CHAPTER VII. GREENLAND COLONIZED FROM ICELAND. WE may readily suppose that Ingolf and his companions, on their arrival in Iceland, were anxious to ascertain the resources of their new country and to explore its surrounding seas. It could not be long before they descried the lands that lay within one or two days' sail; and likely they heard, from their Irish captives, of the Cross Islands, and of "Cronia" or Gronlant, visited and settled before by the Celtic Papas. The knowledge, however, which the Scandinavians obtained of these territories is ascribed again to the auspicious interference of tempest and wind. A certain Gunnbjörn, son of Ulf Krake, was driven to a group of successive small islands west of Iceland, to which he gave their new name of "Gunnbjörnarsker" or Gunnbjörn's Skerries,' situated close by the Greenland coast, at forty-two degrees east of Washington and sixtyfive degrees and twenty minutes of northern latitude.2 This event took place, according to the general consent of the learned, in the year 876, or 877. Gunnbjörn could not help seeing the eastern coast of the adjoining Greenland, but did not set foot on it.* 4 Between the years 970 and 980 an attempt at settlement on Gunnbjörn's Rocks was made by the Icelander 1 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., p. 4, from Icelandic sagas; Aa. passim. 2 Rafn, in Mémoires des Antiquaires du Nord, 1845-49, p. 129. 3 Ibid. ; von Humboldt, Kosmos, S. 457; Peschel, Zeitalter, S. 80 and Geschichte der Erdkunde, S. 84, n. 1; Wilhelmi, Island Hvitramannaland, etc., S. 122. * Von Humboldt, Kosmos, S. 457, n. 23; Rafn, Mémoires des Antiquaires du Nord, 1845-49, p. 126; Kunstmann, S. 25; Cronau, S. 112; Gravier, p. 32. Snaebjörn Galti, who had been condemned for murder. He succeeded in passing a winter there, but, a dispute having arisen, he was killed by the men whom he had taken with him. His colony proved a failure.1 The existence of Greenland was well known in Iceland at that time, as appears from several remarks of the Landnámabók.2 Eric the Red was not its discoverer.3 4 This Eric or "Eirekr enn Rauthi" and his father, Thorvald, fled, after having committed several murders, from Jadhar or Joederen, in the Norwegian province of Stavanger, to the colony of Iceland during the first half of the tenth century. They settled at Dranga, in the northwestern part of Iceland. After his father's death and his marriage with Thorhilda, Jörund's daughter, Eric moved into Vatshorn, to a place called after him Eirikstad. More murders compelled him to leave this new home for Oxney on the Breidhafiord, but here again his cruel disposition manifested itself, and he was finally, at the convention of Thorsness, condemned for the killing of Eyolf Saur and of Rafn the Duellist to three years' banishment from Iceland." 6 Upon the advice of a certain Aundoz Krake, Eric resolved to seek the land seen by the son of Ulf Krake." He fitted out his ship in Eireksvogi, and sailed from 1 Baumgartner, S. 355; Cronau, S. 112, from an ancient Icelandic record. they contained eighteen farms. (Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 11.) Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. iii. De Costa, Precolumbian Dis- p. 11; Rafn, Antiquitates, p. 7; covery of America, p. 73. The Cross Islands or Gunnbjörn's Skerries seem to be unknown to-day; but several passages in the Landnámabók give to understand that they not only existed, but were likely inhabited for a certain length of time. Icelandic manuscripts speak of them as late as the year 1391, and state that Reeves, p. 60, ref. to Flateyarbók. 5 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. iii. p. 11; Rafn, Antiquitates, pp. 8-10, 89, seq.; Moosmüller, S. 22, 23; Peyrère, p. 184. 6 Af til visan Aundoz Kraku. An Icelandic fragment of the fourteenth century composed after older documents, ap. Langebek; Rafn, Antiq. Amer., pp. 10, 93. Snaefellsjökul, accompanied, till he was in open ocean, by several of his friends, to whom he declared his intention of returning to see them if he should be successful. It was then in the spring of the year 882, as appears from indications of the most ancient records and as is generally admitted by the learned.' Rafn, however, Peschel, and a few others assign the event to the next following year. Von Humboldt has read the year 932 in some one of the sagas, while Claudius Lyschander egregiously mistakes in saying that Eric sailed to Greenland from Norway in the year 787.5 4 Eric was ere long in sight of Greenland's eastern coast, and disembarked on it at a place which he called "Midjökul," Middle Mountain, afterwards named "Blaserk" or Blue Shirt, on the sixty-fourth degree of northern latitude. It was a picture of chaos and death, composed of barren rocks and enormous blocks of ice. The explorer soon left the inhospitable spot, taking a southwesterly course along the white, frozen shores, anxious to know whether any portion of the land was fit for habitation. After sailing around "Hvítserk" or White Shirt, now Cape Farewell, he proceeded northward as far as Eiriksey, one degree of latitude up the western coast, where he passed the first winter. The next season he retraced part of his voyage, entering the gulf of Igalikko, which he named Eiriksfiord and on whose shore he established his residence, Brattalidha, the principal wall of which consisted of a perpendicular rock. That same summer he explored the northwestern 1 Torfæus, Gronlandia Antiqua, cap. xxx. p. 241; Maltebrun, p. 359; Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 93; Kunstmann, S. 25; Moosmüller, S. 23; alii. 6 3 Geschichte der Erdkunde, S. 84. Examen, t. ii. p. 92. 5 Torfæus, Gronlandia Antiqua, cap. iii. p. 17. Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 94; 2 Mémoires des Antiquaires du Moosmüller, S. 23; Torfæus, GronNord, 1845-49, p. 126. landia Antiqua, cap. x. p. 76. desert and gave names to different localities. The second winter he spent on the Holm Island, opposite "Hrafnsgnipa" or Hvarf, and the third on Eiriksey, at the mouth of Eiriksfjord. During the last summer of his exile he sailed back to Iceland.1 Eric had found the western coast of Greenland to be as good a country or better than Iceland, but he wished not to be the only white man to take possession of it. It is related that, in order to allure some of his countrymen to accompany him, he gave it the beautiful name of the Green Land. Be this as it may, it is certain that many gave ear to his enticing descriptions and expected to find beyond the huge mountains of ice a northern Land of Promise. The following winter was spent by Eric and his friends in active preparations for the colonization of Greenland during the summer of the next year, 986.2 Ari Frode, in his Heimskringla, states that "thiswhen Eric set about the colonization of Greenlandwas XIV. or XV. winters before the introduction of Christianity here in Iceland, according to that which a certain man, who himself accompanied Eric the Red, informed Thorkell Gellison." This allows the opinion of Gravier, who refers to "Particula de Eirico Rufo" and to the "Landnámabók," in favor of the year 985 as the date of the first Scandinavian colonization of Greenland.5 1 Rafn, Antiq. Amer., pp. 94, 95, Heimskringla Saga, ¶ 6, ар. Reeves, p. 9; Moosmüller, S. 23; Gravier, p. 34. 2 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 241; Maltebrun, p. 359; Rafn, in Mémoires des Antiquaires du Nord, 1845-49, p. 126, and Antiq. Amer., p. 193, n. a; von Humboldt, Examen, t. ii. p. 92; Lan 3 gebek, t. ii. p. 189, from Annales 1 P. 36. 5 Rafn, Antiq. Amer., pp. 14, 187. The "Landnámabók" and the saga of Olaf Tryggvason relate that Eric the Red set out with twenty-five ships, but the "Particula de Eirico Rufo" swells that number to three decades and a half, and adds that only fourteen of them reached the object of their voyage; some of the others being driven back and some lost on the ocean.1 The colonists, happy enough to escape the fury of the storms, with their animals, implements, seeds, and provisions, which they had taken along, landed on the southern portion of Greenland's western coast, and felt greatly encouraged at the sight of the grassy patches and strips of fertile land that bordered the water's edge in every direction. That the country was fit for habitation was soon further established by the ruins which they found, east and west, of dwellings for men and by the row-locks and relics of boats and stone implements scattered on the shore.2 The names of Eric's principal companions have been preserved by the ancient records. They were: Ketill, who settled on Ketillsfjord; Rafn, on Rafnsfjord; Sölvi, who chose Sölvidale; Helgi Thorbrandson, who located on Alptafjord; Thorbjörn Glora, on Siglufjord; Einar, who built on Einarsfjord; Hafgrim, who went to Hafgrimsfjord and Vatnaverf; Arnlaug, on Arnlaugsfjord, and, finally, Herjulf Bardson, who took possession of Herjulfsfjord and established his residence on the headland Herjulfsnes. Others went farther north to that part of the coast which was called the Western Settlement or Vestrebygd, in opposition to the Eastern or Östrebygd, so named because of the easterly slope of southwest Green 1 Rafn, Antiq. Amer., pp. 14, 187; Gravier, p. 36; Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. iii. p. 15. 2 Heimskringla of Ari Frode, ap. Reeves, p. 9; Aa. passim. |