Erik the Red and the Norse Settlement of Greenland (985)

Erik the Red was a Norse Icelander who, in 985 or 986, led a fleet of settlers from Iceland to Greenland and founded the first European communities there. The colony he started spread into two main settlements on the south-west coast and lasted for more than four hundred years. It also served as the base for the first known European voyages to mainland North America.

Background: an outlaw from Iceland

Erik Thorvaldsson was born in Norway, probably around 950, in the Jæren district. He gained the nickname “the Red”, probably from his red hair or beard. According to the sagas, his father Thorvald was exiled from Norway “because of some killings” and took the family to Iceland, where they settled on poor land at Hornstrandir in the far north-west.

Iceland had been settled from about 870, and by Erik’s time most good land was taken. Erik married Thjodhild, from a well-connected family, and moved to Haukadalur in western Iceland. There he became involved in feuds and killed several men. Driven out, he moved to the Breiðafjörður area, where further disputes led to more deaths.

Around 982 the local assembly, the Thórsnes thing, outlawed him for three years. Under Icelandic law, which was administered through the Althing and its local assemblies, this meant he had to leave the country.

Exploring the land to the west

Decades earlier a Norwegian sailor, Gunnbjörn Ulf-Krakuson, had been blown off course and sighted islands and a coast west of Iceland. Erik decided to spend his exile finding this land.

He sailed west, reached the ice-covered east coast of Greenland and then rounded the southern tip. On the south-west side he found deep fjords with sheltered meadows, birch scrub and good grazing. He spent three years exploring and is said to have chosen the sites of future farms.

When his exile ended, Erik returned to Iceland. According to Ari Þorgilsson’s Íslendingabók, he called the country Greenland because people would be keener to go there if it had a good name.

The settlement fleet of 985 or 986

In the summer of 985 or 986, Erik sailed from Iceland with 25 ships carrying settlers, livestock and supplies. The sagas say only 14 arrived; some turned back and others were lost at sea. The voyage probably carried a few hundred people.

Erik took land at Brattahlíð, at the head of Eriksfjord, near modern Qassiarsuk. His companions settled the neighbouring fjords. More settlers followed in later years.

The Eastern and Western Settlements

The colony formed two main areas:

• The Eastern Settlement (Eystribyggð): in the far south-west, around modern Qaqortoq and Narsaq. It was the larger and longer-lasting area, with the majority of farms.
• The Western Settlement (Vestribyggð): about 500 kilometres further north, in the fjords near modern Nuuk.

A small group of farms between them is sometimes called the Middle Settlement. Archaeologists have identified several hundred farm sites in total. Population estimates for the colony at its peak vary, most commonly between about 2,000 and 3,000 people.

Life in Norse Greenland

The Greenlanders lived mainly by keeping cattle, sheep and goats, storing hay for the long winters. Grain hardly grew, so hunting was essential. Isotope studies of skeletons show that seals made up a large and growing share of the diet over time, along with caribou and fish.

Their most valuable export was walrus ivory, hunted in the far north in an area called Norðrsetur, around Disko Bay. Walrus hide, made into strong ropes, polar bear skins and live falcons were also prized in Europe. In return the Greenlanders imported iron, timber, grain and church goods.

The colony had its own assembly and followed laws modelled on those of Iceland. Each farm combined a hall, byres for animals and storage buildings, often built of turf and stone, and the largest estates, such as Brattahlíð and Garðar, belonged to the leading families.

Christianity arrived around 1000. Erik’s son Leif is said to have brought it from Norway, and Erik’s wife Thjodhild built a small church at Brattahlíð, while Erik remained a pagan. The remains of a small turf church found at Qassiarsuk in 1961 are widely identified as Thjodhild’s church, and more than a hundred burials were excavated around it. In 1124 or 1126 a bishop’s seat was established at Garðar, now Igaliku. In 1261 the Greenlanders accepted the authority of the king of Norway.

Erik’s later life and the voyages west

Erik lived the rest of his life at Brattahlíð as the leading man of the colony. According to the Saga of the Greenlanders, he agreed to join his son Leif’s voyage but fell from his horse on the way to the ship and took it as a sign to stay at home. The date of his death is not recorded, but he seems to have died early in the eleventh century.

Greenland was the starting point for the Vinland voyages. Around 1000 Leif Erikson sailed south-west to coasts he named Helluland, Markland and Vinland. His and later expeditions are described in the article on the Norse in Vinland, and their presence is confirmed by the Norse site at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. The Greenlanders also fetched timber from Markland, probably Labrador, as late as 1347.

In 2017 a group of Norse and Inuit farming sites in south Greenland, including Qassiarsuk, Igaliku and Hvalsey, was listed by UNESCO as the World Heritage Site of Kujataa.

Decline and end of the colony

From the thirteenth century the Norse met the Thule people, ancestors of today’s Inuit Greenlanders, who were moving south along the west coast. Contact included trade and, at times, conflict.

The Western Settlement was abandoned around the middle of the fourteenth century. A Norwegian churchman, Ivar Bardarson, later reported finding it deserted, with livestock running wild. The Eastern Settlement lasted longer. The last written record is of a wedding at Hvalsey Church on 16 September 1408. By the later fifteenth century the Eastern Settlement too appears to have been empty.

Historians point to several causes working together:

• Climate: the onset of the Little Ice Age made farming and sailing harder.
• Trade: European demand for walrus ivory fell as African elephant ivory became more available.
• Isolation: ships from Norway came less often, especially after the Black Death of 1349.
• Emigration: some researchers think people gradually left for Iceland or Norway rather than dying out.

Myths and facts

• Myth: the Norse starved because they refused to eat fish or seal. Isotope studies show they ate large amounts of seal, adapting their diet.
• Myth: Greenland’s name was a pure lie. It was an attractive name, but the inner fjords where the Norse settled are genuinely green in summer.
• Fact: Erik’s family was central to the colony. His son Leif reached North America, and his daughter Freydís and daughter-in-law Gudrid appear in the Vinland sagas.

Timeline

• c. 950: Erik is born in Norway.
• c. 982: Erik is outlawed and begins exploring Greenland.
• 985 or 986: The settlement fleet sails from Iceland.
• c. 1000: Leif Erikson sails to Vinland; Christianity reaches Greenland.
• 1124 or 1126: A bishopric is founded at Garðar.
• 1261: Greenland accepts Norwegian royal authority.
• c. 1350: The Western Settlement is abandoned.
• 1408, 16 September: Wedding at Hvalsey, the last written record.

Why it matters

The Norse settlement of Greenland was the westernmost outpost of medieval Europe and the springboard for the first European landings in the Americas. Its long survival and eventual end are also studied today as an example of how societies adapt, or fail to adapt, to climate and economic change.