Editing History of Greenland (section)

==Norse settlement==
{{Main|Norse settlements in Greenland}}
Europeans probably became aware of Greenland's existence in the late 9th century, after [[Gunnbjörn Ulfsson]], while sailing from Norway to Iceland, was blown off course by a storm and sighted some [[Gunnbjörn's skerries|islands off Greenland]]. During the 980s explorers led by [[Erik the Red]] set out from [[Iceland]] and reached the southwest coast of Greenland. Erik named the island "Greenland" (''Grœnland'' in [[Old Norse]], ''Grænland'' in modern [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], ''Grønland'' in modern [[Danish language|Danish]] and [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]]). Both the ''Book of Icelanders'' (''[[Íslendingabók]]'', a medieval account of [[Icelandic history]] from the 12th century onward) and the ''[[Saga of Eric the Red]]'' (''Eiríks saga rauða'', a medieval account of his life and of the Norse settlement of Greenland) state that Erik said that "it would encourage people to go there that the land had a good name".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grove |first1=Jonathan |title=The Place of Greenland in Medieval Icelandic Saga Narrative |journal=Journal of the North Atlantic |date=2009 |volume=201 |pages=30–51 |jstor=26686936 |doi=10.3721/037.002.s206 }}</ref>{{Failed verification|date= April 2019|talk=Norse settlement - origin of the name}}<ref>
{{cite news
 |url= https://sagadb.org/eiriks_saga_rauda.en
 |title= The Saga of Erik the Red
 |translator-last= Sephton
 |translator-first= J.
 |year= 1880
 |newspaper= Icelandic Saga Database
 |access-date= 20 March 2021
 |quote= In the summer Eirik went to live in the land which he had discovered, and which he called Greenland, 'Because,' said he, 'men will desire much the more to go there if the land has a good name.'
}}
</ref>

According to the sagas, the Icelanders had exiled Erik the Red for three years for committing murder,<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://www.greenland-guide.gl/leif2000/history.htm |title= Timeline of the history of Norse Greenland |access-date= 2006-01-21 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170804120655/http://www.greenland-guide.gl/leif2000/history.htm |archive-date= 2017-08-04 |url-status= dead}}</ref> {{circa}} 982. He sailed to Greenland, where he explored the coastline and claimed certain regions as his own. He then returned to Iceland to persuade people to join him in establishing a settlement on Greenland. The Icelandic sagas say that 25 ships left Iceland with Erik the Red in 985, and that only 14 of them arrived safely in Greenland.<ref name="The Fate of Greenland's Vikings">{{Cite web|url=http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/greenland/|title=The Fate of Greenland's Vikings}}</ref> Radiocarbon dating of remains at the first settlement at [[Brattahlíð|Brattahlid]] (now [[Qassiarsuk]]) have approximately confirmed this timeline, yielding a date of about 1000. According to the sagas, in the year 1000 Erik's son, [[Leif Erikson]], left the settlement to explore the regions around [[Vinland]], which historians generally assume to have been located in present-day [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]].

The Norse established settlements along Greenland's south-western fjords. It is possible that the bottom lands of the southern fjords at that time were covered by highgrown shrub and surrounded by hills covered with grass and brush (as the [[Qinngua Valley]] currently is), but this hasn't been determined yet.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://ign.ku.dk/english/about/arboreta/arboretum-greenland/forest-plantations/ |title= The Forest Plantations in The Greenlandic Arboretum |date= 18 October 2013}}</ref> If the presumption is true then the Norse probably cleared the landscape by felling trees to use as building material and fuel, and by allowing their sheep and goats to graze there in both summer and winter. Any resultant soil erosion could have become an important factor in the demise of the colonies, as the land was stripped of its natural cover.
 
The Norse settled in three separate locations in south-western Greenland: the larger [[Eastern Settlement]], the smaller [[Western Settlement]], and the still smaller [[Ivittuut|Middle Settlement]] (often considered part of the Eastern one). Estimates put the combined population of the settlements at their height between 2,000 and 10,000, with recent estimates<ref>N. Lynnerup, in {{harvnb|Fitzhugh|Ward|2000}}</ref> 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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

[[File:I. E. C. Rasmussen - Sommernat under den Grønlandske Kyst circa Aar 1000.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|left|''Summer Night Off the Greenland Coast Circa Year 1000'' ([[Carl Rasmussen]], 1875)]]
The economy of the Norse Greenlanders depended on a combination of pastoral farming with hunting and some fishing. Farmers kept cattle, sheep and goats - shipped into the island - for their milk, cheese and butter, while most of the consumed meat came from hunted caribou and seals. Both individual farmers and groups of farmers organised summer trips to the more northerly [[Disko Bay]] area, where they hunted walruses, narwhals and polar bears for their skins, hides and ivory. Besides their use in making garments and shoes, these resources also functioned as a form of currency, as well as providing the most important export commodities.<ref>[https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1208/viking-age-greenland/ Viking Age Greenland] ''Ancient History Encyclopedia''</ref>

The Greenland settlements carried on a trade with Europe in [[ivory trade|ivory]] from [[walrus]] [[tusk]]s, as well as exporting rope, sheep, seals, wool and cattle hides (according to one 13th-century account).<ref>{{cite web|last=Groeneveld|first=Emma|title=Viking Age Greenland|website=World History|publisher=World History Encyclopedia|date=3 April 2018|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1208/viking-age-greenland/|access-date=26 October 2022}}</ref> The Greenlandic Norsemen depended on Icelandic and Norwegian Norsemen for iron tools, wood (especially for boat building, although they may also have obtained wood from coastal [[Labrador]] - ''[[Markland]]''), supplemental foodstuffs, and religious and social contacts. For a time, trade ships from Iceland and Norway traveled to Greenland every year and would sometimes overwinter in Greenland. Beginning in the late-13th century, laws required all ships from Greenland to sail directly to Norway. The climate became increasingly colder in the 14th and 15th centuries, during the period of colder weather known as the [[Little Ice Age]].

In 1126 the Roman Catholic Church founded a [[diocese]] at [[Gardar, Greenland|Garðar]] (now [[Igaliku]]). It was subject to the [[Norway|Norwegian]] archdiocese of [[Nidaros]] (now [[Trondheim]]); at least five churches in Norse Greenland are known from archeological remains. In 1261 the population accepted the overlordship of the [[King of Norway]], although it continued to have its own law.

A union between Norway and Sweden, including Greenland and Iceland existed between 1319 and 1355 through [[Magnus IV of Sweden]] (In Norway crowned Magnus VII after claims of birthright) and between 1362 and 1364 through [[Haakon VI]], the son ”Håkan Magnusson”. During this period Greenland runs were made at intervals.

After initially thriving, the Norse settlements in Greenland declined in the 14th century. In 1355 [[Magnus IV of Sweden]] (In Norway Magnus VII) sent a ship (or ships) to Greenland to inspect its [[Western Settlement|Western]] and [[Eastern Settlement]]s. Sailors found settlements entirely Norse and Christian. The Greenland carrier (''Groenlands Knorr'') made the Greenland run at intervals till 1369, when she sank and was apparently not replaced.<ref name="Gwyn Jones 1997, p.292">Gwyn Jones, "The Vikings", Folio Society, London 1997, p.292.</ref> The Western Settlement was probably abandoned before 1400.<ref name="Ledger">{{cite web |last1=Ledger |first1=Paul M. |title=Norse Landnam and its impact on the vegetation of Vatnahverfi, Eastern Settlement, Greensland |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/253342011 |website=Research Gate |publisher=Memorial University of Newfoundland |page=52-54 |access-date=24 August 2023}}</ref> 

In 1378 there was no longer a [[bishop]] at Garðar in the Eastern Settlement. A single source suggests that in 1379, "skraelings" ([[Inuit]]) attacked the Eastern Settlement, killed 18 men and captured two boys. However, the authenticity and accuracy of this source is doubted by some historians,{{sfn|Hansen|Medlgaard|1991|loc=p. 18, "The last bishop on Greenland had died in 1378 and the following year a priest on Iceland noted in the Icelandic annals: 'The Skraelings raided the Greenlanders [Norsemen], killing 18 men and taking two boys as slaves'. The pope had been informed that the heathens had attacked and destroyed most of the churches and taken many inhabitants prisoner. The authenticity of the papal brief, however is doubted by some historians"}} and both [[Jared Diamond]] and Jens Melgaard caution that it may actually describe an attack that occurred between Norse and [[Sami people|Saami]] people in [[Northern Europe]], or an attack on the Icelandic coast by European pirates, assuming such an attack really did occur.<ref name="Diamond" /> A church document describes a 1418 attack that has been attributed to [[Inuit]] people by modern scholars, however Historian [[Jack D. Forbes|Jack Forbes]] has said that this supposed attack actually refers to a Russian-Karelian attack on Norse settlers in northern [[Norway]], which was known locally as "Greenland" and has been mistaken by modern scholars for the American [[Greenland]]. Archeological evidence has failed to find any violence by the [[Inuit]] people against Norse settlers.{{sfn|Forbes|2010|loc=p. 162 "Writers frequently quote a papal bull of 1448 indicating that some thirty years earlier the "heathen" attacked the settlers of Greenland, destroyed 
churches, and captured the inhabitants. Subsequently, some of the latter were able to return and rebuild. However, this story probably refers to a 
Karelian-Finnish-Russian attack on Norse settlers in northern Norway ("Greenland") rather than to American Greenland, according to Christian Keller. Archeology has failed to confirm Inuit violence against the settlers.64"}}

In 1380 the Norwegian kingdom entered into a personal union with the Kingdom of Denmark. From 1402–1404 the [[Black Death]] hit Iceland for the first time and killed approximately half the population there - but there is no evidence that it reached Greenland.<ref>{{Cite web | url= https://www.visindavefur.is/svar.php?id=66333 | title= Hvað er helst vitað um svartadauða á Íslandi?}}</ref> The last written record of the [[Norsemen|Norse]] Greenlanders documents a marriage in 1408 at [[Hvalsey Church]], whose ruins are the best-preserved of the Norse buildings of that period.

[[File:Hvalsey Church.jpg |thumb|upright=1.1|right|Hvalsey Church ruins]]
After 1408 few written records mention the settlers. Correspondence between the Pope and the Bishop Bertold af Garde dates from the same year.<ref>Transcription of the original letter (Latin): [http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/middelalder/diplom_vise_tekst.prl?b=11207&s=n&str=bert% Diplomatarium Norvegicum XIII p.52 Date: 29 August 1408. Place: Svartland.] ("'''Bertoldus''' eadem gracia episcopus '''Gardensis'''")</ref> The Danish cartographer [[Claudius Clavus]] seems to have visited Greenland in 1420, according to documents written by Nicolas Germanus and Henricus Martellus, who had access to original cartographic notes and a map by Clavus. In the late 20th century the Danish scholars Bjönbo and Petersen found two mathematical manuscripts containing the second chart of the Claudius Clavus map from his journey to Greenland (where he himself mapped the area).<ref>Originals in Hofbibliothek at Vienna. A Greenlander in Norway, on visit; it is also mentioned in a Norwegian diploma from 1426, Peder Grønlendiger. Transcription of the original letter: [http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/middelalder/diplom_vise_tekst.prl?b=11231&s=n&str= Diplomatarium Norvegicum XIII p.70 Date: 12 February 1426. Place: Nidaros.]</ref>

In a letter dated 1448 from [[Rome]], [[Pope Nicholas V]] instructed the bishops of [[Skálholt]] and [[Hólar]] (the two Icelandic episcopal sees) to provide the inhabitants of Greenland ("the island of Greenland, which is said to be placed at the farthest ends of the ocean near the northern region of the kingdom of Norway, in the [[Roman_Catholic_Archdiocese_of_Nidaros#Ecclesiastical_province_of_Nidaros|province of Nidaros]]") with priests and a bishop, the latter of which they had not had in the 30 years since a purported attack by "heathens"; the letter, while noting that its author does "not have certain knowledge of their circumstances", describes "a barbarian fleet" from "the neighboring shores of the heathens" who destroyed most of the churches and took many prisoners, most of whom later managed to return to their settlement.<ref>{{cite book |year=1864 |title=[[Diplomatarium Norvegicum]] |volume=12 |chapter=527. 20 Septbr 1448. Rom. |pages=554-6 |lang=la |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PNlAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA554#v=onepage&q&f=false }}</ref> It is probable that the Eastern Settlement was defunct by the middle of the 15th century, although no exact date has been established. A European ship that landed in the former Eastern Settlement in the 1540s found the corpse of a Norse man there,<ref>
{{cite web
 |url = https://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/greenland/
 |title = The Fate of Greenland's Vikings
 |last = Mackenzie Brown
 |first = Dale
 |date = 2000-02-28
 |website = Archaeology Archive
 |publisher = Archaeological Institute of America
 |access-date = 2018-06-13
 |quote = One&nbsp;... [man] was found lying face down on the beach of a fjord in the 1540s by a party of Icelandic seafarers, who like so many sailors before them had been blown off course on their passage to Iceland and wound up in Greenland. The only Norseman they would come across during their stay, he died where he had fallen, dressed in a hood, homespun woolens and seal skins. Nearby lay his knife, 'bent and much worn and eaten away.'
}}
</ref> which may be the last mention of a Norse individual from the settlement.<ref name="Jones2014">{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ZcIqAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT102|title= Ice!|author= Tristan Jones|date= 1 April 2014|publisher= Open Road Media|isbn= 978-1-4976-0357-8|pages= 102–}}</ref>
The Icelandic seafarer Jon Greenlander, who visited Greenland around 1540, described the dead Norse Greenlander as a: 
:"Dead man lying face downwards on the ground. On his head was a hood, well made, and otherwise good clothing of frieze cloth and sealskin. Near him was a sheath-knife, bent and much worn and eaten away".<ref name="Sines, R. 2019 p. 76">Sines, R. (2019). Norse in the North Atlantic. USA: Hamilton Books. p. 76</ref>
This was reportedly the last time any European saw any of the Norse Greenlanders dead or alive.<ref name="Sines, R. 2019 p. 76"/>