Iceland, as itarrived in 1368, bringing Greenlandâs last bishop, Bishop Alf. A Royal Ship was sent out in 1369, but was shipwrecked â not in Greenlandic waters, but in Norwegian waters just outside Bergen, her port of departure. The ship seems not to have been replaced, and from this date Norway appears to almost forget Greenland. Subsequent records of Greenland are exceptionally fragmentary. The king of Norway sent a representative to Greenland in 1374, though how he travelled and even whether he made the journey as instructed is not recorded. In 1378 Bishop Alf died, leaving the Church in Greenland without a head.
The last sure record from Greenland is a marriage which took place 14 September 1408 between an Icelander and a Greenlander. The marriage was in the brideâs church of Hvalsey in the Western Settlement; the couple sailed for Iceland and made their lives there, and it is there that the record is preserved. This record suggests some repopulation of the Western Settlement had happened since its abandonment in 1349. There are uncertain records in the years that follow. In 1448 Pope Nicholas implied in a letter that he believed the Greenland colony still existed, and might be in need of help. The information available today suggests that by just after the middle of the fifteenth century both the Eastern and Western Settlements had been abandoned, and Viking Greenland was completely finished before 1500.
The End of Viking Greenland
Many reasons have been put forward for the demise of the Greenland colony. Most of them do not withstand scrutiny. The reasons suggested are as follows:
1) The Vikings were defeated by a worsening climate, and starved to death.
2) The Vikings were killed by plague; alternatively their crops were destroyed by a pestilence.
3) The Vikings were swamped by the Inuit, and became Inuit.
4) The Inuit killed all the Vikings in an act of genocide.
5) The Greenland Vikings emigrated.
6) Pirates or other Europeans killed the Vikings.
The climate of the North Atlantic region did indeed cool in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The average change was in the region of2° C cooler both summer and winter, which in areas of marginal agriculture can be significant. In Iceland this deteriorating climate caused years of poor harvests and times of famine. Nonetheless the Icelanders survived, and continued to live in all parts of Iceland including the most marginal. If they could survive it is very hard to see why the Greenland Vikings could not. Indeed the Icelanders, who were almost entirely dependent on husbandry for their food, were more vulnerable than their kin in Greenland, whose diet was supported by hunting â and while the cooling climate caused difficulties for agriculture it also created a proliferation of the fish, birds and sea mammals that were a major source of food. Climate change alone cannot explain the demise of the Greenland Vikings, and probably was not even a contributory factor. In view of the Arctic paradox whereby colder temperatures result in more wildlife as food, the cooler temperatures may actually have helped the Greenlanders.
Nor can plague be the explanation. The Black Death may well have come to Greenland, as it did to Iceland, but in all plagues there are survivors. The isolated nature of farmsteads in Greenland would have acted as a barrier to the spread of infection, while the climate created an environment largely free from animals which spread plague. Greenland has no rats, the animal that spread the plague through Europe. The presence of plague in Iceland, another country without rats, argues for an infection route other than rats and the fleas they harbour, though this transmission route has so far not been identified. Even with this proviso, Greenland, with the isolation offered by its vast distances, was not a country that should have suffered substantially from plague. The concept of crop blight is similarly unrealistic. The Vikings in
The last sure record from Greenland is a marriage which took place 14 September 1408 between an Icelander and a Greenlander. The marriage was in the brideâs church of Hvalsey in the Western Settlement; the couple sailed for Iceland and made their lives there, and it is there that the record is preserved. This record suggests some repopulation of the Western Settlement had happened since its abandonment in 1349. There are uncertain records in the years that follow. In 1448 Pope Nicholas implied in a letter that he believed the Greenland colony still existed, and might be in need of help. The information available today suggests that by just after the middle of the fifteenth century both the Eastern and Western Settlements had been abandoned, and Viking Greenland was completely finished before 1500.
The End of Viking Greenland
Many reasons have been put forward for the demise of the Greenland colony. Most of them do not withstand scrutiny. The reasons suggested are as follows:
1) The Vikings were defeated by a worsening climate, and starved to death.
2) The Vikings were killed by plague; alternatively their crops were destroyed by a pestilence.
3) The Vikings were swamped by the Inuit, and became Inuit.
4) The Inuit killed all the Vikings in an act of genocide.
5) The Greenland Vikings emigrated.
6) Pirates or other Europeans killed the Vikings.
The climate of the North Atlantic region did indeed cool in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The average change was in the region of2° C cooler both summer and winter, which in areas of marginal agriculture can be significant. In Iceland this deteriorating climate caused years of poor harvests and times of famine. Nonetheless the Icelanders survived, and continued to live in all parts of Iceland including the most marginal. If they could survive it is very hard to see why the Greenland Vikings could not. Indeed the Icelanders, who were almost entirely dependent on husbandry for their food, were more vulnerable than their kin in Greenland, whose diet was supported by hunting â and while the cooling climate caused difficulties for agriculture it also created a proliferation of the fish, birds and sea mammals that were a major source of food. Climate change alone cannot explain the demise of the Greenland Vikings, and probably was not even a contributory factor. In view of the Arctic paradox whereby colder temperatures result in more wildlife as food, the cooler temperatures may actually have helped the Greenlanders.
Nor can plague be the explanation. The Black Death may well have come to Greenland, as it did to Iceland, but in all plagues there are survivors. The isolated nature of farmsteads in Greenland would have acted as a barrier to the spread of infection, while the climate created an environment largely free from animals which spread plague. Greenland has no rats, the animal that spread the plague through Europe. The presence of plague in Iceland, another country without rats, argues for an infection route other than rats and the fleas they harbour, though this transmission route has so far not been identified. Even with this proviso, Greenland, with the isolation offered by its vast distances, was not a country that should have suffered substantially from plague. The concept of crop blight is similarly unrealistic. The Vikings in
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