Raids, Trades and Discovery

Cast your memory back to your primary school history lessons... do you remember Erik the Red? He was the founder of the Norse colony in Greenland after he was exiled from Iceland for manslaughter.  This epitomizes the popular image of Vikings, bloodthirsty, plundering the civilised settlements in Europe, having adventures and discovering new lands. They travelled as far east as Russia and Erik the Red’s son - Leif Ericson, is believed to have been the first European to visit North America. However, as vivid as this image is, the Vikings were also farmers wanting to find new lands to cultivate, and in doing so established six colonies in the Orkney, Shetland and Faeroe Islands as well as Iceland, Vinland and Greenland.

Erik the Red set out for Greenland in A.D. 985 and setup Europe’s furthest outpost (Hamilton, 1998). Over time, the Norse colony came to comprise of two main settlements – the Western Settlement and the Eastern Settlement. These settlements were built deep inside two fjord systems on the southwest coast which are sheltered from the cold ocean currents and chilling winds. The site offered a sort of oasis from the uninhabitable harsh environments Greenland is known for.

Erik the Red

The ruins of Erik the Red's house

The two Norse settlements in Greenland: the 1% of green in an expanse of icy wasteland.  

For 500 years this environmental sanctuary allowed the Norse kept pasture and rear livestock such as sheep and goats. To supplement their diet they also hunted seals using iron tools. Iron weapons gave them a military advantage and enabled them to keep their hostile neighbours - the Inuits at bay. In addition they traded ivory and walrus tusks with mainland Europe. With the spread of Christianity across the continent, they too converted and built churches and a cathedral (Diamond, 2005).

On the whole Norse Greenland was a complex and integrated society with good economic outputs and a military advantage over any rivals. The Vikings have a reputation for being strong and able to withstand the harshest of environments.  So why is it that a few centuries years later they vanished and yet the Inuits were able to survive for decades more? Better yet, how is it that the Norse colonies in Iceland could survive in equally as harsh conditions and continue to prosper into a modern affluent country?

Next time ... Would the Norse survived if a Lorax had been around?

References:

Diamond, J. (2005) Collapse: How Societies choose to fail or survive, London: Penguin Group.

Hamilton, L. Lyster, P. Otterstad, O. (2000) ‘Social change, ecology and climate in 20^th Century Greenland’, Climate Change, 47, 193-211.