trading monopoly, Greenlandic ships were voyaging to Markland for essential timber. With timber from Markland the Greenlanders had the ability to build the ships they needed for survival. Supply of wood from America was one obvious response to the monopoly. Another was trade with European countries not under NorwegianâDanish control, effectively with the British Isles.
Greenlandâs Decline
Greenlandâs fortunes were on the wane. Plague in Iceland in 1306 and 1309 may have spread to Greenland, though there is no direct evidence of this, while from 1308 Greenland experienced a decade of exceptionally cold winters. Europe at this time seemed to see Greenland as no more than a place from which to extract taxes. Records are particularly fragmentary in this period. In 1325 the bishop of Bergen in a letter to the archbishop of Nidaros complains about the behaviour of the Trondheim merchants who were on a previous ship from Norway to Greenland. A plausible interpretation is that the Norwegian monopoly ships had become little better than pirate vessels plundering from the Greenlanders. Yet by one route or another, Greenland products were certainly finding their way to Europe. For example, in 1327 a Flanders merchant bought from Norway 2,000 pounds of walrus ivory at a price of 28 pounds of silver. We have a record dated 1341 of a Norwegianpriest, Ivar Bardarsson, sent to Greenland to re-register the churches and claim the kingâs rights â that is to ensure that taxes were paid. Ivar spent 20 years in Greenland, finally returning to Norway in 1362, and provided one of the last accounts of Greenland.
It was Ivar who gave notice that something was seriously wrong with the Greenland settlements. He arrived in the Eastern Settlement in 1342, and travelled on to the Western Settlement in 1349, which he found abandoned. This was a settlement of perhaps 2,000 people which had flourished for well over 300 years, and was suddenly deserted, seemingly in 1349, and without that information being brought back to the neighbouring Eastern Settlement. It appears that the destruction of people and buildings was sudden and total. The Western Settlementâs termination has left archaeological traces. Some farmsteads appear to have been abandoned suddenly, leaving for example a stock of unused wood, others show signs of having been burnt. Yet others seem to have undergone an orderly evacuation, with almost all possessions removed. There seems to be evidence of two sorts of end to the farmsteads: some attacked by an enemy, others abandoned, perhaps threatened by an enemy.
The final years of the Eastern Settlement have left scant records. The Black Death which swept through Europe reached Norway in 1349 and Iceland in 1350. There is no indication whether it reached Greenland, but as it had received no check anywhere else in its spread, most probably it did. Following the devastation of the Black Death, Norway was preoccupied by domestic problems and in effect lost interest in both Iceland and Greenland. An Icelandic source notes that in 1350 Mass could not be held in churches because that year no ships had arrived from Norway, with the result that communion wine had run out. If Iceland received no ships, we can be sure Greenland didnât either.
There are brief records from 1354 and 1355 that Norwayâs King Magnus gave permission to Powell Knutsson to take a ship to Greenland to âprotectâ the Christians, though why they needed protection is not explained. Greenland was subjected to another calamity in 1362. A massive eruption in Iceland by the volcano beneath the glacier Oraefajokul created a dust cloud which reduced daylight and caused failed harvests in Iceland and all the lands around the North Atlantic. 8
The end of formal contact between Greenland and Europe occurred in 1367, as this is the year of the last official royal ship from Norway to Greenland. The ship presumably over-wintered en route, perhaps in
Greenlandâs Decline
Greenlandâs fortunes were on the wane. Plague in Iceland in 1306 and 1309 may have spread to Greenland, though there is no direct evidence of this, while from 1308 Greenland experienced a decade of exceptionally cold winters. Europe at this time seemed to see Greenland as no more than a place from which to extract taxes. Records are particularly fragmentary in this period. In 1325 the bishop of Bergen in a letter to the archbishop of Nidaros complains about the behaviour of the Trondheim merchants who were on a previous ship from Norway to Greenland. A plausible interpretation is that the Norwegian monopoly ships had become little better than pirate vessels plundering from the Greenlanders. Yet by one route or another, Greenland products were certainly finding their way to Europe. For example, in 1327 a Flanders merchant bought from Norway 2,000 pounds of walrus ivory at a price of 28 pounds of silver. We have a record dated 1341 of a Norwegianpriest, Ivar Bardarsson, sent to Greenland to re-register the churches and claim the kingâs rights â that is to ensure that taxes were paid. Ivar spent 20 years in Greenland, finally returning to Norway in 1362, and provided one of the last accounts of Greenland.
It was Ivar who gave notice that something was seriously wrong with the Greenland settlements. He arrived in the Eastern Settlement in 1342, and travelled on to the Western Settlement in 1349, which he found abandoned. This was a settlement of perhaps 2,000 people which had flourished for well over 300 years, and was suddenly deserted, seemingly in 1349, and without that information being brought back to the neighbouring Eastern Settlement. It appears that the destruction of people and buildings was sudden and total. The Western Settlementâs termination has left archaeological traces. Some farmsteads appear to have been abandoned suddenly, leaving for example a stock of unused wood, others show signs of having been burnt. Yet others seem to have undergone an orderly evacuation, with almost all possessions removed. There seems to be evidence of two sorts of end to the farmsteads: some attacked by an enemy, others abandoned, perhaps threatened by an enemy.
The final years of the Eastern Settlement have left scant records. The Black Death which swept through Europe reached Norway in 1349 and Iceland in 1350. There is no indication whether it reached Greenland, but as it had received no check anywhere else in its spread, most probably it did. Following the devastation of the Black Death, Norway was preoccupied by domestic problems and in effect lost interest in both Iceland and Greenland. An Icelandic source notes that in 1350 Mass could not be held in churches because that year no ships had arrived from Norway, with the result that communion wine had run out. If Iceland received no ships, we can be sure Greenland didnât either.
There are brief records from 1354 and 1355 that Norwayâs King Magnus gave permission to Powell Knutsson to take a ship to Greenland to âprotectâ the Christians, though why they needed protection is not explained. Greenland was subjected to another calamity in 1362. A massive eruption in Iceland by the volcano beneath the glacier Oraefajokul created a dust cloud which reduced daylight and caused failed harvests in Iceland and all the lands around the North Atlantic. 8
The end of formal contact between Greenland and Europe occurred in 1367, as this is the year of the last official royal ship from Norway to Greenland. The ship presumably over-wintered en route, perhaps in
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