Motörhead Remember Me
04-13-2011, 08:15 PM
History of Greenland (http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Greenland)
To Europeans, Greenland was unknown until the 10th century, when Icelandic Vikings settled on the southwestern coast. This part of Greenland was apparently unpopulated at the time when the Vikings arrived; the direct ancestors of the modern Inuit Greenlanders are not thought to have arrived until around AD 1200 from the northwest. The Norse settlements along the southwestern coast eventually disappeared after about 500 years. The Inuit thrived in the icy world of the Little Ice Age and were the only inhabitants of the island for several centuries. Denmark-Norway nonetheless claimed the territory, and, after centuries of no contact between the Norse Greenlanders and their Scandinavian brethren, it was feared that the Greenlanders had lapsed back into paganism; so a missionary expedition was sent out to reinstate Christianity in 1721. However, since none of the lost Norse Greenlanders were found, Denmark-Norway instead proceeded to baptize the local Inuit Greenlanders and develop trading colonies along the coast as part of its aspirations as a colonial power. Colonial privileges were retained, such as trade monopoly.
Greenlandic Vikings, Past And Present (http://www.rudyfoto.com/grl/greenlandvikings.html)
In 982 A.D., the famous Viking explorer Erikur Raude (Erik the Red) found himself in trouble, again. Already banished from his native Norway for carrying a blood feud to its violent extremes, he was labled an outlaw by Icelandic authorities for avenging the death of two of his servants in true Viking style. So, Erik set sail from his newly adopted home and headed west to what's known today as Greenland. The land was already discovered by earlier adventurers, and stories of their voyages undoubtedly were circulated in the western fjords of Iceland, where Erik made his home. Erik also found a willing crew, as Iceland was gripped by famine, and young men like Erik were unable to secure choice land in the new Atlantic colony.
The Fate of Greenland's Vikings (http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/greenland/)
Of the first 24 boatloads of land-hungry settlers who set out from Iceland in the summer of 986 to colonize new territory explored several years earlier by the vagabond and outlaw, Erik the Red, only 14 made it, the others having been forced back to port or lost at sea. Yet more brave souls, drawn by the promise of a better life for themselves, soon followed. Under the leadership of the red-faced, red-bearded Erik (who had given the island its attractive name, the better to lure settlers there), the colonists developed a little Europe of their own just a few hundred miles from North America, a full 500 years before Columbus set foot on the continent. They established dairy and sheep farms throughout the unglaciated areas of the south and built churches, a monastery, a nunnery, and a cathedral boasting an imported bronze bell and greenish tinted glass windows.
The questions persist: what happened in the end to the last of the Greenlanders? what fate did the people who laid their loved ones to rest in this graveyard by the sea meet? who buried them when they died, and where? did the Greenlanders give up the island and depart for North America, as was said of the western settlers? It is hard to imagine such a mass-migration occurring, if for no other reason than that the islanders lacked the boats to carry it out. Without a ready source of nails, bolts, and wood for repairs, any ships that may have survived from earlier days would have made a leaky fleet indeed.
Were the Greenlanders killed off by the Black Plague? Iceland's population had been reduced by as much as two-thirds when an epidemic struck in 1402 and dragged on for two years. Norway had suffered similarly. Had the Greenlanders also been afflicted, mass graves would tell the tale of the dying, and none from this period have been discovered.
Were the islanders subject to intermittent pirate raids?
Inuit and viking contact in ancient times (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2197610/posts)
It must be remembered that in those days the Catholic church played a strong role in the lives of those Christian settlements in Iceland and Greenland. In the book “Early Voyages and Northern Approaches” by Tryggvi J. Oleson (1963), Oleson suggests that marriages between Inuit and the Icelandic norsemen may have occurred during the early contact times but not sanctioned by the church. There is an indication the church frowned upon intermarriages with the heathens, i.e. the Inuit, skraelings, Tunnit and Itqilit.
That a peaceful intercourse and trade existed with Inuit is missing in reports to the church of the pope on the mainland of Europe. The Christian standards of that time distort the actual relationship of the two peoples. Inuit stories indicate there were long, peaceful relationships with early Indians, Skraelings, Tunnit and with the vikings. In fact, other stories passed down talk of these people living together peacefully for periods of time and even intermarrying.
This is evidenced by a number of observations by early missionaries like Hans Egede, who went to Greenland in 1721 and gave a description of the people as being tall, stout, well proportioned men and the women who, if cleaned up, would compare with the most beautiful women of Europe. It would then seem likely that the vikings were eventually absorbed into the peoples they encountered in North America, being more numerous, as viking numbers dwindled. Still they would live side by side in harmony and share a connected history
In addition, still another encounter of a group of people, Skraelings, during the same period was recorded by the vikings. Inuit folklore says the Inuquliit almost match the description of Skraelings by the vikings. They are considered little people, much shorter than Inuit, and about the size of a 9-year-old child. They are strong for their size and lived among the Inuit in harmony until several generations ago. They are darker in complexion as compared to Inuit. They were understood by the Inuit when they spoke. They are not considered to be of Inuit decent and have their own peculiar customs.
DNA Study To Settle Ancient Mystery About Mingling Of Inuit, Vikings (http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/974612/posts)
"The Icelandic sagas, at several points, mention the Norse in Greenland meeting people who belong to other cultures," Palsson said.
Although those settlements pushed ever westward from Greenland as early as the 9th and 10th century, they had mysteriously disappeared by the 15th. The fate of settlers - did they simply disappear into the local population? - is unknown.
The Inuit tell legends of long-ago meetings with people from a strange culture.
Tantalizing accounts of European-looking Inuit surface in the accounts of some of the earliest western Arctic explorers, including Sir John Franklin, who was later to lead the doomed Franklin Expedition.
In the first decade of the last century, the famed Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson heard a rumour from a whaling captain about fair-haired people living among the Copper Inuit near what is now Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.
Stefansson, hungry for renown, used the rumour to raise money for an expedition to the area. In 1910, he finally caught up with the Inuit he sought.
A documentary entitled Arctic Dreamer, which premieres Friday at the Montreal Film Festival, quotes Stefansson's journals on the meeting:
"There were three men here whose beard is almost the same colour as mine and who look like typical Scandinavians," he wrote. "One woman has the delicate features one sees on Scandinavian girls."
DNA tests debunk blond Inuit legend (http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2003/10/28/inuit_blond031028.html)
To Europeans, Greenland was unknown until the 10th century, when Icelandic Vikings settled on the southwestern coast. This part of Greenland was apparently unpopulated at the time when the Vikings arrived; the direct ancestors of the modern Inuit Greenlanders are not thought to have arrived until around AD 1200 from the northwest. The Norse settlements along the southwestern coast eventually disappeared after about 500 years. The Inuit thrived in the icy world of the Little Ice Age and were the only inhabitants of the island for several centuries. Denmark-Norway nonetheless claimed the territory, and, after centuries of no contact between the Norse Greenlanders and their Scandinavian brethren, it was feared that the Greenlanders had lapsed back into paganism; so a missionary expedition was sent out to reinstate Christianity in 1721. However, since none of the lost Norse Greenlanders were found, Denmark-Norway instead proceeded to baptize the local Inuit Greenlanders and develop trading colonies along the coast as part of its aspirations as a colonial power. Colonial privileges were retained, such as trade monopoly.
Greenlandic Vikings, Past And Present (http://www.rudyfoto.com/grl/greenlandvikings.html)
In 982 A.D., the famous Viking explorer Erikur Raude (Erik the Red) found himself in trouble, again. Already banished from his native Norway for carrying a blood feud to its violent extremes, he was labled an outlaw by Icelandic authorities for avenging the death of two of his servants in true Viking style. So, Erik set sail from his newly adopted home and headed west to what's known today as Greenland. The land was already discovered by earlier adventurers, and stories of their voyages undoubtedly were circulated in the western fjords of Iceland, where Erik made his home. Erik also found a willing crew, as Iceland was gripped by famine, and young men like Erik were unable to secure choice land in the new Atlantic colony.
The Fate of Greenland's Vikings (http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/greenland/)
Of the first 24 boatloads of land-hungry settlers who set out from Iceland in the summer of 986 to colonize new territory explored several years earlier by the vagabond and outlaw, Erik the Red, only 14 made it, the others having been forced back to port or lost at sea. Yet more brave souls, drawn by the promise of a better life for themselves, soon followed. Under the leadership of the red-faced, red-bearded Erik (who had given the island its attractive name, the better to lure settlers there), the colonists developed a little Europe of their own just a few hundred miles from North America, a full 500 years before Columbus set foot on the continent. They established dairy and sheep farms throughout the unglaciated areas of the south and built churches, a monastery, a nunnery, and a cathedral boasting an imported bronze bell and greenish tinted glass windows.
The questions persist: what happened in the end to the last of the Greenlanders? what fate did the people who laid their loved ones to rest in this graveyard by the sea meet? who buried them when they died, and where? did the Greenlanders give up the island and depart for North America, as was said of the western settlers? It is hard to imagine such a mass-migration occurring, if for no other reason than that the islanders lacked the boats to carry it out. Without a ready source of nails, bolts, and wood for repairs, any ships that may have survived from earlier days would have made a leaky fleet indeed.
Were the Greenlanders killed off by the Black Plague? Iceland's population had been reduced by as much as two-thirds when an epidemic struck in 1402 and dragged on for two years. Norway had suffered similarly. Had the Greenlanders also been afflicted, mass graves would tell the tale of the dying, and none from this period have been discovered.
Were the islanders subject to intermittent pirate raids?
Inuit and viking contact in ancient times (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2197610/posts)
It must be remembered that in those days the Catholic church played a strong role in the lives of those Christian settlements in Iceland and Greenland. In the book “Early Voyages and Northern Approaches” by Tryggvi J. Oleson (1963), Oleson suggests that marriages between Inuit and the Icelandic norsemen may have occurred during the early contact times but not sanctioned by the church. There is an indication the church frowned upon intermarriages with the heathens, i.e. the Inuit, skraelings, Tunnit and Itqilit.
That a peaceful intercourse and trade existed with Inuit is missing in reports to the church of the pope on the mainland of Europe. The Christian standards of that time distort the actual relationship of the two peoples. Inuit stories indicate there were long, peaceful relationships with early Indians, Skraelings, Tunnit and with the vikings. In fact, other stories passed down talk of these people living together peacefully for periods of time and even intermarrying.
This is evidenced by a number of observations by early missionaries like Hans Egede, who went to Greenland in 1721 and gave a description of the people as being tall, stout, well proportioned men and the women who, if cleaned up, would compare with the most beautiful women of Europe. It would then seem likely that the vikings were eventually absorbed into the peoples they encountered in North America, being more numerous, as viking numbers dwindled. Still they would live side by side in harmony and share a connected history
In addition, still another encounter of a group of people, Skraelings, during the same period was recorded by the vikings. Inuit folklore says the Inuquliit almost match the description of Skraelings by the vikings. They are considered little people, much shorter than Inuit, and about the size of a 9-year-old child. They are strong for their size and lived among the Inuit in harmony until several generations ago. They are darker in complexion as compared to Inuit. They were understood by the Inuit when they spoke. They are not considered to be of Inuit decent and have their own peculiar customs.
DNA Study To Settle Ancient Mystery About Mingling Of Inuit, Vikings (http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/974612/posts)
"The Icelandic sagas, at several points, mention the Norse in Greenland meeting people who belong to other cultures," Palsson said.
Although those settlements pushed ever westward from Greenland as early as the 9th and 10th century, they had mysteriously disappeared by the 15th. The fate of settlers - did they simply disappear into the local population? - is unknown.
The Inuit tell legends of long-ago meetings with people from a strange culture.
Tantalizing accounts of European-looking Inuit surface in the accounts of some of the earliest western Arctic explorers, including Sir John Franklin, who was later to lead the doomed Franklin Expedition.
In the first decade of the last century, the famed Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson heard a rumour from a whaling captain about fair-haired people living among the Copper Inuit near what is now Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.
Stefansson, hungry for renown, used the rumour to raise money for an expedition to the area. In 1910, he finally caught up with the Inuit he sought.
A documentary entitled Arctic Dreamer, which premieres Friday at the Montreal Film Festival, quotes Stefansson's journals on the meeting:
"There were three men here whose beard is almost the same colour as mine and who look like typical Scandinavians," he wrote. "One woman has the delicate features one sees on Scandinavian girls."
DNA tests debunk blond Inuit legend (http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2003/10/28/inuit_blond031028.html)