A.

A New Culture

G.

Invaders from the West

B.

Communities Are Established

H.

Life on the Land

C.

Crops Flourish

I.

Difficult Times

D.

Natives Resist Icelanders

J.

A Pioneer Attracts Followers

E.

Early Stories May Be True

K.

Ties with North America Strengthen

F.

Greater Dependence on the Sea

The First Greenlanders

    E     

     About a millennium ago, legends tell us, a Viking named Leif Eriksson sailed to the shores of North America, arriving hundreds of years ahead of Christopher Columbus. Even though archaeologists have yet to uncover any physical evidence of Eriksson's visit, the presumption that a Viking band traveled that far has gained credibility in recent years. Excavations in Greenland indicate that Vikings flourished there for hundreds of years, trading with the European continent and probably Native American tribes, before disappearing. 

21. ______

     A central figure in this story was Eriksson's father, Erik the Red, who grew up in Iceland. In 980 A.D., Erik the Red headed farther west when he was banished from Iceland for murder. He set sail for land that was visible west of Iceland. Three years later, he returned to Iceland and convinced hundreds of others to join him in settling this new country. Some 25 boats set out for what Erik the Red had dubbed Greenland. Only 14 ships survived the seas, but about 450 new colonists set foot ashore.

22. ______

     The land they saw before them was bare, uninhabited, and inhospitable, but Erik the Red's advertisements were not entirely false. A thin green carpet of arctic heath promised support for grazing farm animals. Farms sprang up quickly and, later, churches. One colony, simply called the Eastern Settlement, sat in the toe of Greenland; the Western Settlement lay close to what is now Nuuk, Greenland's capital.

     Settling Greenland posed a formidable challenge. There were no trees large enough to produce timber for shelter or fuel. The only wood was small brush and driftwood. The Vikings settled inland, on fjords resembling those of their homeland. There they built homes of driftwood, stone, and sod. For adequate insulation, the walls of some buildings were made 6 to 10 feet thick.

23. ______

     Shelter, food, and clothing were, of course, essential to survival. The summer was too short to farm grain crops, so settlers probably went without beer or bread. Although they farmed domesticated animals imported from Europe--goats, sheep, cattle--the settlers ate them sparingly, relying instead on secondary products, such as milk and cheese. In the early days, the Greenlanders' lives differed little from those of their compatriots in Scandinavia. They netted fish and hunted seal and caribou. They wove clothing from wool and linen, sometimes adding the fur of the arctic hare.

     For about two centuries, Greenland's Vikings had the country to themselves. Yet life was by no means easy, and they relied on a fragile trade with Scandinavia to survive. In exchange for iron, timber, and grain from Europe, they traded pelts of bear and arctic fox as well as narwhale tusks and rope made of walrus hide. Whalebone, too, was traded to Europeans for use in stiffening clothes. According to one account, the Greenlanders even traded live polar bears.

24. _______

     At some point during the fourteenth century, Greenland's climate grew colder. With the climate change, glaciers began creeping over the land, bringing with them a runoff of sand, silt, and gravel. That runoff slowly robbed the settlers of valuable pastureland. To make matters worse, the Black Death hit Iceland, killing some 30% of the population. Although there is still no evidence the sickness reached Greenland, archaeologists believe it left its mark by curtailing the flourishing trade. 

25. _______

     The Greenlanders adapted. Recent evidence shows that their diet shifted from land-based foods to marine products. Like their kin in Norway, the Vikings in Greenland had always exploited marine life but, by the close of the fourteenth century, the proportion of their food taken from the sea had risen to 80%.

26. _______

     Between 1100 and 1200 A.D., as the colder weather arrived, so did the Thules. These Native Americans, migrants from the area surrounding the Bering Strait, began trickling eastward from Ellesmere Island, just northwest of Greenland. It is likely that an uneasy trade between the Vikings and Thules sprang up and that, as living conditions grew harsher for the Vikings, the better-adapted Thules thrived.

     The Western Settlement was abandoned by 1350 A.D. and the Eastern Settlement by 1500 A.D. When asked what became of the Vikings, Danish archaeologist, Jette Arneborg says she thinks they struggled mightily to adapt to the increasingly difficult conditions. But as the weather worsened and life became even harsher, some may have returned to Iceland. And it is easy to imagine that, as trade dwindled, the settlements may have become so depopulated the colonists simply were unable to replace themselves.