Posted on 07/12/2023 10:50:06 AM PDT by Red Badger
N THE YEAR 985, ERIK THE RED, A VIKING EXPLORER, LED A GROUP OF ICELANDIC FARMERS TO ESTABLISH A SETTLEMENT ON THE WEST COAST OF GREENLAND.
Archaeological findings indicate that the settlement thrived for more than four centuries, but the story of the settlement left a lasting impact. Surprisingly, the pursuit of locating the descendants of these settlers greatly influenced European and American perceptions of Greenland for many generations.
In his recently published book titled “The Vanished Settlers of Greenland: In Search of a Legend and Its Legacy,” Associate Professor Robert Rix asserts that the lost Norse settlement played a pivotal role in Denmark’s colonisation efforts in Greenland during the 18th century.
“Like other New World lands, Greenland became part of European history as a place where a hunt for resources took place. Denmark’s possession of Greenland and its waters was challenged especially by the Dutch and the English. Danish claims to the island relied in large parts on the memory of the settlers. Therefore, several manuscripts, books, and maps were produced not only reminding competitors of the settlers but also promoting the idea that their descendants were still cultivating Greenland fields,” says Robert Rix.
“The loss of communication with Norse Greenland in the early 15th century gave rise to speculations about the settlers’ fate, and many believed that the settlement still stood. This led to numerous attempts at contacting them, not least because rumours of the settlement’s wealth were circulating in European books. King Christian IV launched as many as three expeditions to look for the vanished settlers and their riches.”
The actual colonisation of Greenland began in 1721 when missionary Hans Egede established a colony with the aim of converting the Inuit to Christianity and financing the colony by reestablishing ties with the Norse settlement and exploiting its resources.
Egede’s expedition, like those before it, failed to locate the Norsemen. During the 19th century, people gradually accepted that the Norse settlers could no longer be found in Greenland.
“Instead, scientists and explorers turned their attention to other parts of the Arctic as potential locations where the vanished settlers might have emigrated. Between 1870 and 1920 this inspired the publication of many adventure stories about isolated colonies of Norsemen, supposed descendants of the bold Viking explorers, who were strong, healthy, and physically impressive,” remarks Robert Rix.
According to Rix, the widespread fascination with the Norse settlers in Western culture reflected societal concerns about the perceived negative effects of immigration and the perceived decline of civilisation.
“This fantasy is in line with a general critique of supposedly impure societies, which gained prevalence with the advent of eugenics. The fictional Arctic colonies had become communities frozen in time that served as an antidote to the cultural and physical decline of modernity.”
Even well into the 20th century, hope persisted that the descendants of the settlers might be discovered. During a 1912 expedition to Canada’s Victoria Island, explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson encountered Inuit individuals with slender builds and reddish-brown hair. Stefansson measured their cranial features and concluded that they were descendants of European settlers who had survived by intermingling with the indigenous population.
The notion of “Blond Eskimos” created a sensation in the media. However, modern DNA analysis has since disproven any Norse ancestry. Nevertheless, at the time, Stefansson’s claim reignited the age-old hope that the mystery surrounding the vanished settlers’ fate could be solved.
University of Copenhagen
Header Image Credit : Shutterstock
Ping!.........................
Thanks Red Badger. Should be another napalm-infused topic.
The Greenland settlements were modest in construction and modest in size, as were the Viking settlements in North America.
However, Columbus went to Iceland to learn all he could about the lands to the west while doing his due diligence before 1492.
Speaking of ‘NAPALM’....................
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2021/06/the-mystery-of-greek-fire/139514
Bookmark
We went to England and pillaged
You’re welcome
It’s no great mystery
Then we went to Neefoundland
Newfoundland
Way before Columbus
Trump should have pressed Denmark to buy the uninhabited parts of the island or maybe just half of it. The wealth in minerals is priceless.
**** The notion of “Blond Eskimos” created a sensation in the media. However, modern DNA analysis has since disproven any Norse ancestry. ****
I recall an article that surmised that the Vikings (farmers) couldn’t adapt to the little ice age while the Inuit (hunters, fisherman) did - or weren’t affected by it much. They further speculated (I have no idea how they would have any proof) that the Christian Vikings refused to participate with the Inuit hunts to their pagan rituals performed prior to going out to hunt or fish.
Would lend to the idea of them not marrying any Inuit either. Although it is surprising that over a few hundred years on Greenland, not enough Vikings strayed into an Inuit camp to leave a DNA footprint.
Perhaps the Inuit did things to keep their bloodlines pure (infanticide?).
They went to Oklahoma: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_runestones
Within the last year or two, I read “The Frozen Echo”, Greenland and the Exploration of North America ca A.D. 1000-1500 by Kirsten A. Searver, 1996
She studied Catholic Church records and discovered much interesting information on the Viking residents of Greenland. The church was interested in the tithes of all its people. Her maps show that they all lived prety much between 20-50 km from the permanent ice sheet the extent of which was and probably now is determined mainly by the temperature of the ocean water. I doubt if the “little ice age” was responsible for their disappearance.
Yes we did I’m still here
The vexed issue of the Kensington Runestone and the lost Greenland Colony. The king of Sweden and Norway in 1354 believed that there were Christian Danes in Greenland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Runestone
SNIP......”Furthermore, in 1354, King Magnus Eriksson of Sweden and Norway issued a letter appointing a law officer named Paul Knutsson as leader of an expedition to the colony of Greenland, in order to investigate reports that the population was turning away from Christian culture.[39] Another of the documents reprinted by the 19th-century scholars was a scholarly attempt by Icelandic Bishop Gisli Oddsson, in 1637, to compile a history of the Arctic colonies. He dated the Greenlanders’ fall away from Christianity to 1342 and claimed that they had turned instead to America. Supporters of a 14th-century origin for the Kensington Runestone argue that Knutson may, therefore, have travelled beyond Greenland to North America in search of renegade Greenlanders, whereupon most of his expedition was killed in Minnesota, leaving just the eight voyagers to return to Norway.[40]”
However, there is no evidence that the Knutson expedition ever set sail (the government of Norway went through considerable turmoil in 1355) and the information from Cnoyen as relayed by Mercator states specifically that the eight men who came to Norway in 1364 were not survivors of a recent expedition, but descended from the colonists who had settled the distant lands several generations earlier.[38] Those early 19th-century books, which aroused a great deal of interest among Scandinavian Americans, would have been available to a late 19th-century hoaxer. “
https://runestonemuseum.org/runestone/
It is my theory that most Native American Indians east of the Mississippi are of European descent and not Asian as the western natives are supposedly are........................
Hjalmar Holand, runestone hero
https://www.norwegianamerican.com/hjalmar-holand-runestone-hero/
Books by Hjalmar Rued Holand
https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/hjalmar-rued-holand/618172/
Supposedly there are ‘Old World’ records of the Bishop of Vinland as well.
:^)
Napalm was around even before Ayepalm.
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