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The history of Greenland is a history of life under extreme Arctic conditions: currently, an ice sheet covers about eighty percent of the island, restricting human activity largely to the coasts. The first humans are thought to have arrived in Greenland around 2500 BCE.
The sources on the settlement of Greenland are sparse. The main sources are the Íslendingabók by the scholar Ari Thorgilsson, the Landnámabók (the land seizure book) by an unknown author, but probably with Ari's involvement, [2] the anonymous Grænlendinga saga (Saga of the Greenlanders) and the also anonymous Saga of Erik the Red.
Icelandic saga accounts of life in Greenland were composed in the 13th century and later, and are not primary sources for the history of early Norse Greenland. [29] Those accounts are closer to primary for more contemporaneous accounts of late Norse Greenland. Modern understanding therefore mostly depends on the physical data from archeological ...
Summer in the Greenland coast circa the year 1000 by Carl Rasmussen (1874). It has been a common mistake for popular history to occasionally credit Erik as being the first European to discover Greenland, however, the Icelandic sagas suggest that earlier Norsemen discovered and attempted to settle it before him. [15]
Freydís Eiríksdóttir (born c. 965) [1] was an Icelandic woman said to be the daughter of Erik the Red (as in her patronym), who figured prominently in the Norse exploration of North America as an early colonist of Vinland, while her brother, Leif Erikson, is credited in early histories of the region with the first European contact.
1940: Denmark is occupied by Nazi Germany and Greenland is therefore cut off. The United States assumes custody over the island. 1945: Greenland is given back to Denmark but the US and NATO use the island as a base for operations. 1953: Greenland is now integrated with Denmark and has representation in Denmark's parliament.
Erik the Red's thralls start a landslide that destroys a farm, leading to a feud that results in Erik's banishment first from the district and then from Iceland; he sails in search of land that had been reported to lie to the north, and explores and names Greenland, choosing an attractive name to encourage colonists.
Brattahlíð still has some of the best farmland in Greenland, owing to its location at the inner end of Eriksfjord, which protects it from the cold foggy weather and arctic waters of the outer coast. It has a youth hostel and a small store. More extensive facilities exist in Narsarsuaq across the fjord.