The Norse

Nordic farmer-hunters – the Norse – settled in Greenland in the decades shortly before 1000 AD and thus initiated some 450 years of European history in the Arctic. It was one of the last migrations of the Viking Age where, over a few centuries, settlers from especially Norway had settled on the islands of the North Atlantic. The settlers in Greenland came from Iceland. This North Atlantic landnam, a Norse word for taking new land, is described in Nordic sources and especially in the Icelandic saga literature. In the sagas, political and familial disputes in the homelands are highlighted as the main reason why, during the Viking Age, thousands of people dared to set out across the sea in open ships with everything they owned. The same theme is found in the saga about the namer of Greenland, Erik the Red, who after three years of exile from Iceland and accompanied by a small fleet of kinsmen settled in Greenland in 985/986 AD.

More recent research has nuanced the view of the North Atlantic landnam. The development of ocean-going ships enabled sea voyages and, at the same time, settlers were well helped by a relatively mild and stable climate regime, known as the Medieval Warm Period. The mild climate also contributed to the Nordics experiencing large population growth, with land shortages as a result. But the tale of free farmers seeking the land of opportunity in the North Atlantic is romanticised to some extent. Instead, the landnam presumably needs to be viewed more closely as the strategy of ambitious families to gain wealth and social status by acquiring new lands and resources.

New research has suggested that the towns and settlements were founded as bases for hunting exotic Arctic luxury goods, primarily walrus and narwhal tusk, as well as polar bear furs. Trade in these goods also shows that the towns and settlements were part of a growing European cultural, commercial and religious community, a connection the Norse maintained until the discontinuation of settlement around 1450 AD.

Our knowledge of the Norse

Apart from owners’ marks, short Christian prayers and pagan spells written in runes on pieces of wood and soapstone, and a single letter drawn up at the diocese of Garðar in 1409, the Norse have left nothing in writing. Everything written about them is authored by strangers. This also applies to the Icelandic sagas, where the stories about Greenland were largely written only from the 13th century, after a few centuries of oral tradition. In particular, the Vinland sagas – Erik the Red’s Saga and Graenlendinga Saga – tell about the ‘landnam’ in Greenland and the travels to Vinland on the American continent. From the 13th century, some more detailed sources exist, including notes in the Icelandic annals, the Norwegian prose work Kongespejlet (The King’s Mirror) and Ívar Barðarson’s Beskrivelse af Grønland (Description of Greenland).

Despite the fragmentary state and problematic origin of written sources, they have been the defining factor for the research into the Norse for many years. In the 1830s, the Royal Nordic Society of Antiquaries initiated a systematic collection of written sources about the Norse Greenland, which since then provided the understanding framework for the topographical and archaeological studies in the Norse settlements. The studies became progressively more systematic and professional, starting in the late 19th century under the Commission for the Management of the Geological and Geographical Surveys, from 1921 under the National Museum of Denmark and from 1982 with the Greenland National Museum and Archives as an active research party and responsible authority. However, it was only with the introduction of new scientific approaches, methods and international interdisciplinary collaborations in the 1970s, that the Greenlandic Norse seriously gained a voice of their own through archaeology.

The Norse towns and settlements

The Norse settled in two parts of Southwest Greenland. The largest settlement was the Eastern Settlement, where more than 560 archaeological sites have been recorded. The Eastern Settlement was spread over an icefree area of about 24,000 km², stretching more than 300 km from the southern tip of the country and up to present-day Arsuk. About 350 km further north lay the smaller Western Settlement with only about 110 registered sites and an area of about 10,000 km² around the Nuuk and Ameralik fjord systems. In the Eastern Settlement, the settlement existed from the edge of the ice sheet and out to the far reaches of the fjords, while Western Settlement farms were located almost exclusively in the inner parts of the fjords. This difference in the settlement reflects the slightly more favourable environmental conditions and higher population figures in the Eastern Settlement.

In both Norse settlements, the settlement was concentrated and most extensive in the inner fjords, where lush valleys, mountains and plains along the edge of the ice sheet form the climatic and environmental niche best suited for farming with livestock. Subarctic and more continental areas are found here characterised by colder winters and warmer summers, as well as a more arid and stable environment than in the Low Arctic and coastal zone along the Davis Strait. Although the distance between the two zones is only 60‑100 km, there is a striking difference between the sparsely wooded fjord and archipelagic environment and the regular 4‑6 m high scrub forests of willow and birch in the inland’s most lush and protected valleys. Even in the inland fjords, however, the Norse’s farming was on the borderline of the possible, and almost all farms were located on sunny mountain slopes right down to the fjord or up through low-lying valleys with rich vegetation.

Because the limited vegetation resources had to maintain almost selfsufficient Norse farms, they were almost all individually situated and relatively dispersed. However, far from all farms were independent. Many were in, or over time became part of, a dependency relationship with the richest chieftains’ farms as a kind of tenant or serf farm. However, the lack of written information from Norse Greenland makes it impossible to determine whether a just as complicated inheritance and property relationship developed as in the rest of the North Atlantic. Much suggests, however, that the towns and settlements experienced increasing socio-economic centralisation around a small community elite residing on chieftains’ farms that were almost comparable to estates or manors with large adjoining lands.

The chieftains’ farms can be recognised by their agriculturally favourable location, as well as the size, number and combination of adjacent buildings, including banquet hall and church. The chieftains’ farms stand out so clearly that with great probability it was possible to identify several with named places in the medieval writings, among them Erik the Red’s Brattahlíð (Qassiarsuk), Hvalsey (Qaqortukulooq) and Herjolfsnæs (Ikigaat) in the Eastern Settlement and Sandnes (Kilaarsarfik) and Anavik (Ujarassuit) in the Western Settlement. The Diocese of Garðar (Igaliku) occupies a special position as the absolute largest farm in Greenland and is particularly distinguished by its huge barn and storage buildings and a cathedral. The legal institutions of the Norse, the thingsteads, also appear to have been linked to the chieftains’ farms, as well as the trade and hence the redistribution of imported goods, not least the precious iron which was not produced in the country. The chieftains’ farms were the religious, socio-economic and legal hubs of the Norse society. It was also only the chieftains who owned ships of the necessary size for hunting voyage to the country’s remote regions.

Outside of the towns and settlements, stretched the great Arctic wilderness, which the Norse called the unsettled land. Here walrus, narwhal, polar bear and other Arctic animals thrived – the source of tusk and skin products that were rare and therefore very valuable outside of Greenland. These commodities formed the basis for the Norse’s continued trade interaction and contact with the Nordic countries and Europe. Written and archaeological sources also show that the hunt for Arctic luxury goods in the remote areas was frequent, well organised and of great value. A particularly important area was Qeqertarsuup Tunua (Disko Bay) some 500 km north of the Western Settlement. The area has been identified by the written sources as the northern hunting grounds. But the hunting led the Norse even further north, and one of the most reliable and important finds from the remote hunting grounds is the rune stone from the island of Kingittorsuaq near Upernavik at 72.5º north. The rune stone briefly reports about three Norsemen who erected cairns on the island in April sometime in the 13th century.

Arctic hunters, Scandinavian farmers

Animal bones found in debris layers by the farms show that marine mammals, primarily seal, also played a vital role in the Norse’s subsistence economy, especially on the smallest farms. Already in the earliest years of the settlement, seals represent 40‑60 % of the total number of animal bones, and the proportion grows to up to 80 % on some farms towards the 1400s. A completely consistent picture of the large and growing importance of marine mammals has also been illustrated by isotope analyses directly on the skeletons of the Norse. These show that already in the earliest Norse, protein from marine mammals could account for 15‑50 % of the diet, while in the last period the proportion was 50‑80 %. Overall, isotope analyses show that at the beginning there was a greater spread in who had access to a diet from agriculture and the ocean, but that everyone – regardless of status in society – ultimately ate more marine mammals.

Bones of whole seals are found in quantities in the debris layers of the Norse farms close to the fjords and inland. The bones are most often of young seal species which, in the Middle Ages, were found along the Greenland coasts in their millions every season. This suggests that seal hunting was a coordinated activity in which hunters cooperated in periodic mass hunting of seal in the mouths of the fjords. Once the hunt was over, the prey was distributed, perhaps according to status in the community or the individual’s share in the hunt. The Norse also hunted stationary seal species and virtually all of the wild land animals and birds found seasonally in the environment. Apart from the hunting of caribou, which was a major source of meat especially in the Western Settlement, the exploitation of other wild species appears to have represented only a minor supplement to the diet.

Despite the importance of hunting, the Norse were entrenched in an agriculture culture based on farms and livestock. As elsewhere in the North Atlantic, their agriculture can be described as pastoral farming, that is, a use aimed at meat and dairy farming by grazing and feeding cattle, pigs, goats and sheep, with the latter also providing wool for textiles. Horses were primarily transport and draught animals, dogs were used for hunting and for guarding, while cats could keep dwellings and pantries free from mice, which were also introduced to Greenland with the Norse’s agriculture package. The cattle were the most valuable livestock, not only as meat and dairy animals, but also as a currency and therefore also as a mark of status. This may explain why, throughout the settlement, the Norse kept relatively many cows, even though they were difficult to keep over winter in the Arctic environment. On smaller farms, sheep and, as something particularly Greenlandic, goats, became by far the most important meat and dairy animals over time. Some farms in the peripheral regions seem to have almost specialised in this production. On the other hand, over time pigs were almost completely phased out and eventually only existed on the richest farms.

For the sedentary Norse, the farm with its household, animals, land and buildings was the socio-economic core unit. The centre and largest building of the farm was the main house that often, and especially in the later period, housed not only an extended family but also livestock. These so-called centralised farms were adapted to the Arctic conditions which, at the same time, were heat-efficient, material saving and allowed animals to be attended to without having to go outside. Scattered around the main house were other buildings such as stables, barns, drying and storehouses, saunas, forges and paddocks for the animals. The buildings on the farm, all constructed in turf, stone and wood, lay on or around a home or infield, a fertilised and therefore relatively lush grass or meadow area where hay was grown for winter feed for the livestock. Outside the infield lay the outfield, the uncultivated land that stretched out into the Arctic expanses of the unsettled areas. The outfield was an important resource area for the Norse. Here, there were pastures and fodder was collected for the livestock, fuel for the long winter, soapstone for lamps, dishes and vessels, bone and antlers for tools, driftwood for buildings, furniture and utensils and, even further out in the outfield, the necessary marine mammals, birds and other game.

Recent research has shown that the majority, perhaps up to two-thirds of known Norse localities were shielings. Shielings were buildings in the outfield where only a smaller portion of the household took up seasonal residence, often to allow the livestock to summer graze while continuing dairy farming. If these shielings are omitted from the count, there were only 200‑300 regular farms, representing a total population figure of maximum about 3,000 people at the height of the settlement. This low population figure is consistent with the estimated number of people buried in the Norse’s cemeteries.

Christianity and royal power at ‘the ends of the earth’

No pagan tombs have been found in the Norse towns and settlements, and archaeological dating of the earliest churches show that they were built just after the ‘landnam’. They were erected on the chieftain’s farms near the house, thus signalling the cohesion between the community elite and the religion. The first churches were small, averaging only about 10 m², and constructed in peat, stone and driftwood. The surrounding churchyards were circular and had a diameter of 14‑20 m. Everyone was buried in the churchyard, while the small church building was only for use by the owner of the church and his household. Larger churches with a Romanesque floor plan – with nave and smaller chancel in the east – appeared in Greenland from the 12th century at the same time as foursided churchyards were introduced.

The chancels of the Romanesque churches with the most sacred, the altar, were reserved for the priesthood, and perhaps the new floor plan should be seen as a sign of a growing clerical influence, following on from the establishment of the Greenland diocese at Garðar in 1124. The bishop consecrated and supervised the priests, and presumably the owners of the church required the bishop to fulfil the liturgical requirements and collect church taxes. According to Icelandic accounts, it was the Greenlanders themselves who took the initiative and asked the Norwegian King Sigurd Jorsalfar to appoint a bishop. The king appointed the Norwegian priest Arnaldur, and given the bishop’s great economic and spiritual power, one could wonder why all subsequent Greenlandic bishops were Norwegian. In Iceland, it was the richest lineages that occupied the offices of bishop right up to the 1300s. Perhaps none of the chieftains were wealthy enough to seize the office of bishop, or they saw greater advantage in supporting Norwegian appointed bishops.

In 1261, seafarers returned home to Norway after four winters in Greenland. They conveyed the news that the Greenlanders agreed to pay taxes and levies to the Norwegian king. This was the result of several years of active Norwegian foreign policy in the North Atlantic. At the coronation of King Håkon IV in Bergen in 1247, the papal envoy had declared that no people should be without a king, and that same summer Bishop Ólafur was sent to Greenland to get the Norse to submit. It is presumed that the Greenlandic towns and settlements – which is historically known about as the abandonment of the Icelandic Free State in 1262 – voluntarily submitted, with a demand that the Norwegian king should secure the navigation and thus trade and supplies. The king was not heavily represented in the country, and only a few royal farms are mentioned fleetingly in the written sources. The true interest of the royal power lay in the revenue from the customs duties that the merchant ships from Greenland had to pay when they arrived in the commercial town of Bergen.

With limited administration, the royal power presumably depended on the clergy, who had more than 100 years of experience in the country. The construction of seven large one-room stone churches after 1250‑1300 is perhaps precisely the expression of the close alliances between the Norwegian church and royal power and powerful Greenlandic large farmers. The grandest representative of the one-room churches is the very well-preserved Hvalsey Fjord church in Qaqortukuluup Imaa. The church is built entirely in stone, and the walls have been sealed with mortar made from local beach shells. The construction technique deviates from what we otherwise know, and presumably the unique stone churches were constructed under the direction of British builders who had been sent to Greenland by the Norwegian king.

The depopulation of the Norse towns and settlements

The depopulation of the Norse towns and settlements began as early as the mid-13th century, but seriously accelerated during the 1300s. Around 1400, the Western town and settlement was deserted, and 50 years later the Eastern Settlement was also abandoned. A lot of explanations have been presented through time as to why this happened. Today, there is broad agreement that the depopulation was due to an unfortunate coincidence of several conditions. The town and settlement was, at its starting point, vulnerable. Geographically, the Norse towns and settlements were situated far from the world on which the Norse depended. The worsening of the climate in the 13th century – the beginning of the Little Ice Age – put the already fragile agriculture under severe pressure and led to increased reliance on seal hunting. Initially, the transition was successful, but perhaps also masked the fact that the community order upon which the power and authority of the leading relatives rested began to falter.

Foreign trade, which was also under the control of chieftains, also failed, and there was very little they could do, since contacts to the Nordics and Europe were entirely dependent on visiting merchants. The Norse themselves did not own oceangoing ships. The growing geographical, economic and cultural isolation created great external pressure on the Norse community, which they could not counteract themselves. In addition, they also experienced an internal pressure. The total population probably never exceeded 3,000 people, and the population declined sharply in the 1300s. Regardless of whether parts of the population migrated or they perished due to increasing poor living conditions, accidents travelling to and from hunting grounds or more frequent encounters with a growing population of Inuit, with the calculated number of inhabitants, it did not take more than an average annual loss of approximately 10 young fertile people before the phasing out of the Norse community was a natural demographic consequence. Lack of labour in society, including for the long hunting trips, may have resulted in reduced production of the very commodities for which foreign merchants travelled to trade, making it less attractive for them to risk the dangerous journeys to Greenland. A vicious spiral that was amplified by falling prices on, in particular, walrus tusks in European markets.

The attempt to secure trade and contact with Europe was precisely one reason why in 1261 the Norse voluntarily submitted themselves to the Norwegian king. But the countermove had limited effect. Severe plague outbreaks in Norway in 1347‑52 weakened the country, and made it impossible for the king to fulfil his obligations. Things did not improve when in 1380, Norway entered into a dynastic connection with Denmark, and the administration of the Twin Kingdom moved to Copenhagen, where interest in the poor remote settlement in Greenland was probably not great.

There is no knowledge of how life proceeded for the last of the Norse. The church pulled out in 1378 when the last bishop at Garðar died. A legal sequel reports about a wedding at Hvalsey in 1408, while the last ship we know of left Greenland in 1420. Among the passengers were guests from the wedding in 1408.

Further reading

• Building customs and architecture
• Agriculture in Greenland
• Museums of cultural history and heritage
• Kujataa – farming on the brink of the ice sheet
• Paleo-Inuit
• The Inuit culture, precolonial period
• The colonial period until the war years

Read more about History in Greenland