POLAR REGIONS

Arctic People

Starved to Death The Vikings came to Greenland during a period of warm winters and hot summers. About 1300, the weather became cooler and the winters longer. The settlement in Greenland had a terrible time. Calves born in winter were sickly and fewer seals came in summer. The supply ship from Norway came less and less often because more ice filled the seas. Finally the Vikings in Greenland all died. The efforts of the Vikings in Green- land and North America were soon forgotten. It was another 300 years before Europeans “rediscovered” these lands. The Traveling Abbot Stories tell of an abbot, St. Brendan from Ireland, who sailed to Iceland about 500. With 17 monks, he sailed in a large open boat made like a wicker basket and covered in oxhide. They carried wine and food for their journey, which took them to several islands on the edge of the Arctic. Tim Severin, a modern explorer, copied this voyage of St. Brendan in 1976 to see if it was possible. It was!

T hese low stone walls built about 986 are all that remain of the Viking houses in Greenland. They were built by settlers with Erik the Red.

A Viking called Erik the Red was banished from Iceland in 982 for killing a man. The Viking stories told of lands to the west, so he decided to sail out to see if he could find them. After sailing for many days Erik sighted the snowy mountains of a new land. Greenland Erik’s banishment was for three years. During the summers he explored the coast of this new land. In the winters he built a settlement. After the three years had passed he returned to Iceland. He wanted to encourage more people to come to his settlement, which he first called Eriksfjord. But he changed it Greenland to make it sound attractive. Twenty-five ships set out for Greenland in 986, but only 14 arrived. The others were lost at sea. The settlers built stone houses with turf roofs near the sea shore. They farmed cattle and sheep. They also caught fish and hunted seals and walrus. These activities gave them goods to trade with Europeans for grain. They met and traded with Inuit who had inhabited Greenland for thousands of years. But the Vikings never learned how to live off the land like the Inuit. Instead, each year a ship came from Norway, bringing them food they could not grow in Greenland.

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