The discovery of North America by Europeans began in the 10th century - half a millennium before the first expedition of Christopher Columbus - by the Normans (northern people). The westward movement of Norse colonists that led to the discovery of Greenland began from Iceland. It is impossible, even approximately, to establish the time of the first known voyage to the west of Iceland, attributed to the Norwegian Gunbjorn Ulfson. Historians of the XIX-XX centuries time this voyage to a variety of dates, and none of them can be substantiated: some authors attribute it to the period of the first colonization of Iceland by the Norwegians, that is, to the seventies of the IX century, others - to the end of the IX century, others - by the first quarter of the 10th century. The earliest of the proposed dates is 870, the latest is 920 (K. Gassert); F. Nansen carefully indicates the average date - about 900. So, between 870 and 920, the Norwegian Gunbjorn Ulfson, who was heading for Iceland, was thrown far to the west by a storm and discovered a number of small islands, which in the Landnamabok (Book of Landowners) are called the Gunbjorn Skerries. Behind them was a mountainous land covered with snow and ice, but Gunbjorn could not approach it because of the heavy ice. The first voyage of Europeans to the shores of northeastern America was made in 985 by the Norwegian Bjarni Herulfson. Bjarney announced that he also intended to go there; all the warriors supported him, although in Iceland their decision was considered not reasonable, since none of them had ever been to the Greenland Sea. They set sail and sailed west for three days, until they lost sight of the mountains of Iceland. "Then the tailwind died down and the north wind rose on the sea and the fog fell, so that they did not know where they were, and so it lasted for many days. Finally, they saw the sun again and could determine the 8 cardinal points." As soon as the weather cleared up, they settled on the same western course. A day later, Bjarni saw land, but it was not Greenland. Coming closer, they saw that it was low and overgrown with forest and there were only small hills there. Bjarni ordered a change of course from west to north. Two days later, the sailors saw the land again, but this land was also covered with forest, and in Greenland there were large glaciers, so they raised their sails and continued on their way. All commentators who admit the veracity of the story of Bjarney agree that in both cases he and his companions saw the wooded American shores. But what kind of American lands did they see? In this regard, after more than a century of dispute, opinions differ: the coast of the North American mainland? Peninsula Nova Scotia? Newfoundland Island? Yes, this question can hardly be resolved on the basis of just one short story, without involving other materials, except for a physical map of North America and a map of its vegetation. And there are no other materials yet. In ancient times and in the Middle Ages, the coastal peoples of Western and Southern Europe firmly believed in the existence in the "Western" (Atlantic) ocean of islands with wonderful nature and mild climate; some of these "blissful" or "happy" islands allegedly served as a refuge for hermits, exiles, or entire nations, pressed by the conquerors. Already Aristotle (IV century BC) reports on the islands in the ocean on the other side of the "Pillars of Hercules" (the Strait of Gibraltar). Later authors say that some of the islands in the ocean, discovered by the ancient Phoenicians, became a refuge for the Carthaginians after the destruction of their native city by the Romans. In the first century AD Pliny spoke about the Atlantic islands, and a little later (the end of the 1st or the beginning of the 2nd century) Plutarch. He places them around Britain, and pushes some of the "sacred" islands much further west, five days' journey. It is likely that these reports were based on actual discoveries by ancient navigators not only of the Canary Islands close to northwestern Africa, but also of the more remote Madeira, and perhaps even the Azores, located about one and a half thousand kilometers west of the Iberian peninsula. In the 18th-19th centuries, one can trace the revival of a legend (more precisely, legends, because there were several of them) about the "blissful" islands in the western ocean. As can be seen from the book of the Irish monk Dikuil, in the monasteries of his country they read and re-read the works of ancient authors, looking for direct indications or hints of the existence of distant happy islands. The accounts of the actual voyages of the Irish ascetics to the islands in the North Atlantic Ocean mixed with the accounts of the ancient authors about the paradise islands in the central part of the Western Ocean. This explains the origin of the legend about the wanderings of "Saint" Brandan and the island he discovered. At the end of the 16th century, Brandan allegedly sailed westward from the shores of Ireland with a group of his followers and disciples, wandered in the ocean, found some wonderful remote island, lived there and returned to his homeland after many years of absence. This legend, embellished and colored with folk fantasy, went around almost all Western European countries. Medieval cartographers showed the island of St. Brandana in the most desolate parts of the Western Ocean. It was applied first west of Ireland. Later, in the XIV-XV centuries, as in the temperate and subtropical zone of the ocean, lands were really discovered that by their nature had nothing to do with the paradise islands, as they were described in the legend, the island of St. Brandana "slid" on the maps farther south. On the Venetian map of 1367, this island stands on the site of Madeira, and Martin Beheim on his globe (1492) shows it already west of the Cape Verde Islands, near the equator. In other words, the island of St. Brandana became a "wandering" island and eventually disappeared completely without giving its name to any real land. Happier was the fate of another mysterious "wandering" island - Brazil. Born in the Middle Ages by an unknown fantasy and approved by cartographers earlier southwest of Ireland, the island of Brazil moved south and west from the European shores until (at the beginning of the 16th century) it gave its name to the imaginary island of the New World, located at the very equator, turned out to be the eastern part of the South American mainland. In the 16th century, the huge Portuguese colony (Brazil) was named after this fantastic island. West of the Strait of Gibraltar, medieval fantasy (probably in the 18th-19th centuries) established the "Island of the Seven Cities". According to Spanish-Portuguese legend, after the Muslims (Moors) defeated the Christians at the Battle of Jerez and extended their power to the Iberian Peninsula (early 18th century), one archbishop, along with six bishops, fled to a remote Atlantic island, where they founded seven Christian cities. On the maps, this fantastic island appears only at the beginning of the 15th century, sometimes next to another, even more mysterious island with an unsolved name - Antilia. The discovery of new Atlantic lands in the XIV-XV centuries pushed these fantastic islands far to the west. Their further fate was different. In the middle of the 16th century, the Spanish conquistadors searched in vain for the "Seven Cities" north of New Spain (Mexico), that is, in the center and west of the continent behind which the name of North America was established in the second half of the 16th century. The legendary name Antilia has survived to the present day for the very real islands (Greater and Lesser Antilles). For the first time they are named so on the Cantino map in 1502. These mirages played a large role in the history of the Great Discoveries. Printed on maps according to the instructions of medieval cosmographers, they seemed to H. Columbus in drawing up his project for reliable stages on the western sea route from the coast of Europe to the "Indies". And the search for the "Seven Cities" led, as we shall see, to the discovery by the Spaniards in the middle of the 16th century of the interior regions of North America - the Mississippi and Colorado Basins.

Between 870 and 920 Norman, Norwegian sailor Gunbjorn Ulf-Krakason, heading for Iceland, was thrown by a storm far to the west and discovered a number of small islands at 65 ° 30 'N. w, and 36 ° W. which are called Gunbjorn skerries in the Landnamabok family saga of Iceland.

Behind them was a high ground covered with snow and ice, to which he could not approach because of the heavy ice. Around 980, a group of Icelanders sailing to the west had to spend the winter on skerries, which the winterers mistook for the skerries of Gunbjorn. Returning to their homeland, they confirmed the story of the mainland beyond the skerries. This land could only be Greenland.

At that time, Eirik Turvaldson, nicknamed Raudi ("Redhead"), who was expelled from Norway for the murder, lived in Iceland. He did not get along in the new place and was expelled from there for three years "for his restless character." In 981, with several close ones, he went in search of the western mainland. Most likely, Eirik went from Iceland directly to the west between 65-66 ° N. sh. and at this latitude I saw the land in the distance. After unsuccessful attempts to break through the ice, Eirik walked along the coast to the south-west for about 650 km, until he reached the southern tip of the land he was exploring (Cape Farvel, at 60 ° N). Eirik and his companions landed on an island 200 km from the north-western cape and spent the winter there.

In the summer of 982, Eirik set out on a reconnaissance expedition, discovered the western coast of the country covered with a giant glacier, cut by deep fjords, for 1000 km - from 60 ° to the Arctic Circle - and marked out the places for farms. From one of the coastal peaks, according to the modern Canadian humanist writer F. Mowat, Eirik saw high mountains in the west - on a clear day beyond the Davis Strait you can see an ice peak (2134 m) about. Baffin's Land. Eirik, according to Mowet, first crossed the strait and reached the Cumberland Peninsula. He surveyed the entire mountainous east coast of this peninsula and entered Cumberland Bay. The main part of the summer was spent hunting walruses, harvesting fat and collecting walrus bones and narwhal tusks. Upon his return to Greenland, Eirik announced the discovery of the Vestr Obygdir ("Western Desert Areas"), which played an important role in the life of the Greenlandic settlers.

In the summer of 983, he passed from the Arctic Circle to the north, discovered the Disko Bay, about. Disko, Nugssuaq Peninsula, Swartenhoek, and probably reached Melville Bay, at 76 ° N. sh., that is, traced the western coast of Greenland for another 1200 km and was the first to sail in the Baffin Sea. He was struck by the abundance of polar bears, arctic foxes, reindeer, whales, narwhals, walruses, eiders, gyrfalcons and all kinds of fish. After a two-year search, Eirik chose several flat places in the southwest, relatively well protected from cold winds, covered with fresh green vegetation in summer. The contrast between the surrounding icy desert and these areas was so great that Eirik christened the coast Greenland ("Green Land") - not quite a suitable name for the largest island on Earth with an area of \u200b\u200babout 2.2 million km2, of which barely 15% are free of ice cover. Landnamabok claims that Eirik wanted to attract the Icelanders with a “nice name” to convince them to settle there. But the name given by Eirik originally referred only to the really friendly corners of the southwestern coast that he discovered and only much later (in the 15th century) spread to the entire island.

In 984 Eirik returned to Iceland. The recruitment of colonists was very successful, and in the middle of the summer of 986 he led a flotilla of 25 kners westward. During the transition to Greenland during the storm, some of them died, turned back somewhat, but 14 ships, on which there were more than 500 colonists, reached South Greenland. They settled in the places indicated by Eirik. He himself chose an area for settlement on the southern coast (at 61 ° N), near the top of the Bredefjord, at the mouth of which Julianshob now lies.

From the southern coast during the X-XI centuries. the Normans advanced along the western coast of Greenland to the Arctic Circle. They settled in small groups in well-protected areas - deep in the fjords. The colonists brought livestock with them, but their main occupation was not cattle breeding, but fishing, hunting for gyrfalcons and bears. White gyrfalcones turned out to be not a trade item, but rather a diplomatic tool for the kings of Norway and other northern monarchs, since their southern neighbors willingly accepted expressions of friendship with these birds. Polar bears were an even more valuable diplomatic "token of attention," but a rarer and more difficult one.

No later than the XI century. in search of animals and birds, the colonists swam along the western coast far to the north, for the second time - after Eirik - between 68 and 70 ° N. sh. discovered the Disko Bay, the Nugssuak Peninsula, Svartenhoek and about. Disco. Here they discovered richer hunting grounds with good fishing grounds and large reserves of fin and called them "nordsets" (northern campsites "), or" hunting grounds "). Beyond 76 ° N sh. they completed the opening of Melville Bay, entered the Kane Basin through Smith Strait, and possibly reached Kennedy Strait, beyond 80 ° N. sh. They called the north-western ledge of Greenland the "Peninsula" (now the Hayes Peninsula). In search of new land plots and pastures, as noted by the author of the middle of the XIII century. in their description of Greenland, "The Royal Mirror," the colonists "... often tried to penetrate the interior of the country, climbed to the tops of the mountains in different places to look around and find out if there is land anywhere that is free of ice and suitable for settlement. But nowhere they could find such an area, except for the one that [already] captured - a narrow strip along the water's edge. "

They also walked along the eastern, almost inaccessible coast of Greenland. Despite the almost continuous ice barrier, voyages were made between the coast and the inner edge of the pack ice. In the sagas and other written sources, there are numerous indications that the colonists not only visited these areas, but even spent several years there. They were especially attracted by the area between 65 ° N. sh. and the Arctic Circle, where polar bears have met. They also penetrated into more northern fjords, including Ollumlengri ("The Longest") - most likely this is Scorsby Bay, near 70 ° N. sh., 24 ° W etc., i.e. the first sailed in the Greenland Sea. Thus, the Norman "Greenlanders" discovered at least about 2700 km of the western and about 2000 km of the eastern coast of Greenland, and on these "stretches" they traced a huge ice sheet, the surface of which rises inland.

Perhaps they managed to bypass Greenland from the north and prove its insular position. Adam Bremensky, who wrote in the third quarter of the 11th century, already knows about this: “There are a lot of ... islands in the Atlantic Ocean, of which Greenland is not the smallest. From the shores of Norway to Greenland, five - seven days of sailing ... ”His words are illustrated by the map of the North Atlantic, created in 1598 by the Jesuits of the University of Trnava (discovered in 1945). Perhaps it is a copy of a drawing drawn up no earlier than the XII century. Greenland is shown as an island with a large northwestern projection and several bays. True, its dimensions in comparison with the true ones are reduced by almost three times. Cold snap did not allow repeating this great geographical discovery.

Norman villages on the southern and southwestern coasts of Greenland, between 60 and 65 ° N lat. sh., existed for about 400 years. In the 13th century, when the colony reached its peak, there were probably about 100 settlements on this coast, albeit very small - a total of about 270 households. They were divided into two groups: the southern one, which in documents that have come down to us for some reason is called Esterbyugd ("Eastern Settlement"), between 60-61 ° N. sh., and northwestern - Vesterbyugd ("Western settlement"), between 64-65 ° N. sh. In need of bread, timber and iron products, the colonists maintained constant communication with Europe through Iceland, sending in exchange for the goods they needed furs, skins of sea animals, walrus tusks, whalebone, eiderdown and other products of hunting and hunting. While Iceland was independent, the Greenlandic colony developed: in the XIII century. there lived, according to various estimates, from 3 to 6 thousand people. After Iceland annexed Norway (1281), the position of the colonists deteriorated sharply. They often lacked the essentials, as ships visited them less and less. Probably due to constant clashes with the Eskimos approaching from the north and the onset of a sharp cold snap, Vesterbygd already in the middle of the XIV century. was abandoned by the colonists. Their further fate is unknown.

Esterbygd's position became very difficult at the end of the 14th century, when Norway submitted to Denmark. The Danish kings declared their monopoly on trade with the northwestern islands. To distant Greenland, they allowed only one ship to be sent from Denmark annually, and even that often did not reach Esterbyugd. Icelanders were not allowed to sail to Greenland. After 1410 Österbyugd was completely abandoned. Lacking wood and iron, the colonists could not build new and repair old ships. Without bread, they began to ache and degenerate. Most of the colonists died out, the rest probably mingled with the Eskimos. But this did not happen in the XIV-XV centuries, as previously assumed, but in the XVI or even in the XVII centuries.

The Norman discoveries in the Northwest Atlantic are reflected in the map of the Dane Claudius Claussen Swart (1427), better known by the Latin nickname Claudius Clavus Niger. It shows Greenland as part of Europe. Undoubtedly, the rest of the lands discovered by the Normans south of Greenland were regarded as European islands, and not as the shores of the New World. The idea of \u200b\u200ba new, western continent, unknown "even to the ancient", could not have arisen before the era of great discoveries.

Who first discovered Greenland ??? and got the best answer

Answer from Ђ @ nyushka [guru]
The island was first discovered by the Icelandic sailor Gunbjörn around 875 (did not go ashore).
In 982, the Icelander of Norwegian origin Eirik Rauda (Red) made the first survey of the island and named it Greenland.
In 983, Norman (Icelandic) colonies were founded in the south of Greenland, which existed until the 15th century. In the 11th century, the population of Greenland, including the indigenous Eskimos, adopted Christianity (in 1126, the first bishopric was founded in Greenland). From 1262 until the beginning of the 18th century, Greenland actually belonged to Norway. In 1721, the colonization of the island by Denmark began. In 1744 Denmark established a state monopoly (existed until 1950) on trade with Greenland. In 1814, upon the dissolution of the Danish-Norwegian union in 1380, Greenland remained with Denmark and until 1953 was its colony. In 1953 Greenland was declared part of the Danish Kingdom. In April 1940, after the occupation of Denmark by Nazi Germany, the US government announced the extension of the Monroe Doctrine to Greenland. On April 9, 1941, the Danish envoy in Washington signed the so-called. the agreement on the defense of Greenland (ratified by the Danish Rigsdag on May 16, 1945). The United States began to establish military bases in Greenland. After Denmark joined NATO (April 4, 1949), a new agreement was signed between the Danish and American governments on April 27, 1951, according to which Denmark and the United States carry out joint defense of the island. In 1971, the United States had 2 military bases and other military facilities in Greenland.

Greenland (Grønland, literally - "green country") is an island in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, northeast of North America.
State of the Inuit people, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Greenland is the largest island in the world. The area is 2,166,086 km². Population (2005, calculated) - 56 375 people.


Around 980, Viking Eric Rauda (Red) was sentenced to three years of exile from Iceland for the murder of a neighbor [. He decided to sail west and reach the land, which in clear weather can be seen from the tops of the mountains of western Iceland. She lay at a distance of 280 km from the Icelandic coast; According to the sagas, the Norwegian Gunbjörn sailed there earlier in the 900s. Eric sailed west in 982 with his family, servants and livestock, but floating ice prevented him from landing; he was forced to go around the southern extremity of the island and landed in a place near Julianshob (Kakortok). During his three years in exile, Eric did not meet a single person on the island, although during his travels along the coast he reached Disko Island, far northwest of the southern tip of Greenland.
At the end of his term of exile, Eric the Red returned to Iceland in 986 and began encouraging the local Vikings to move to new lands. He named the island Greenland (Norwegian Grønland), which literally means "Green Land". There is still debate over the appropriateness of this name; some believe that at that time the climate in these places, thanks to the medieval climatic optimum, was mild, and the coastal regions of the south-west of the island were indeed covered with dense grassy vegetation; others believe the name was chosen for the sole purpose of attracting more settlers to the island.
Karl Lehmann
Connoisseur
(269)
Fascism was in Italy, Spain ...

Answer from Elena Osinskaya (Pestova)[guru]
Vikings

Answer from User deleted[guru]
trust the professional !!

Answer from Albert[guru]
Actually, I discovered
But out of modesty he conceded his laurels ... I don’t remember to whom! :))

Answer from Ўras Dorofeev[guru]
The island was first discovered by the Icelandic sailor Gunbjörn around 875 (did not go ashore)
In AD 982, Icelander Eric Torvaldson made his way to the southwestern coast of Greenland. This stern and tough man, better known as Eric the Red, was sentenced to three years in exile for murder in his homeland. These three years he decided to spend exploring the western lands, about which the sailors of Iceland told so much.
Three years later, he returned home and told his fellow tribesmen about his discovery. He wanted to excite in the listeners the desire to go to this new land and therefore gave it an attractive name. Torvaldson called the land he discovered "green" - Greenland!
The island belonged to Norway since 1386, after which it passed to Denmark. In 1979, the Danish parliament granted Greenland broad autonomy.
Same:
Archaeologists distinguish four Paleo-Eskimo cultures in Greenland that existed before the discovery of the island by the Vikings, but the periods of their existence are determined very approximately:
Sakkak culture: 2500 BC e. - 800 BC e. in the south of Greenland;
Culture of Independence I: 2400 BC e. - 1300 BC e. in the north of Greenland;
Culture of Independence II: 800 BC e. - 1 BC e. mainly in the north of Greenland;
Early Dorset culture, Dorset I: 700 BC e. - 200 N. e. in the south of Greenland.
These cultures were not unique to Greenland. As a rule, they arose and developed in the territories of Arctic Canada and Alaska long before their penetration into Greenland, and could persist in other parts of the Arctic after their disappearance from the island.
After the decline of Dorset culture, the island remained uninhabited for centuries. Carriers of the Inuit Thule culture, the ancestors of the modern indigenous people of Greenland, began to penetrate the north of the island at the beginning of the 13th century.
The capital is Nuk (the old name is Gothob).
Most of the territory of Greenland is hidden under the ice cover, the thickness of which in some places reaches three kilometers. Only the most unpretentious plants and the strongest animals can survive on the border of land and ice. Winters in this region are harsh and last very long, and in summer the temperature rises very slightly, and it itself ends, barely having time to begin.
Grass and some other stunted plants can be found here and there on small plots of land free of ice, but still, for the most part, only stones covered with moss and lichens are visible from under the ice.
Today, only about thirty-five thousand people live in Greenland, which is extremely small for such a vast territory. Most settled on the ice-free southwest coast of the island. Only two and a half thousand people live in the eastern part and a little more than six hundred people in the northern.

The robber and military campaigns of the Vikings in England and France, as well as expeditions to the Mediterranean Sea, during one of which, for example, 62 ships under the leadership of the legendary Haashtein in 895 reached Byzantium, do not fully characterize their achievements as navigators. The navigational art of the Vikings and the seaworthiness of their ships are evidenced by the voyages that culminated in the settlement of Iceland and Greenland and the discovery of America.

The first Norwegians appeared on the Hebrides around 620. Almost 200 years later, in 800, they settled on the Faroe ("Sheep") islands, and in 802 - on Orkney and Shetland. In 820 in Ireland, they created a state, which was located in the area of \u200b\u200bmodern Dublin, and lasted until 1170.

Information about Iceland was brought to the Vikings by the Swede Gardar Svafarsson, who in 861 transported his wife's inheritance from the Hebrides. During the passage, his ship was carried by a storm to the northern coast of Iceland, where he spent the winter with the crew. When in 872 Harald the Fair-haired forcefully created a great kingdom in Norway, Iceland became a target for those Norwegians who did not want to obey the king. Between 20,000 and 30,000 Norwegians are believed to have migrated to Iceland before 930. They carried household items, seeds and pets with them. Fishing, farming and herding were the main occupations of the Vikings in Iceland.

The Icelandic sagas that have come down to us, passed down from generation to generation and recorded only in the 13th and 14th centuries, are the most important sources of information about the Vikings. The sagas tell us about the Viking settlements in Greenland and the discovery of America, which they called Vinland.

Thus, in the saga about Eirik Raud (Red), recorded around 1200 by Hauk Erlendsson, it is said that in 983 Eirik, expelled from Iceland for three years for murder, sailed in search of the country that Gunbjörn saw when he sailed in " West Sea ". Eirik the Red reached Greenland and settled there with a group of Icelanders. The settlement was named Brattalid. Bard Herjulfsson also lived there. In 986, his son Bjarni sailed from Iceland with the intention of going to Greenland. During the voyage, he stumbled into unfamiliar land three times, until he finally found his father, who lived on the southern tip of Greenland. Upon his return to Norway, Bjarni spoke of his voyage to the court of King Eirik. The son of Eirik the Red - Leif Eriksson - bought a ship from Bjarni and sailed on it with 35 people to Brattalid. After careful preparation, they first repeated Bjarni's journey to the Labrador Peninsula. When they reached it, they turned south and followed the coast. According to the Greenlandic saga, recorded in 1387 by Jon Todarsson of Flateibuk, they reached the area they called Vinland - the Land of the Grapes. Wild grapes and maize grew rapidly there, and salmon were found in the rivers. The southern border of the salmon distribution was approximately 41 ° latitude. The northern border of wild-growing grapes ran about the 42nd parallel. Thus, Leif and his team reached what is now Boston in about AD 1000 (Fig. 1).

Leif's brother, Thorvald, after his story, on the same ship with 30 people, also reached Vinland, where he lived for two years. During one of the clashes with the local residents, Torvald was mortally wounded, and the Vikings left the settlement. Later, Leif's second brother, Thorstein, wanted to reach Vinland on the same ship, but could not find this land.

On the coast of Greenland, in a number of places there were settlements of Icelanders, up to 300 households in total. Great difficulties for living there arose due to the lack of forest. The forest grew on Labrador, which is closer to Greenland than Iceland, but sailing to the Labrador Peninsula was dangerous due to the harsh climate. Therefore, the Vikings living in Greenland had to carry everything they needed from Europe on ships that looked like ships from Skulelev. This is confirmed by excavations of burials in Greenland, in which the remains of ships were also found. In the XIV century. Viking settlements in Greenland ceased to exist.

Notes:
In the XI century. In addition to England, the Normans captured Sicily and southern Italy, establishing here at the beginning of the XII century. "Kingdom of the Two Sicilies". The author mentions exclusively the aggressive and military campaigns of the Danes and Norwegians and does not say anything about the Swedes, whose expansion was directed mainly to Eastern Europe, including Russia.

The decisive battle between Harald and his opponents in Hafrsfjord took place shortly before 900, and therefore there was no direct connection between the migrations to Iceland and the political events in Norway.

There are currently about forty hypotheses about Vinland's location. Equally controversial is the hypothesis of the Norwegian ethnologist H. Ingstad, who in 1964 discovered the ruins of a settlement on Newfoundland, which he identified as Vinland of the Normans. A number of scholars believe that this settlement belongs to the Eskimo Dorset culture. In addition, in the sagas, the climate of Vinland is assessed as mild, which does not correspond to the harsh subarctic climate of Newfoundland.

Mysteries of history. Facts. Discoveries. People Zgurskaya Maria Pavlovna

Who Discovered Greenland?

Who Discovered Greenland?

At the turn of the 15th-16th centuries, the Portuguese sailors brothers Miguel and Gaspar Cortiriala set off in three caravels in search of the northwestern route to Asia. One day they stumbled upon an island lying at the "intersection" of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. This is how the Europeans discovered Greenland. second time. And in 1721, the colonization of this exotic piece of land began. The Scandinavians, however, this time the Danes, were reclaiming the lands that the Vikings had discovered long before them. Who owns the glory of the discoverer of the largest island in the world?

According to the sagas, it was the Norwegian Gunbjorn. Somewhere between the 870s and 920s, he sailed to Iceland, but a storm threw him westward to the small islands at 65 ° 30? from. sh. 36 ° W e. Behind them was a high ground, covered with snow and ice, to which the sailors could not approach because of the heavy ice. Today, the highest point in the Arctic, which is located in Greenland, is named after the brave sailor by Mount Gunbjorn.

Around 980, a group of Icelanders, sailing westward, wintered on the skerries, which they took for the islands discovered by Gunbjorn. Returning to their homeland, the Icelanders also talked about the big land beyond the skerries. And in the summer of 982, the fiery hair of Eric Torvaldson, who went down in history under the nickname Eric the Red, was already looming off the local shores.

Eric was born in Norway, but his father, Thorvald, was expelled with his family for murder. So Eric found himself in Iceland, but from there he also had to get out: this time he himself was expelled for two murders. According to the sources, Eric's anger was just: one of the victims fell his neighbor, who did not return the boat he borrowed. The second crime Eric committed out of revenge - he punished the Viking who killed his slaves. However, even the cruel laws of that time did not approve of lynching, and now the red-haired brawler had to spend three years in a foreign land. Eric did not lose heart: he decided to get to the mysterious land, which in clear weather was visible from the mountain peaks of western Iceland. Eric decided to try his luck: he bought a ship, gathered a mob of friends and rushed towards adventure. He took his family and servants with him. Eric even loaded his cattle onto the ship. The island, most of which is now covered with ice, oddly enough, seemed suitable for the Vikings to live. The thickness of the ice cover reaches three kilometers in some places, and therefore only the most unpretentious plants and animals are able to survive on the border of land and ice. There is practically no summer in these parts - it ends before it even begins, and summer days in Greenland are not much warmer than winter ones. Why did Eric and his companions like this island so much? Why did he get such an absurd name - "Green Land"? The fact is that at the end of the 10th century the climate of Greenland was much milder than today, and, having rounded the southern tip of the island, the sailors landed near Julianehob (Kakortok), where near the fjords the grass was green and the air was filled with the scent of flowers. There is, however, another version: some researchers believe that the name "Greenland" was primarily an advertisement - Eric wanted to attract as many settlers as possible. However, the name that Eric gave these lands originally referred only to the welcoming corners of the southwest coast and spread to the entire island only in the 15th century.

During the three years that Eric had to spend in Greenland without leaving - such was the period of his exile - the settlers cultivated enough land to feed themselves and raised livestock. They hunted walruses, stored fat, walrus bone and narwhal tusks.

Once, as the legend tells, Eric climbed one of the coastal peaks and saw high mountains in the west. Modern researchers suggest that this was Baffin's Land: on a clear day, it can be seen beyond the Strait of Davis. According to the Canadian writer F. Mowat, Eric was the first to cross the strait and swam to Cumberland. He explored the entire mountainous east coast of this peninsula and entered Cumberland Bay.

In the summer of 983, Eric traveled north from the Arctic Circle, discovered Disko Bay, Disko Island, Nugssuaq Peninsula, Swartenhoek, and, possibly, reached Melville Bay, at 76 ° north latitude. He explored another 1200 km of the west coast of Greenland. The Viking was fascinated by the abundance of animals and birds to hunt: polar bears, arctic foxes, reindeer, whales, narwhals, walruses, eiders and gyrfalcons. But there were also different breeds of fish.

After two years of searching, Eric looked at several places - flat, but well protected from the cold winds. In 985, he returned to Iceland, not to stay there forever, but to recruit future colonists. There were a lot of people willing - about 700 people. They went to sea in 25 ships, but a storm broke out, and 11 of them sank. Only 400 brave men made it to Greenland. They founded the so-called Eastern Settlement on the southern coast of the island. Within ten years, another settlement appeared - the Western one. It was built by new colonists who sailed later.

Eric the Red

Of course, the settlers had a hard time: the winters were very severe. Nevertheless, the Viking colony in Greenland flourished. According to archaeologists, the number of colonists grew steadily and eventually reached a peak - three thousand people.

Viking settlements stretched along the fjords. It was not so easy to build a house on the island - there were no big trees here. Had to be content with fin or turf. Scientists have calculated that it took about a square kilometer of turf to build one of the large buildings - how much work the Vikings put in while ripping it off! There were also stone buildings. To keep the building warm, the walls were made very thick - sometimes more than two meters.

Since the summer was very short, grain did not grow well, and the traditional diet of the Vikings included bread and porridge. Grain was also added to the stews - fish and meat. The meat of domestic animals - goats, sheep and cows - was highly valued. Cattle were slaughtered very rarely, content with milk. The settlers caught fish with nets, hunted seals and deer.

In the XIV century, a cold snap began in Greenland. Glaciers crawled onto the land of the Vikings, gradually depriving them of their pastures. Trade with Scandinavia, which brought considerable income to the colonists, fell into decay - plague raged in Norway and Iceland. I had to adapt to new conditions: scientists say that the Vikings were saved by the sea, namely seafood. Their share in the diet was now over 80%.

Around 1350, all the inhabitants of the Western Settlement - about 1000 people - disappeared somewhere. This became known, since the priest from the Eastern Settlement, having come to the neighbors, did not find anyone. Only wild livestock roamed between the empty houses. He did not see the dead either - as if the Vikings had suddenly disappeared. There is still no answer. If the pirates had attacked the settlement, the bodies of the dead would have remained. It would have been the same if the plague had reached the colonists. People could not move somewhere: no one would leave their belongings and animals.

The eastern settlement survived until the beginning of the 16th century. But in 1540, Icelandic sailors who landed on the shores of Greenland did not find a single colonist. They found only the body of a man in a hooded cloak. Who was this man? And where did the rest go? Historians believe that people sailed back to Iceland - after all, the climate became much colder, and there were no more opportunities to engage in agriculture and cattle breeding. According to the legends of the Eskimos, pirates attacked the inhabitants of the Eastern settlement. Archaeological excavations in Greenland do not confirm this version, but it is curious why the Eskimos were so interested in the fate of the Vikings?

At first, the island seemed uninhabited to the Vikings. But was it really so? The fact is that the first to "master" Greenland were not the Vikings, but the Eskimos. Scientists argue that the history of ancient Greenland is the history of repeated migrations of the Paleo-Eskimos. They sailed here from the Arctic islands of North America. The Paleo-Eskimos adapted to an extremely unfavorable climate and survived on the very border of the habitat suitable for human existence. But even very small climatic changes could destroy an insufficiently adapted culture.

Scientists identify four ancient Paleo-Eskimo cultures in Greenland, whose representatives lived on the island long before the appearance of the Vikings. These are the Sakkak culture, the Independence I culture, the Independence II culture, and the early Dorset culture. The last one disappeared later, it existed until about 200 AD.

But who did the Vikings find in Greenland, if the last Eskimo left this land seven hundred years before their appearance? Researchers differ. Some believe that they are still representatives of the Dorset culture. This culture (beginning of the 1st millennium BC - the beginning of the 1st millennium AD) was discovered in 1925 at Cape Dorset (Baffin's Land). It was distributed in the extreme northeast of Canada, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and in western and northeastern Greenland. The Dorset tribes were hunters. Seals, walruses and reindeer were their prey.

Perhaps the Scandinavian colonists who arrived with Eric the Red were not the only inhabitants of the island. The new migration of the Eskimos - representatives of the late Dorset culture - presumably took place shortly before their appearance. But the Eskimos settled in the far northwest of the island, at a very great distance from the Viking settlements. Indeed, during the excavation of the sites of the Dorset culture, no items of Scandinavian production were found. However, there is indirect evidence of contact, so-called "exotic elements" that are not characteristic of this culture: screw carvings on bone tools and carvings of people with beards.

Another culture, the representatives of which the Vikings encountered for sure, is called Thule. It existed between the 900s and 1700s on both banks

The Bering Strait, the Arctic coast and the islands of Canada. Some researchers believe that in Greenland, Dorset and Thule coexisted for some time. It was between the 800s and 1200s, after which Thule took over from Dorset. The Thule tribes adapted well to local conditions, they were fed by hunting for animals, both sea and land. In the central part of the American Arctic, the Thulians built rounded dwellings from whale bones and stone, and rode dog sleds. The same representatives of Thule, who lived in the Bering Strait region, lived in houses made of driftwood. Archaeologists find there sinkers, stone lamps, knives, figurines of people, animals and waterfowl. The Tulians were mostly settled. They saved up food supplies, and thanks to them, they could survive the hungry winter months.

How did the Thule Eskimos get along with their Viking neighbors? There is no definite answer to this question. Archaeologists have found many items of Norwegian work during excavations of Eskimo sites. But how did they get to the Tula?

Due to the cold snap, the Eskimos migrated closer to the territories that belonged to the Vikings. A number of researchers believe that the Vikings not only met with the Eskimos, but even lived among them. But there are few supporters of this version. According to the legends of the Eskimos, the Scandinavians were in conflict with the Thulians. Sagas also tell about armed clashes with the Eskimos. It is quite possible that the Thulians interfered with the Vikings, displacing them from the hunting territories of the central part of the west coast.

Fragment of the Carta Marina map (16th century). Thule is designated as Tile

Did these so different nations trade with each other? Unknown. The things made by the Scandinavians could have got to the Thulians in another way: from the settlements left by the Vikings. Oddly enough, the colonists did not take advantage of the experience of their neighbors, whose clothes were more adapted to the conditions of the north, and did not even adopt certain elements of their costume. This surprises scientists, but the history of Greenland during the Viking era is generally full of mysteries, and who knows if science will find the answer to them.

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