west coast of Greenland. This is explained by the fact that their location at the end of

1026-515: A crew of thirty-five men, and mounted an expedition towards the land Bjarni had described. His father Erik was set to join him but dropped out after he fell from his horse on his way to the ship, an incident he interpreted as a bad omen. Leif followed Bjarni's route in reverse and landed first in a rocky and desolate place he named Helluland (Flat-Rock Land; possibly Baffin Island or northern parts of Labrador). After venturing further by sea, he landed

1140-620: A crowd of 100,000 people, that Leif had indeed been the first European to discover America. Additional statues of him were erected at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul in 1949, near Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota , in 1956, and in downtown Seattle . In 1924, a party of four consisting of a Swede, an Englishman, and two Americans attempted to emulate Leif's voyage in an eponymous 40-foot vessel but were lost after reaching

1254-473: A forge where traces of bog iron were found. Connected to the property was a harbor with boat sheds on the Einarsfjord. In total, the complex includes around 40 larger and smaller buildings and this alone proves the outstanding position that Gardar held in Greenland's Viking society. Hvalsey Church is the best-preserved Grænlendingar building today. The simple, rectangular church was built around 1300 on

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1368-410: A gentle slope not far from the fjord shore. As is usual with old churches, it is oriented east–west. The approximately 1.5 m thick walls are artfully stacked stone. Clay may also have been used as mortar. Turf then covered the clayThere is evidence that the exterior walls were originally whitewashed. The church has a low doorway with a rectangular window above it in the west facade and a larger window with

1482-414: A group of buildings on a larger area. It included stables for sheep, goats, cattle and - at least in the early days of the settlements - also pigs and Icelandic horses . There were also barns, storehouses and farm buildings, from the remains of which one can conclude that textile production and dairy farming were primarily carried out there. The main building was a conglomeration of interconnecting rooms with

1596-461: A group of shipwrecked sailors along the way. For this act, and for converting Norse Greenland to Christianity, Leif earned the nickname "Leif the Lucky". Leif did not return to Vinland, but others from Greenland and Iceland did, including Thorfinn Karlsefni . According to this saga, Leif was not the first European to discover Vinland. Instead Bjarni Herjólfsson and his crew—on a voyage from Iceland to Greenland—were overtaken by wind and fog, missed

1710-472: A horse. Bones of domestic cattle were also found. Based on the teeth, it was possible to determine that the cows lived to a relatively old age and were therefore used more for milk production than for meat production. The comparative measurements taken prove that the domesticated animals were rather small and strong in stature. Earth samples proved that the Vikings used slash-and-burn agriculture to cultivate

1824-690: A latitude of 73°. A twelve centimeter long runestone, known as the Kingittorsuaq Runestone , from the early 14th century was inserted into one of them, which names the date April 25 (the year is not specified) and the three members of such a hunting expedition. The living conditions must have been similar to those in Iceland. Of the 24 children's skeletons at the Thjodhilds Church in Brattahlid, 15 were of infants, one child

1938-601: A letter to have visited Iceland in 1477, could have heard stories of it. While Leif had no contact with the Indigenous peoples of Vinland, later Norse explorers did, referring to them as skrælingi , an archaic term for "wretches". According to the Saga of Erik the Red , the first encounter was made during a colonizing expedition led by Thorfinn Karlsefni, which also included Leif's brother Thorvald. At first this group traded with

2052-494: A long time. In return, the colony received the promise of regular shipping connections. This step also resulted in a Norwegian trading monopoly. In 1294, King Eirik Magnusson of Norway issued letters of privilege to local merchants for the Greenland trade. All others, especially the Hanseatic League, were forbidden from shipping to Greenland. Apparently there was regular trade with one or two "state" ships per year until

2166-543: A small church built some distance from the court makes the very early presence of a priest appear credible. Apart from a few small amulets, there is no archaeological evidence of the practice of pagan rituals. Christian churches and chapels have been excavated on numerous farms, including the Church of Brattahlíð , to which the Grœnlendinga saga's account of the little church of Thjodhild fits exactly. These churches were built by

2280-851: Is also information about the inhabitants of Greenland in other works; these are: the Flóamanna saga (Story of the People of Flói), the Einars þáttr Sokkasonar (Story of Einar Sokkason), the Króka-Refs saga (Story of Fox the Cunning), a more novelistic tale from the 14th century, the Fóstbrœðra saga (The Story of the Oath Brothers), the story of Olaf Tryggvason in the Heimskringla ,

2394-560: Is called the " Medieval Warm Period ". The group departed Iceland with 25 ships, of which, according to the description in the land acquisition book, 14 reached the Greenland coast. The farms built by the first settlers on the Eriksfjord formed the core of the Eastern Settlement . Icelandic sources suggest that at least three more fleets carrying settlers reached Greenland in the following 14 years. The Western Settlement

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2508-540: Is located about 500 km north of the eastern settlement in the area around today's capital Nuuk in a less favorable climatic location. It was smaller and more modestly equipped and comprised around 90 farms near today's Kapisillit settlement. From 1991 to 1996, the Danish Polar Center, in collaboration with the University of Alberta , researched the "Gården under sandet or Farm beneath the sand" in

2622-476: Is located in a sheltered location at the end of the approximately 100 km long Eriksfjord. It goes back directly to a founding by Erik the Red. Fertile soils and rich pastures made livestock farming possible. The Norwegian priest Ívarr Bárðason reported around the middle of the 14th century that even apples were said to have ripened in favorable years. The eastern settlement includes the largest and richest farms in Greenland. Erik's farm Brattahlíð (Brattahlid)

2736-536: Is mentioned about his death in the sagas—he probably died in Greenland some time between these dates. Nothing further is known about his family beyond the succession of Thorkell as chieftain. Leif is, in all likelihood, a historical figure who remains the first known European to set foot in continental North America, but other details of his life vary and are a subject of debate. It has been suggested by several scholars that both Leif's sister, Freydís, and his foster father, Tyrker, are works of fiction, as are their roles in

2850-635: Is not possible to determine whether a date is 1406, 1456 or 1460. There are no source written in Greenland itself. There is no Greenlandic collection of laws, no chronicles, no annals of any kind. This absence is particularly noticeable after 1300, when few sagas were written, and accounts of earlier events are unreliable. Original documents have varying credibility. Adam praises the Danish king Sven Estridson for his scholarship and confesses that he learned many important facts for his book, but his description of Greenlanders, whom he describes as "pale green like

2964-519: Is ongoing speculation that the settlement made by Leif and his crew corresponds to the remains of a Norse settlement found in Newfoundland, Canada , called L'Anse aux Meadows , which was occupied approximately 1,000 years ago. Leif's place of birth is unknown, although it is assumed to have been in Iceland . His father, Erik the Red , founded the first Norse settlement in Greenland , where Leif

3078-489: Is sound. Some accounts are derivative because they have been obviously taken from other sources. Other texts are obviously fictions, but their embedding in Greenlandic society can accurately reflect the conditions there as a background. Ari Þorgilsson writes in his Íslendingabók that he got his information from his uncle, who had a good memory and who spoke to someone in Greenland who had sailed to Greenland with Erik

3192-589: The Konungs skuggsjá , and Adam of Bremen . Individual messages can also be found in the Icelandic Annals , which are reproduced in translation below. Geographical notes about Greenland (Gripla, Landabók and others) remain unmentioned here. Three Eskimo stories about the Norsemen have been passed down in oral tradition. They were recorded in the 19th century and published by Hinrich Johannes Rink under

3306-490: The Arctic Circle to what is now Disko Bay . The following year he sailed back to Iceland. He managed to win over approximately 700 people by convincing them that they would find lush pastures and the best conditions for settlement in "Green land", as he called the newly discovered land. The chosen name was euphemistic, but probably not entirely unrealistic. Warming has also been proven elsewhere during this period and

3420-643: The Danes , Icelanders , Faroe Islanders , Norwegians , and Swedes , who are now generally referred to as " Scandinavians " rather than Norsemen. The word Norseman first appears in English during the early 19th century: the earliest attestation given in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is from Walter Scott 's 1817 Harold the Dauntless . The word was coined using

3534-718: The Early Middle Ages , during which they spoke the Old Norse language . The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the predecessor of the modern Germanic languages of Scandinavia . During the late eighth century, Scandinavians embarked on a large-scale expansion in all directions, giving rise to the Viking Age . In English-language scholarship since

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3648-638: The Faroe Islands , Orkneys and Shetlands . Since church buildings in Iceland and Norway were usually made of wood, this may suggest regular contact between the colony and the British Isles. The church was the scene of the last recorded event in Greenland. A wedding took place there on September 14, 1408. The guests came from Iceland in 1408 and returned in 1410. Of the surrounding courtyards, only sparse remains of residential buildings, stables, warehouses and storehouses remain; some of them have not yet been examined by archaeologists. The western settlement

3762-526: The Faroe Islands . Norse Greenland The sources on the settlement of Greenland are sparse. The main sources are the Íslendingabók by the scholar Ari Thorgilsson , the Landnámabók (the land seizure book) by an unknown author, but probably with Ari's involvement, the anonymous Grænlendinga saga (Saga of the Greenlanders) and the also anonymous Saga of Erik the Red . But there

3876-545: The Hebrides , where he and his crew were forced to remain for much of the summer, awaiting favorable winds. During his stay there, Leif fell in love with a noblewoman, Thorgunna, who gave birth to their son Thorgils. Thorgunna remained in the Hebrides when Leif left, as he refused to take her along without permission from her family. Thorgils was later sent to Leif in Greenland, but he did not become popular. After arriving at

3990-531: The Varangian Guard . Modern Scandinavian languages have a common word for Norsemen: the word nordbo ( Swedish : nordborna , Danish : nordboerne , Norwegian : nordboerne , or nordbuane in the definite plural ) is used for both ancient and modern people living in the Nordic countries and speaking one of the North Germanic languages . The British conception of the Vikings' origins

4104-522: The Wonderstrands , and one called Hóp, which was located even farther south. Leif has been described in the Vinland sagas as a wise, considerate and strong man of striking appearance. When he was of a proper age, Leif went to Norway, likely to serve as a retainer to its king, Olaf Tryggvason . It was on this journey to Norway that the Saga of Erik the Red states that Leif's ship was driven to

4218-456: The sagas , it is likely he was born in Iceland, where his parents met—probably somewhere on the edge of Breiðafjörður , and possibly at the farm Haukadal , where his mother's family was based. Erik was later banished from Iceland and sailed west to a place he named Greenland . He then briefly returned to Iceland to bring his family and other colonists back with him to Greenland, establishing its first permanent settlement in 986. Leif grew up on

4332-583: The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the painting Leiv Eirikson Discovering America by Christian Krohg , was in the possession of a Leif Erikson Memorial Association in Chicago before being given back to the National Gallery of Norway in 1900. For the centenary of the first official immigration of Norwegians to America, President Calvin Coolidge stated at the 1925 Minnesota State Fair , to

4446-434: The 19th century, Norse seafaring traders, settlers and warriors have commonly been referred to as Vikings . Historians of Anglo-Saxon England distinguish between Norse Vikings (Norsemen) from Norway, who mainly invaded and occupied the islands north and north-west of Britain, as well as Ireland and western Britain, and Danish Vikings, who principally invaded and occupied eastern Britain. Modern descendants of Norsemen include

4560-493: The Danish–German border. The southernmost living Vikings lived no further north than Newcastle upon Tyne , and travelled to Britain more from the east than from the north. The Norse Scandinavians established polities and settlements in what are now Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales), Ireland, Iceland, Russia, Belarus, France, Sicily , Belgium, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, Greenland , Canada, and

4674-665: The Eastern one). Estimates put the combined population of the settlements at their height between 2,000 and 10,000, with recent estimates trending toward the lower figure. Archeologists have identified the ruins of approximately 620 farms: 500 in the Eastern Settlement, 95 in the Western Settlement, and 20 in the Middle Settlement. It is very likely that Erik the Red held a leadership position in

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4788-483: The Einarfjord and was the episcopal see of Greenland. The largest agricultural property - even before Brattahlid - was owned by the church. Garðar Cathedral Ruins , dedicated to Saint Nicholas , of which little more than the foundation walls remain, was 27 m long when completed at the beginning of the 13th century and 16 m wide in the cross choir including the side chapels. It had windows made of greenish glass and

4902-432: The Eriksfjord, which extends to the east, required a longer journey from the coast to the east. The fjord is surrounded by rolling hills and characterized by numerous small and tiny islands. In the sheltered areas in the interior of the fjord, subarctic vegetation blooms lushly in summer. The climate is still the mildest in Greenland today. The eastern settlement is the oldest Grænlendingar settlement, comprised 192 farms and

5016-675: The Germans, Lochlanach (Norse) by the Gaels and Dene (Danes) by the Anglo-Saxons. The Gaelic terms Finn-Gall (Norwegian Viking or Norwegian), Dubh-Gall (Danish Viking or Danish) and Gall Goidel (foreign Gaelic) were used for the people of Norse descent in Ireland and Scotland, who assimilated into the Gaelic culture. Dubliners called them Ostmen, or East-people, and

5130-461: The Markland area, and found nine natives asleep under boats. They attacked the natives, killing eight of them, while one escaped. Shortly after, in an apparent reprisal, Thorvald was killed by a native's arrow. Later, Thorfinn Karlsefni led a group to colonize Vinland and encountered natives, who they initially traded with, but relations soured when a native was killed attempting to steal weapons from

5244-491: The Neo-Eskimo culture (Skrælingar). The following spring, Erik sailed further north and entered a large fjord that was named Eiriksfjord (Eriksfjord) after him. At the end of the fjord, at a latitude of around 61°, he founded his farm Brattahlíð (Brattahlid) in the most climatically favorable area of Greenland. First he built a rectangular wooden hall. From there he undertook several exploratory trips that took him beyond

5358-566: The Norse. In retaliation, the natives attacked and Karlsefni decided to abandon the colony. Stories of Leif's journey to North America had a profound effect on the identity and self-perception of later Nordic Americans and Nordic immigrants to the United States. The first statue of Erikson (by Anne Whitney ) was erected in Boston in 1887 at the instigation of Eben Norton Horsford , who

5472-482: The Norsemen, for a long time in bonds of captivity to the heathens". In modern scholarship, Vikings is a common term for attacking Norsemen, especially in connection with raids and monastic plundering by Norsemen in the British Isles , but it was not used in this sense at the time. In Old Norse and Old English, the word simply meant 'pirate'. The Norse were also known as Ascomanni , ashmen , by

5586-777: The Northmen who visited the Eastern Slavic lands originated. Archaeologists and historians of today believe that these Scandinavian settlements in the East Slavic lands formed the names of the countries of Russia and Belarus . The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them Varangians ( Old Norse : Væringjar , meaning "sworn men"), and the Scandinavian bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors were known as

5700-523: The Red . Archeology has now produced results that can be used to check individual reports. The Viking expansion in the Early Middle Ages had its roots in two main social characteristics. The inheritance law in force among the Nordic peoples at the time favored the firstborn son . When new arable and pastureland in Scandinavia could no longer be developed due to the relatively dense settlement,

5814-409: The Red was young, his father was banished from Norway for manslaughter, and the family went into exile in Iceland (which, during the century preceding Leif's birth, had been colonized by Norsemen, mainly from Norway). Leif was also a distant relative of Naddodd , who discovered Iceland. Leif's year of birth is often estimated in the c.  970 s. Though his birthplace is not accounted for in

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5928-595: The Saga of the Greenlanders, Erik's son Leifr (Leif Eriksson) brought Christianity to Greenland around 1000. The Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar ("Story of Olaf Tryggvason") reports the same thing in the Heimskringla . According to this report, he already had a priest with him. The Grœnlendinga saga did not mention him, but the fact that the wife of Erik the Red Þórhildr (Thorhild, after the baptism Þjóðhildr - Thjodhild) had

6042-586: The Snæfellsnes peninsula with the outlaws Þorbjörn (Thorbjörn), Eyjólfr (Eyjolf) and Styrr (Styr) to find Gunnbjörn's land. He reached the Greenland coast at "Miðjökull" (Midjökul; probably today's Amassalik in East Greenland), then sailed south and rounded Cape Farvel to find suitable land for settlement. He spent his first winter on an island off the south coast. According to the Íslendingabók, he found traces of settlement there, which probably came from

6156-541: The Vinland journeys spread around medieval Europe, although to what extent is unclear; writers made mention of remote lands to the west, and notably the medieval chronicler Adam of Bremen directly mentions Vinland (c. 1075) based upon reports from the Danes . It has been suggested that the knowledge of Vinland might have been maintained in European seaports in the 15th century, and that Christopher Columbus, who claimed in

6270-400: The Vinland sagas. Leif's commission as a missionary to Greenland may also be fictional, as that aspect of his story is often attributed to Gunnlaugr Leifsson's version of Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar (which likely served as a source for some of the other sagas which mention Leif). Leif's successful expedition in Vinland encouraged other Norsemen to also make the journey , and the Norse became

6384-594: The Western Settlement, which dates back to between 1000 and 1400 AD. The excavation results provided important insights into the architecture and construction of a Viking residential building as well as the residents' food supply. The excavation field is located on a hill at the end of the Lysufjord, about 80 kilometers east of Nuuk. The rectangular residential building measuring 12 × 5 m was built entirely from peat sods , which were stacked on top of each other at an angle of approx. 45° and formed walls 1.9 m thick. The roof

6498-462: The adjective norse , which was borrowed into English from Dutch during the 16th century with the sense 'Norwegian', and which by Scott's time had acquired the sense "of or relating to Scandinavia or its language, esp[ecially] in ancient or medieval times". As with modern use of the word viking , therefore, the word norseman has no particular basis in medieval usage. The term Norseman does echo terms meaning 'Northman', applied to Norse-speakers by

6612-407: The area and burned down the birch bushes that originally grew there to create pastures. In summary, the excavation results so far allow us to conclude that the living conditions were significantly less favorable than in the eastern settlement. The northern hunting area played an important role in the food supply and in the procurement of export goods. It was probably located at a latitude of 70° in

6726-540: The area of today's Disko Bay. There are no known permanent Viking settlements north of the Arctic Circle, but written sources provide evidence of annual hunting expeditions in the summer months. These ventures served to provide the essential supply of meat as a nutritional supplement, but also to procure walrus ivory, narwhal teeth, seal and polar bear fur, eider down, muskox horns and caribou antlers. Norðrsetur could be reached by rowed boats in 30 days from

6840-575: The areas around the Gulf of St. Lawrence and that the L'Anse aux Meadows site was a ship repair station and waypoint for voyages there. That does not necessarily contradict the identification of L'Anse aux Meadows as Leifsbudir since the two sagas appear to describe Vinland as a wider region which included several settlements. The Saga of Erik the Red mentions two other settlements in Vinland: one called Straumfjǫrðr , which lay beyond Kjalarnes promontory and

6954-424: The common grave, 23 were between 30 and 50 years old. Of the 39 women, there were only three, and only one got older. There are also a few from a group whose age over 20 could not be determined. The average height of men was 171 cm - quite a few were 184–185 cm - and that of women was 156 cm; this is higher than the average in Denmark around 1900. All had good teeth, although significantly worn, and there

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7068-399: The conversion, Leif brought a priest and clerics with him to Greenland. The winter following Leif's return from Vinland, his father died (shortly after 1000 CE), making Leif paramount chief in Greenland. Leif is last mentioned alive in 1018 in the Saga of St. Olaf . According to The Saga of the Sworn Brothers , by 1025 the chieftaincy of Eiríksfjǫrðr had passed to his son Thorkel. Nothing

7182-409: The country. During one of these explorations, Tyrker discovered that the land was full of vines and grapes. Leif therefore named the land Vinland ('Wineland'). There, he and his crew built a small settlement, which was called Leifsbudir (Leif's Booths) by later visitors from Greenland. After having wintered over in Vinland, Leif returned to Greenland in the spring with a cargo of grapes and timber. On

7296-438: The court of Norway's King Olaf Tryggvason, Leif was converted to Christianity. According to both the Saga of Erik the Red, and Olaf Tryggvason's Saga as found in Heimskringla , after Leif's conversion, the king then commissioned him to return to Greenland to convert the settlers there. During the journey, he was blown off course and discovered Vinland before finding his way to Greenland. Leif's father Erik reacted coldly to

7410-479: The court of Norwegian King Olaf Tryggvesson , where he had converted to Christianity. When Leif encountered the storm that forced him off course, he had been on his way to introduce Christianity to the Greenlanders. After they had arrived at an unknown shore, the crew disembarked and explored the area. They found wild grapes, self-sown wheat, and maple trees. Afterwards, they loaded their ship with samples of these newly-found goods and sailed east to Greenland, rescuing

7524-460: The day. In 1935, legislation was introduced to the United States Congress requesting federal observance of the day. Before the legislation was passed, it was amended so that the observance would only occur in 1935 (which it was, following a proclamation that year by President President Franklin D. Roosevelt ). In the subsequent decades, a number of unsuccessful attempts were made to pass legislation requesting Leif Erikson Day be proclaimed annually by

7638-457: The diet of Scandinavian Greenlanders. He found that the meat diet consisted on average of 20 percent beef, 20 percent goat and sheep meat, 45 percent seal meat, 10 percent caribou and 5 percent other meat, with the proportion of caribou and seal meat being significantly higher in the poorer western settlement was than in the eastern settlement. Apparently the inhabitants also regularly fished; because floats and weights from fishing nets were found in

7752-407: The early days of the colony. In contrast to Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, Greenland was never politically organized as a coherent state. There is no evidence of an official leadership personality for the subsequent period. But the chief in Brattahlid can be said to have a special influence due to its central location and tradition. Since the 14th century, Brattahlid provided the Lögsögumaður ,

7866-421: The eastern settlement. So far, the remains of around 300 farms, 16 community churches (plus several chapels), a Benedictine monastery of St. Olaf near Unartok and a monastery on the Tasermiut Fjord are known. The excavations at Brattahlid, especially more so those of a farmstead near Narsaq in the 1950s and '60s, give a good idea of what the settlements looked like. The typical Grænlendingarhof consisted of

7980-460: The family estate Brattahlíð in the Eastern Settlement of Greenland. He had two brothers, whose names were Thorstein and Thorvald , and a sister, Freydís . Tyrker , one of Erik's thralls , had been specially trusted to keep charge of Erik's children, as Leif later referred to him as his "foster father." The Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders , both thought to have been written around 1200, contain different accounts of

8094-410: The first Europeans to colonize the area. In the end there were no permanent Norse settlements, although sporadic voyages at least to Markland for forages, timber and trade possibly lasted for centuries. The casual tone of references to these areas may suggest that their discovery was not seen as particularly significant by contemporaries, or that it was assumed to be public knowledge, or both. Knowledge of

8208-404: The houses. The stables were also built from stones and sod. The cowshed always had two connected rooms, the cattle shed itself with the stalls and a larger feed chamber. The approximately 1.5 m thick outer wall, made of field stone, was preceded by a several meter thick wall made of sod and earth to insulate it from the cold. There are stone blocks weighing up to 10 tons. The more important farms had

8322-518: The large pasture areas required for livestock breeding, the farms were widely separated from each other and were effectively self-sufficient. The Norwegian textbook Konungs skuggsjá (King's Mirror) reports in the 13th century that the Greenlandic farmers lived primarily on meat, milk (Skyr, a sour milk product similar to our quark), butter and cheese. Archaeologist Thomas McGovern from the City University of New York used rubbish piles to study

8436-546: The larger eastern settlement (Eystribyggð) around today's Qaqortoq and the smaller western settlement (Vestribyggð) around today's city of Nuuk - both of which are located on the west coast of Greenland. Due to the far reaches of the Gulf Stream , the climate in these areas is significantly more favorable than in all other areas of Greenland. Between the two settlements there were still a few scattered farms (near today's Ivittuut ), which are summarized in some publications as

8550-408: The men - quite a few over 1.80 m tall - were between 40 and 60 years old. Many of them showed clear signs of arthritis and badly worn teeth. There is a mass grave in the cemetery containing the remains of 13 people. These skeletons, as well as several others, show traces of sword and ax blows, which suggest endemic violence. Gardar (today Igaliku ) lies on a fertile plain between the Eriksfjord and

8664-571: The name Oxmanstown (an area in central Dublin; the name is still current) comes from one of their settlements; they were also known as Lochlannaigh , or Lake-people. The Slavs , the Arabs and the Byzantines knew them as the Rus' or Rhōs ( Ῥῶς ), probably derived from various uses of rōþs- , i.e. "related to rowing", or from the area of Roslagen in east-central Sweden, where most of

8778-400: The natives, but weeks later the new Norse settlement at Hóp was attacked and Karlsefni decided to abandon it. The Norse retreated to their other settlement at Straumfjǫrðr, where they remained and continued to explore the general area. One morning they encountered a one-legged native, who shot an arrow that killed Thorvald. He is famously known for pulling the arrow out, and poetically reciting

8892-429: The north and male skeletons in the south of the church. The greater the distance from the church, the more superficial the burial, which suggests that the distance of the grave from the church depended on the social status of the dead person. The Greenlandic economy was based primarily on three pillars: livestock farming, hunting and catching animals, which provided food, and trade goods in varying proportions. Because of

9006-425: The only alternative left to those born later was to build up their own property outside the established structures. This was promoted by the high value that personal daring, willingness to take risks and physical resilience had in the local society. With advances in shipbuilding around the 8th century, the tools became available to travel to the edge of the known world and found settlements there. The springboard for

9120-810: The peoples they encountered during the Middle Ages. The Old Frankish word Nortmann ("Northman") was Latinised as Normannus and was widely used in Latin texts. The Latin word Normannus then entered Old French as Normands . From this word came the name of the Normans and of Normandy , which was settled by Norsemen in the tenth century. The same word entered Hispanic languages and local varieties of Latin with forms beginning not only in n- , but in l- , such as lordomanni (apparently reflecting nasal dissimilation in local Romance languages). This form may in turn have been borrowed into Arabic:

9234-408: The phrase, "This is a rich country we have found; there is plenty of fat around my entrails", upon which he dies. On their return to Greenland, Karlsefni's crew captured two native boys, taking them to Greenland. According to the Saga of the Greenlanders , Leif's brother Thorvald made first contact with the natives. The encounter happened while Thorvald and his crew were exploring the coast, likely in

9348-512: The president. Proponents eventually succeeded, when, in 1964, the Congress authorized and requested the president to proclaim 9 October of each year as "Leif Erikson Day". In the years since, each president has issued an annual proclamation calling for observance of the day. The Sagas do not give the exact date of Leif's landfall in America, but state only that it was in the fall of the year. At

9462-627: The prominent early Arabic source al-Mas‘ūdī identified the 844 raiders on Seville not only as Rūs but also al-lawdh’āna . The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , written in Old English , distinguishes between the pagan Norwegian Norsemen ( Norðmenn ) of Dublin and the Christian Danes ( Dene ) of the Danelaw . In 942, it records the victory of King Edmund I over the Norse kings of York: "The Danes were previously subjected by force under

9576-601: The relatively comfortable living conditions in Norway and travel to inhospitable Greenland. He was represented there by a vicar. He and his successors did not forego the Greenlanders' Church tithe . The lack of an overarching power meant that local rulers found themselves in an endless series of conflicts. In order to end the constant disputes, the Greenland colony subordinated itself to the Norwegian crown in 1261. King Hákon Hákonarson had also been working towards this step for

9690-524: The respective landlord, and he was therefore – initially – also entitled to the taxes payable by the parish. Until the 11th century, Greenland was under the Archdiocese of Bremen . The Grœnlendinga saga reports that in 1118 the colony sent Einarr Sokkason to Norway to persuade King Sigurðr Jórsalafari (Sigurd the Jerusalem Rider) to assign Greenland its own bishop. The first Greenlandic bishop

9804-462: The return voyage, he rescued an Icelandic castaway and his crew, earning him the nickname "Leif the Lucky". Leif never returned to Vinland, but others from Greenland and Iceland did. Most researchers and scholars agree that Vinland was a region in North America. Research done in the early 1960s by Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and his wife, archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad , identified

9918-502: The sea," from which Greenland gets its name., is obviously fabulous. The news found in Rimbert 's Vita Anskarii that Pope Gregory had also appointed Ansgar of Bremen legate for Greenland and that Pope Nicholas I had commissioned him to proselytize in Greenland, is considered a later, false insertion. However, Adam's news that Archbishop Adalbert had ordained the first bishop Ísleifur Gissurarson for Iceland and also for Greenland

10032-719: The seafarer Gunnbjörn Ulfsson was on a voyage from Norway to Iceland and his ship drifted towards a western coast, probably in the area of today's Cape Farvel on the southern tip of Greenland. He had sighted icebergs , skerries and a desolate, inhumane landscape and therefore did not go ashore. Erik the Red acquired the Haukadalr farm on the Icelandic Breiðafjörður (Breidafjord; near today's Búðardalur in northwest Iceland) through marriage. The Althing sent him into exile for three years for committing murder. The Landnámabók reports that in 982 he sailed west from

10146-420: The second half of the 14th century. The Kalmar Union was to prove disastrous for trade with Greenland because the remote outpost was of little interest to the Danish royal family and trade dried up. The extent to which the Hanseatic League filled the gap, defying the Norwegian monopoly, still requires further investigation. In the literature, a distinction is made between two Icelandic settlements in Greenland -

10260-492: The second time in a forested place he named Markland (Forest Land; possibly near Cape Porcupine, Labrador ). After two more days at sea, he landed on an island to the north (possibly Belle Isle ), and then returned to the mainland, going past a cape on the north side (perhaps Cape Bauld ). They sailed to the west of this and landed in a verdant area with a mild climate and plentiful supplies of salmon. As winter approached, he decided to encamp there and sent out parties to explore

10374-408: The settlement of Greenland was the settlement of Iceland . According to current estimates, 50,000 to 60,000 people lived in Iceland in the 10th century. A stable social structure had been established and good land was in legally secure ownership. This stable distribution of land, several years of bad harvests and a famine provided the setting to look for new settlement areas in the 970s. Around 900,

10488-416: The settlements. Finds of hand mills in some farms in the eastern settlement suggest that grain was also grown to a small extent in favored locations. But it was probably mainly imported. The Konungs skuggsjá reports that only the most powerful Bonden (with farms in the best locations) grew some grain for their own use. An important source of vitamins was "Kvan" ( Angelica ), which was brought to Greenland by

10602-613: The settlers and can still be found in gardens there today. Stems and roots can be prepared as a salad or vegetable. The constant lack of wood proved to be a problem. At the turn of the millennium, only small Dwarf Birchs and Dwarf Willows grew in Greenland, and their use as timber was limited. The driftwood washed ashore with the Gulf Stream was of inferior quality. Therefore, lumber was an important (and expensive) imported commodity. Other crucial imports were iron implements and weapons. There were no known ore deposits in Greenland at

10716-457: The southern tip of Greenland, and encountered an unknown coast. Believing it to be somewhere other than Greenland, they did not disembark but rather continued to sail and found two additional coasts that did not correspond with their understanding of Greenland. After sailing back east, they eventually made it to their original destination, and then told of their discoveries. Roughly 15 years later, Leif approached Bjarni, purchased his ship, gathered

10830-426: The speaker of the law; it is not certain whether he performed the same function as in Iceland. Although according to tradition Erik the Red was not a Christian, the colony was soon Christianized. However, the Íslendingabók and the Grœnlendinga saga (Saga of the Greenlanders) unanimously report that at the first settlement Herjólfr (Herjolf), a companion of Erik, had a Christian from the Hebrides on board. According to

10944-560: The study of the history of exploration. Several ships are named after Leif – a Viking ship replica , a commercial passenger/vehicle ferry , and a large dredger . Erikson is recalled as Leif the Lucky in the Robert Frost poem Wild Grapes. In 1929, the Wisconsin Legislature passed a bill to make 9 October "Leif Erikson Day" in the state, and in the years following, several other states adopted laws to observe

11058-494: The suggestion of Christian A. Hoen of Edgerton, Wisconsin , 9 October was settled upon for Leif Erikson Day, as that already was a historic date for Norwegians in America, the ship Restaurationen having arrived in New York Harbor on 9 October 1825 from Stavanger with the first organized party of Norwegian immigrants. Norsemen The Norsemen (or Norse people ) were a North Germanic linguistic group of

11172-573: The suggestion that he should abandon his religion, while his mother Thjóðhildr became a Christian and built a church called Thjóðhild's Church. A different version of Olaf Tryggvason's Saga , found in Flateyjarbók , makes no reference to Leif being blown off course and discovering Vinland during his return from Norway, but indicates that after arriving in Greenland, all of that country was converted, including Leif's father Erik. Some versions of Olaf Tryggvason's Saga also indicate that to help with

11286-462: The time of the Vikings. The already not very productive smelting of iron ore quickly reached its limits due to the lack of suitable fuel (charcoal), so that the settlements were almost entirely dependent on imports. An example shows how dramatic the iron shortage was: During excavations in the Western Settlement in the 1930s, a battle ax was found. It was modeled down to the smallest detail on an iron ax, but made from whale bone. Besides drying, curing

11400-569: The title "Eskimoiske Eventyr og Sagn" in Copenhagen 1866–1871. Even though these stories are very legendary and fairytale-like, they still represent the only evidence of the memory of the Eskimos on this topic. From the 14th century, the most important source is the description of Greenland by Ívarr Bárðarson , who stayed there for several years. The Skarðárannáll also enjoys a high reputation, although some dating errors can be found in later additions. Written sources can be confusing, for example, it

11514-533: The voyages to Vinland (usually interpreted as coastal North America). The only two known strictly historical mentions of Vinland are found in the work of Adam of Bremen c.  1075 and in the Book of Icelanders , compiled c.  1122 by Ari the Wise . According to this saga, Leif discovered Vinland after being blown off course on his way from Norway to Greenland. Before this voyage, Leif had spent time at

11628-588: The west coast of Greenland. In 1930, a statue of Leif was erected in the city center of Reykjavík, Iceland – currently situated in front of Hallgrímskirkja – as a gift from the United States to Iceland to commemorate the 1,000 year anniversary of Alþingi , the parliament of Iceland. The Leif Erikson Awards , established 2015, are awarded annually by the Exploration Museum in Húsavík , Iceland. They are awarded for achievements in exploration and in

11742-526: The western settlement and in 50 days from the eastern settlement. In this area there may also have been encounters with the Inuit of the Thule culture. As early as 2500 BC. Settlements and hunting grounds of the Eskimo cultures have been documented at Disko Bay (Sermermiut). There is also clear evidence of occasional expeditions even further north. In 1824 three cairns were discovered on Kingittorsuaq Island at

11856-493: Was Arctic char ( Salvelinus alpinus ), followed by cod ( Gadus morhua ) and capelin ( Mallotus villosus ). The bird bones found and identified come primarily from ptarmigan ( Lagopus muta ) and to a lesser extent from mallards ( Anas platyrhynchos ) and eider ducks ( Somateria mollissima ). Important food animals from the mammalian fauna were seals and reindeer. The excavated remains of the breeding animals come - in roughly equal proportions - mainly from sheep and goats as well as from

11970-448: Was Arnaldr from 1126, whose presumed remains were unearthed under the floor of the church of Garðar (other assumptions go to Bishop Jón Smyrill, died 1209). Several other bishops followed, for whose support significant benefices were set up. Around 1350 the church owned the largest farm and around two thirds of the best pasture land. The last Greenlandic bishop died in 1378. A successor was also appointed for him, but he refused to give up

12084-601: Was among those who believed that Vinland could have been located on the Charles River or Cape Cod ; not long after, another casting of Whitney's statue was erected in Milwaukee . A statue was also erected in Chicago in 1901, having been originally commissioned for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition to coincide with the arrival of the reconstructed Viking ship from Bergen , Norway. Another work of art made for

12198-473: Was built about 500 km north of the East Settlement, but it always had to exist under less favorable conditions. By 1000, practically all climatically relevant areas of Greenland were populated. The Norse settled in three separate locations in south-western Greenland: the larger Eastern Settlement , the smaller Western Settlement, and the still smaller Middle Settlement (often considered part of

12312-565: Was inaccurate. Those who plundered Britain lived in what is today Denmark, Scania , the western coast of Sweden and Norway (up to almost the 70th parallel ) and along the Swedish Baltic coast up to around the 60th latitude and Lake Mälaren . They also came from the island of Gotland , Sweden. The border between the Norsemen and more southerly Germanic tribes, the Danevirke , today is located about 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of

12426-419: Was later raised. Following his voyage to Vinland and the subsequent death of his father, Leif became chief of the Greenland settlement. He had two known sons: Thorgils, born in the Hebrides ; and Thorkell, who succeeded him as Greenland's chieftain. Leif was the son of Erik the Red and his wife Thjodhild ( Old Norse : Þjóðhildur), and, through his paternal line, the grandson of Thorvald Ásvaldsson . When Erik

12540-467: Was made of wooden rafters (probably driftwood) and was covered with wattle and daub with long pieces of peat resting on it. In the middle of the house there was a long fireplace (Langeldr) with seats in the two side aisles. A cooking zone with a separate fireplace (Maleldr) was on the north side. As can be concluded from the excavated waste, the inhabitants' diet included both wild animals (fish, birds and mammals) and domesticated animals. The main food fish

12654-479: Was no tooth decay. The most common disease found in the skeletons was severe Gout in the back and hips. Some were so crooked and stiff in the joints that they could not be laid down for burial. However, gout was widespread in Scandinavia during the Viking Age . Other diseases can no longer be diagnosed today. The custom of the burial place was also adopted from Norway and Iceland: female skeletons predominate in

12768-497: Was the most important in the eastern settlement; it was excavated in the 1930s. An extensive complex with several interconnecting residential buildings contained an 80-foot-long hall that served as a central living and meeting room. Two stable buildings accommodated 50 cows. The dimensions of the boxes and the bone finds suggest that the cattle, with a shoulder height of around 1.20 m, were much smaller than today's cattle. The foundations of several storehouses and farm buildings as well as

12882-475: Was the only way to preserve meat. This required salt, which also had to be imported. The settlement also had a number of export goods that were very popular in the rest of Europe: The white Gyrfalcons of Greenland were a very sought-after export item and reached the Arab countries along complex trade routes. The narwhal tusk, which was believed in European royal and princely courts to be able to neutralize poison,

12996-414: Was three years old, one was seven years old and four were eleven to twelve years old. The infant mortality rate in Iceland in 1850 was of a similar magnitude, even if one takes into account that not all dead newborns were buried at the church. The small number of older children who died indicates good living conditions. Nor do any infectious diseases appear to have raged on a large scale. Of the 53 men outside

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