Fridtjof Nansen

VOYAGES TO THE UNINHABITED PARTS OF GREENLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES

THE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND

Drift-ice

The sagas give us scanty information about the east coast of Greenland—commonly called, in Iceland, the uninhabited regions (“ubygder”) of Greenland. The drift-ice renders this coast inaccessible by sea for the greater part of the year, and it was only very rarely that any one landed there, and then in most cases through an accident. As a rule sailors tried as far as possible to keep clear of the East Greenland ice, and did not come inshore until they were well past Hvarf, as appears from the ancient sailing-directions for this voyage. The “King’s Mirror” (circa 1250) also shows us clearly enough that the old Norsemen had a shrewd understanding of the ice conditions off these uninhabited regions. It says:

“Now in that same sea [i.e., the Greenland sea] there are yet many more marvels, even though they cannot be accounted for witchcraft (‘skrimslum’). So soon as the greater part of the sea has been traversed, there is found such a mass of ice as I know not the like of anywhere else in the world. This ice [i.e., the ice-floes] is some of it as flat as if it had frozen on the sea itself, four or five cubits thick, and lies so far from land [i.e., from the east coast of Greenland] that men may have four or five days’ journey across the ice [to land]. But this ice lies off the land rather to the north-east (‘landnorÐr’) or north than to the south, south-west, or west; and therefore any one wishing to make the land should sail round it [i.e., round Cape Farewell] in a south-westerly and westerly direction, until he is past the danger of [encountering] all this ice, and then sail thence to land. But it has constantly happened that men have tried to make the land too soon, and so have been involved in these ice-floes; and some have perished in them; but others again have got out, and we have seen some of these and heard their tales and reports. But one course was adopted by all who have found themselves involved in this ice-drift [‘ÍsavÖk’ or ‘ÍsavÁlkit’], that is, they have taken their small boats and drawn them up on to the ice with them, and have thus made for land, but their ship and all their other goods have been left behind and lost; and some of them have passed four or five days on the ice before they reached land, and some even longer. These ice-floes are strange in their nature; sometimes they lie as still as might be expected, separated by creeks or large fjords; but sometimes they move with as great rapidity as a ship with a fair wind, and when once they are under way they travel against the wind as often as with it. There are indeed some masses of ice in that sea of another shape, which the Greenlanders call ‘falljÖkla.’ Their appearance is that of a high mountain rising out of the sea, and they do not unite themselves to other masses of ice, but keep apart.”

This striking description of the ice in the polar current shows that sailors were sometimes wrecked in it, and reached land on the east coast of Greenland.

The story of SnÆbjÖrn HÓlmsteinsson and his companions, who may have reached East Greenland (?), has been given above (p. 264).

Thorgils Orrabeinsfostre

An early voyage,[251] which is said to have been made along this coast, is described in the “Floamanna-saga.” The Icelandic chief, Thorgils Orrabeinsfostre, is said to have left Iceland about the year 1001, with his wife, children, friends and thralls—some thirty persons in all—and his cattle, to join his friend, Eric the Red, who had invited him to Greenland. During the autumn they were wrecked on the east coast; and it was not till four years later, during which time they lived by whaling, sealing and fishing, and after adventures of many kinds, that Thorgils arrived at the Eastern Settlement. The saga is of late date, perhaps about 1400; it is full of marvels and not very credible. But the description of the country, with glaciers coming down to the sea, and ice lying off the shore for the greater part of the year, cannot have been invented without some knowledge of the east coast of Greenland; for the inhabited west coast is entirely different. The narrative of Thorgils’ expedition may therefore have a historical kernel [cf. Nansen, 1890, p. 253; Engl. ed. i. 275]; and moreover it gives a graphic description of the difficulties and dangers that shipwrecked voyagers have to overcome in arctic waters; but at the same time it is gratuitously full of superstitions and dreams and the like, besides other improbabilities: such as the incident of the travellers suffering such extremities of thirst that they were ready to drink sea-water (with urine) to preserve their lives,[252] while rowing along a coast with ice and snow on every hand, where there cannot have been any lack of drinking water. Thorgils, or the man to whom in the first place the narrative may be due, may have been wrecked in the autumn on the east coast of Greenland, near Angmagsalik, or a little to the south of it, and may then have had a hard struggle before he reached Cape Farewell along the shore, inside the ice; but that it should have taken four years is improbable; I have myself in the same way rowed in a boat the greater part of the same distance along this coast in twelve days. It is hardly possible that the voyagers should have lost their ship much to the north of Angmagsalik, as the ice lies off the coast there usually the whole year round; nor is it credible that they should have arrived far north near Scoresby Sound, north of 70° N. lat., where the approach is easier; for they had no business to be there, if they were making for the Eastern Settlement.

In the Icelandic Annals there are frequent mentions of voyagers to Greenland being shipwrecked, and most of these cases doubtless occurred off East Greenland. In the sagas there are many narratives of such wrecks, or of people who have come to grief on this coast.

“Lik-Lodin”

In BjÖrn JÓnsson’s version of the somewhat extravagant saga of Lik-Lodin we read:[253]

“Formerly most ships were always wrecked in this ice from the Northern bays, as is related at length in the Tosta ÞÁttr; for ‘Lika-LoÐinn’ had his nickname from this, that in summer he often ransacked the northern uninhabited regions and brought to church the corpses of men that he found in caves, whither they had come from the ice or from shipwreck; and by them there often lay carved runes about all the circumstances of their misfortunes and sufferings.”

The Northern bays here must mean “Hafsbotn,” or the Polar Sea to the north of Norway and Iceland; the ice will then be that which thence drifts southward along the east coast of Greenland. According to another ancient MS. of the Tosta-ÞÁttr,[254] Lik-Lodin had his name (which means “Corpse-Lodin”) “because he had brought the bodies of Finn Fegin and his crew from Finn’s booths, east of the glaciers in Greenland.” This also shows that the east coast is referred to; it is said to have happened a few years before Harold HardrÅda’s fall in 1066.

Einar Sokkason

In the FlateyjarbÓk’s narrative of Einar Sokkason, who sailed from Greenland to Norway in 1123 to bring a bishop to the country, it is said[255] that he was accompanied on his return from Norway by a certain ArnbjÖrn Austman (i.e., man from the east, from Norway) and several Norwegians on another ship, who wished to settle in Greenland; but they were lost on the voyage. Some years later, about 1129, they were found dead on the east coast of Greenland, near the Hvitserk glacier, by a Greenlander, Sigurd NjÁlsson. “He often went seal-hunting in the autumn to the uninhabited regions [i.e., on the east coast]; he was a great seaman; they were fifteen altogether. In the summer they came to the Hvitserk glacier.” They found there some human fire-places, and farther on, inside a fjord, they found a great ship, lying on and by the mouth of a stream, and a hut and a tent, and there were corpses lying in the tent, and some more lay on the ground outside. It was ArnbjÖrn and his men, who had stayed there.

Ingimund the priest

In Gudmund Arason’s Saga and in the Icelandic Annals [Storm, 1888, pp. 22, 120, 121, 180, 181, 324, 477] it is related that in 1189 the ship “Stangarfoli,” with the priest Ingimund Thorgeirsson and others on board—on the way from Bergen to Iceland—was driven westwards to the uninhabited regions of Greenland, and every man perished,

“but it was known by the finding of their ship and seven men in a cave in the uninhabited regions fourteen winters[256] later; there were Ingimund the priest, he was whole and uncorrupted, and so were his clothes; but six skeletons lay there by his side, and wax,[257] and runes telling how they lost their lives. And men thought this a great sign of how God approved of Ingimund the priest’s conduct that he should have lain out so long with whole body and unhurt.” [Cf. “GrÖnl. hist. Mind.,” ii. p. 754; Biskupa SÖgur, 1858, i. p. 435].

We see that the legend of the Seven Sleepers, perhaps from Paulus Warnefridi (see above, p. 156), has been borrowed; but here it is only one of the seven who is holy and unhurt. The shipwreck itself may nevertheless be historical.[258] The craft was doubtless lost on the southern east coast of Greenland, near Cape Farewell, which part was commonly frequented, and where the remains were found.

Einar Thorgeirsson

It is also related in Gudmund Arason’s Saga that, some time before this, another ship was lost in the uninhabited regions of Greenland, with the priest Ingimund’s brother, Einar Thorgeirsson, on board; but the crew quarrelled over the food. Einar escaped with two others and made for the settlement (i.e., the Eastern Settlement) across the glaciers (i.e., the inland ice). There they lost their lives, when only a day’s journey from the settlement, and they were found one or two winters [i.e., years ?] later (Einar’s body was then whole and unhurt). The shipwreck may consequently be supposed to have taken place on the southernmost part of the east coast.

New Land

In the Icelandic Annals it is mentioned (in various MSS.) that a new land was discovered west of Iceland in 1285. A MS. of annals, of about 1306 (written, that is, about twenty years after the event), says that in 1285: “fandz land vestr undan Islande” (a land was found to the west of Iceland). A later MS. (of about 1360) says of the same discovery: “Funduz Duneyiar” (the Down Islands were found). In another old MS. of annals there is an addition by a later hand: “fundu Helga synir nyia land Adalbrandr ok Þorvalldr” (Helge’s sons Adalbrand and Thorvald found the new land). Finally we read in a late copy of an old MS. of annals: “Helga synir sigldu i Groenlandz obygÐir”[259] (Helge’s sons sailed to the uninhabited regions of Greenland). According to this last statement, this would refer to the discovery of land on the east coast of Greenland, west of Iceland.[260] It may have been at Angmagsalik or farther south on the east coast that Helge’s sons—two Icelandic priests—landed.[261] In the late summer this part is usually free from ice. From other Icelandic notices it may be concluded that they returned to Iceland the same autumn. We see that some years later the Norwegian king Eric attempted to get together an expedition to this new land under the so-called Landa-Rolf, who was sent to Iceland for the purpose in 1289. In 1290 Rolf went about Iceland, inviting people to join the Newland expedition; but it is uncertain whether it ever came to anything, and in 1295 Landa-Rolf died. All this points to the east coast of Greenland having been little known at that time, otherwise a landing there could not be spoken of as the discovery of a new land; and it is not easy to see why the king should send Rolf to Iceland to get up an expedition to a country which, as they must have been aware, was closed by ice for the greater part of the year. As to the situation on this coast of islands to which the name of Down Islands might be appropriate, I shall not venture to offer an opinion.

The southern glacier (Hvitserk) in 62° 10' N. lat.; seen from the drift-ice in July 1888

The northern east coast

In the introduction to Hauk’s LandnÁmabÓk we read: “en doegr sigling er til vbygda a Groenalandi or Kolbeins ey i norÐr” (it is a day’s sail to the uninhabited regions of Greenland northward from Kolbein’s island). Kolbein’s island is the little Mevenklint, out at sea to the north of Grim’s island and 56 nautical miles (100 kilometres) north of Iceland. The uninhabited regions here referred to are most probably East Greenland at about 69° N. lat. (Egede Land), which lies to the north-west (to the north there is no land, unless the magnetic north is meant). But it is scarcely credible that the Icelanders ever reached land on this part of the coast, which is nearly always closed by ice. It may be supposed that they often sailed along the edge of the ice when seal-hunting, as the bladder-nose is abundant there in summer; they may then have seen the land inside, and so knew of it, without having reached it. In this way the statement as to the distance may have originated, and the day’s sail may mean to the edge of the ice, whence the land is visible.

According to statements in the fourth part of the “Rymbegla” [1780, p. 482], a “doegr’s” sail (doegr == half a day of twenty-four hours) was equivalent to a distance of two degrees of latitude. But even if we accept this large estimate, it will not suffice for the distance between Mevenklint and the coast of Greenland to the north-west of it, which is about equal to three degrees of latitude (180 geographical miles).

It has been assumed that the Icelanders and Norwegians were acquainted with the east coast of Greenland north of 70° N. lat., and visited it for hunting seals, etc. But in order to reach it, it is nearly always necessary to sail through ice, and during the greater part of the summer one has to go as far north as Jan Mayen, or farther, to find the ice sufficiently open to allow one to reach the land. It is a somewhat tricky piece of sailing, which requires an intimate knowledge of the ice conditions; and it is not to be expected that any one should have acquired it without having frequently been among the ice with a definite purpose. That storm-driven vessels should have been accidentally cast ashore on this coast is unlikely; as a rule they would be stopped by the ice before they came so far. We may doubtless believe that the Norwegians and Icelanders sailed over the whole Arctic Ocean, along the edge of the ice, when hunting seals and the valuable walrus; but that on their sealing expeditions they should have made a practice of penetrating far into the ice is not credible, since their clinker-built craft were not adapted to sailing among ice; nor have we any information that would point to this. It is nevertheless not entirely impossible that they should have reached the northern east coast, since it may be comparatively free from ice in late summer and autumn. There would be plenty of seals, and especially of walrus, and on land there were reindeer and musk ox, which latter, however, is nowhere mentioned in Norse literature.

Glaciers on the east coast

The old sea-route, the so-called “Eiriks-stefna,” from Iceland to Greenland (i.e., the Greenland Settlements) went westward from SnÆfellsnes until one sighted the glaciers of Greenland, when one steered south-west along the drift-ice until well past Hvarf, etc. This is the route that Eric followed, according to the oldest accounts in the LandnÁma, when he sailed to Greenland, and the glacier he first sighted in Greenland is there called “MiÐjokull” (see above, p. 267). This name (the middle glacier) shows that two other glaciers must have been known, one to the north and one to the south, as indeed is explained in a far later work, the so-called “Gripla” (date uncertain, copied in the seventeenth century by BjÖrn JÓnsson), where we read:[262]

“From Bjarmeland [i.e., northern Russia] uninhabited regions lie northward as far as that which is called Greenland. But there are bays (botnar gÁnga Þar fyrir) and the land turns towards the south-west; there are glaciers and fjords, and islands lying off the glaciers; as far as [or rather, beyond] the first glacier they have not explored; to the second is a journey of half a month, to the third a week’s; it is nearest the settlement; it is called Hvitserk; there the land turns to the north; but he who would not miss the settlement, let him steer to the south-west” [that is, to get round and clear of the drift-ice that lies off Cape Farewell].

The mountains from Tingmiarmiut Fjord northward in 62° 35' N. lat. Seen from the drift-ice in July 1888

Not taking the distances into account, a sail of half a month and of a week, this is an admirable description of East Greenland from about 69° N. lat. southwards. By “glaciers” is obviously meant parts of the inland ice, which is the most noticeable feature of this coast, and which could not easily be omitted in a description of it. When we read that there are glaciers and fjords, and that islands lie off the glaciers, then every one who is familiar with this part of Greenland must be reminded of what catches the eye at the first sight of this coast from the sea: the dark stretches of land, not covered by snow, and the islands, lying in front of the vast white sheath of the inland ice, which is indented by bays and fjords. The three glaciers mentioned cannot, in my opinion, be three separate mountain summits covered with snow or ice, as has frequently been supposed. There is such a number of high summits in this country that, although I have sailed along the greater part of it, I am unable to name three as specially prominent. If one has seen from the sea the white snow-sheet of VatnajÖkel in Iceland (compare also, on a smaller scale, the HardangerjÖkel and others in Norway), then perhaps it will be easier to understand what the ancient Icelanders meant by their three glaciers on the east coast of Greenland, where the mass of glacier has a still mightier and more striking effect. Now, on that part of it which they and the Greenlanders knew, or had seen from the sea—and which extends towards the south-west (as we read) from about 70° N. lat.[263]—there are precisely three tracts where the inland ice covers the whole country and reaches to the very shore, so that the glacier surface is visible from the sea, and forms the one conspicuous feature that must strike every one who sails along the outer edge of the ice (or drifts in the ice, as I have twice done). The northernmost tract is to the north of 67° N. lat. (see map, p. 259); there the inland ice covers the coast down to the sea itself. This was the “northern glacier,” which no one was able to approach on account of the drift-ice, but which was only seen from a great distance. It was not until a few years ago that Captain Amdrup succeeded in travelling along this part of the country in boats, inshore of the ice.

The northern part of the “MiÐjokull” (to the left) and the country to the west
of Sermilik-fjord, in 65° 40' N. lat. Seen from the drift-ice in July 1888

The second tract is the coast by Pikiutdlek and Umivik, south of Angmagsalik, between Sermilik-fjord (65° 36' N. lat.) and Cape MÖsting (63° 40' N. lat.), where the inland ice covers the whole coast land, and only a few mountain summits, or “Nunataks,” rise up, and bare, scattered islands and tongues of land lie in front. This was the “MiÐjokull” (middle glacier), which was the first land made in sailing west from SnÆfellsnes, and which was a good and unmistakable sea-mark. In some MSS. it is called “hinn mikla Jokull” (the great glacier). There the sea is often comparatively free of ice in August and September, but we may be sure that the voyagers to Greenland did not as a rule try to land there; in the words of Ivar BÁrdsson’s directions, they were to “take their course from SnÆfellsnes and sail due west for a day and a night, but then to steer to the south-west, in order to avoid the above-mentioned ice” (cf. above, p. 262).

The third tract is the coast south of Tingmiarmiut and Mogens Heinesen’s Fjord (62° 20' N. lat.), where again the inland ice is predominant, and the only conspicuous feature that is first seen from the sea. This was the third or “southern glacier”; it lay nearest to Hvarf and was the sure sea-mark before rounding the southern end of the country. It appears to me that in this way we have a natural explanation of what these disputed glaciers were. Between them lay long stretches of mountainous coast. Northward from Cape Farewell to the “southern glacier” are high mountains, so that one does not see the even expanse of the inland ice from the sea. North of the “southern glacier” is the fjord-indented mountainous country about Tingmiarmiut, Umanak and Skjoldungen, and so northward as far as Cape MÖsting; there the mighty white line of the inland ice is wholly concealed behind a wall of lofty peaks. On the north side of the “MiÐjokull” again is the mountain country about Angmagsalik, from Sermilik-fjord north-eastwards, with a high range of mountains, so that neither is the inland ice seen from the sea there. The most conspicuous summit of this range is Ingolf’s Fjeld.

The mountains near Angmagsalik, east of Sermilik-fjord. Seen from the drift-ice in July 1888

Thus, according to my view, the statements as to the glaciers on the east coast of Greenland are easily explained. It is a different matter when we come to the two names “BlÁserkr” and “HvÍtserkr,” which, in later times especially, were those most frequently used. They have often been confused and interchanged, and while “BlÁserkr” is found in the oldest authorities, the name “HvÍtserkr” becomes more and more common in later writers. More recent authors have frequently regarded them as standing in a certain opposition to each other, one meaning a dark glacier or summit, and the other a white one, which may indeed seem natural. But it is striking that, while “BlÁserkr” alone is mentioned in the oldest authorities, such as the LandnÁma (and the Saga of Eric the Red, in the HauksbÓk), it soon disappears almost entirely from literature, and is replaced by “HvÍtserkr,” which is first mentioned in MSS. of the fourteenth century and later; and in the fifteenth century MS. (A.M. 557, qv.) of the Saga of Eric the Red (as in other late extracts from the same saga) we find “HvÍtserkr” instead of “BlÁserkr.”[264] I have not found the two names used contemporaneously in any Icelandic MS.; it is either one or the other, and nowhere are both names found as designating two separate places on the coast of Greenland. It may therefore be somewhat rash to assume, as has been done hitherto, that they were two “mountains,” one of them lying a certain distance to the north on the east coast of Greenland, and the other near Cape Farewell. The view that they were mountains is not a new one. In Ivar BÁrdsson’s description HvÍtserk is called “a high mountain” near Hvarf; while BjÖrn JÓnsson of SkardsÁ says that it is a “fuglabiarg i landnordurhafi” (i.e., a fowling cliff in the Polar Sea).

The inland ice at “MiÐjokull.” In the centre the mountain Kiatak, 64° 20' N. lat.
Seen from the drift-ice in July 1888

From the meaning of the names—the dark (“blÁ”) sark and the white sark—we should be inclined to think that they were applied to snow-fields, or glaciers, like, for instance, such names as SnehÆtta and LodalskÅpa in Norway. But another possibility is that it was the form of the sark that was thought of, and that the names were applied to mountain summits; in a similar way “stakk” (stack, or gown) is used for peaks in Norway (cf. LÖvstakken near Bergen); and in Shetland corresponding names are known for high cliffs on the sea: Blostakk (== BlÁstakkr), Grostakk (== GrÁstakkr), Kwitastakk (== HvÍti stakkr), Gronastakk and Gronistakk (== Groeni stakkr, cliffs with grass-grown tops), etc. [cf. J. Jakobsen, 1901, p. 151].

The mountains about Ingolf’s Fjeld, seen from a distance in June 1888

In the LandnÁmabÓk (both HauksbÓk and SturlubÓk) we read: “Eirekr sigldi vndan SnÆfells nese. En hann kom utan at Midiokli Þar sem BlÁserkr heitir.” (Eric sailed from SnÆfellsnes, and made the Mid-Glacier at a place called Blue-Sark.) In Eric the Red’s Saga this has been altered to “hann kom utan at jokli ÞeÍm er BlÁserkr heitir.” (He made the glacier that is called Blue-Sark.) It is obvious that the LandnÁma text is the more original, and thus two explanations are possible: either BlÁserkr is a part of the glacier, or it is a dark mountain seen on this part of the coast. I cannot remember any place where the inland ice of this district, seen at a distance from the drift-ice, had a perceptibly darker colour; its effect is everywhere a brilliant white. On approaching an ice-glacier, as, for instance, the Colberger Heide (64° N. lat., cf. Nansen, 1890, p. 370; Engl. ed., i. 423), it may appear somewhat darker and of a bluish tinge; but this can never have been a recognisable landmark at any distance. One is therefore tempted to believe that BlÁserkr was a black, bare mountain-peak. But the peaks that show up along the edge of the “MiÐjokull” (between Sermilik and Cape MÖsting) are all comparatively low; the mountain-summit Kiatak, near Umivik [see Nansen, 1890, pp. 370, 374, 444; Engl. ed., i. 423, 429, ii. 13], answers best as regards shape, and is conspicuous enough, but it is only 2450 feet high. It is possible that BlÁserkr did not lie in MiÐjokull itself, but was the lofty Ingolf’s Fjeld (7300 feet high), which is the first mountain one sees far out at sea, on approaching East Greenland from Iceland; and it is seen to the north in sailing past Cape Dan and in towards MiÐjokull. It may then have been confused with the latter in later times. But this supposition is doubtful. The most natural way for the Icelanders when making for Greenland must in any case have been first to make the edge of the ice, west-north-west from SnÆfellsnes, when they sighted Ingolf’s Fjeld (or BlÁserkr ?); then they followed the ice west or west-south-west, and came straight in to MiÐjokull, at about 65° N. lat., or the same latitude as SnÆfellsnes. Here the edge of the ice turns southward, following the land, and the course has to be altered in order to sail past the southern glacier and round Hvarf. This agrees well with most descriptions of the voyage, and among them the most trustworthy. But the names have often been confused; HvÍtserk and BlÁserk especially have been interchanged;[265] and this is not surprising, since the men who wrote in Iceland in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were themselves unacquainted with these waters.

The name “HvÍtserkr” would appear most appropriate to a glacier, and in reviewing the various contexts in which it is mentioned in the narratives, my impression is rather that in later times it was often used as a name for the inland ice itself on the east and south coasts of Greenland; and as, on the voyage to the Eastern Settlement, the inland ice was most seen on the southern part of the east coast, which was also resorted to for seal-hunting, the name HvÍtserk became especially applied to the southern glacier, as in the tale of Einar Sokkason (see above, p. 283); but it might also be the mid-glacier. This view is supported by, for instance, the so-called Walkendorff addition to Ivar BÁrdsson’s description, where the following passage occurs about the voyage from Iceland to Greenland [“GrÖnl. hist. Mind.,” iii. p. 491]:

It is clearly enough the inland ice itself, the most prominent feature on the east coast, that is here called Hvidserch. It is first seen at MiÐjokull, in coming westwards from Iceland; and one has the inland ice (ice-blink) on the north when about to round Cape Farewell. No single mountain can possibly fit this description; but this does not exclude the possibility of others having erroneously connected the name with such a mountain, in the same way as Danish sailors of recent times have applied it to a lofty island, “Dadloodit,” in the southernmost part of Greenland [“GrÖnl. hist. Mind.,” i. p. 453]. The fact that HvÍtserk in Ivar BÁrdsson’s description is called “a high mountain,” which is seen one day before reaching Hvarf, must be due to a similar misunderstanding. As BlÁserk, although originally it may have been a mountain, was confounded with the Mid-Glacier, it is comprehensible that the name BlÁserk should be gradually superseded by HvÍtserk.

In one or two passages of the old narratives it is related that when one was half-way between Iceland and Greenland one could see at the same time, in clear weather, SnÆfells glacier in Iceland and BlÁserk (or HvÍtserk)[266] in Greenland. According to my experience this is not possible, even if we call in the aid of a powerful refraction, or even mirage; but, on the other hand, one can see the reflections of the land or the ice on the sky, and when sailing (along the edge of the ice) eastwards or westwards, one can very well see the top of the SnÆfells glacier and the top of Ingolf’s Fjeld on the same day.

The Icelandic accounts mention several places in East Greenland, such as “Kross-eyjar,” “FinnsbuÐir,” “Berufjord” (“bera” == she-bear), and the fjord “Öllum-Lengri.” Frequent expeditions for seal-hunting were made to these places from the Eastern Settlement, and they must have lain near it, just north of Cape Farewell.

VOYAGES TO THE NORTHERN WEST COAST OF GREENLAND, NORÐRSETUR, AND BAFFIN’S BAY IN THE MIDDLE AGES

To the north of the northernmost inhabited fjords of the Western Settlement lay the uninhabited regions. Thither the Greenlanders resorted every summer for seal-hunting; there lay what they called the “NorÐrsetur” (“seta” == place of residence; the northern stations or fishing-places), and it is doubtless partly to these districts that reference is made in Eric the Red’s Saga, where it is said of Thorhall the Hunter that “he had long been with Eric hunting in summer,” and that “he had a wide acquaintance with the uninhabited regions.” We have no information as to how far north the longest expeditions of the Greenlanders extended, but we know that they reached the neighbourhood of the modern Upernivik; for, twenty-eight miles to the north-west of it—on a little island called Kingigtorsuak, in 72° 55' N. lat.—three cairns are said to have been found early in the nineteenth century (before 1824); and in one of them a small runic stone, with the inscription: “Erling Sigvathsson, Bjarne Thordarson, and Endride Oddson on the Sunday before ‘gagndag’ [i.e., April 25] erected these cairns and cleared ...”[267] Then follow six secret runes, which it was formerly sought to interpret, erroneously, as a date, 1135. Professor L. F. LÄffler has explained them as meaning ice;[268] it would then read “and cleared away ice.” Judging from the language, the inscription would be of the fourteenth century;[269] Professor Magnus Olsen (in a letter to me) thinks it might date from about 1300, or perhaps a little later. Why the cairns were built seems mysterious. It is possible that they were sea-marks for fishing-grounds; but it is not likely that the Greenlanders were in the habit of going so far north. One would be more inclined to think they were set up as a monument of a remarkable expedition, which had penetrated to regions previously unknown; but why build more than one cairn? Was there one for each man? The most remarkable thing is that the cairns are stated to have been set up in April, when the sea in that locality is covered with ice. The three men must either have wintered there in the north, which seems the more probable alternative; they may then have been starving, and the object of the cairns was to call the attention of possible future travellers to their bodies—or they may have come the same spring over the ice from the south, and in that case they most probably travelled with Eskimo dog-sledges, and were on a hunting expedition, perhaps for bears. But they cannot have travelled northwards from the Eastern or Western Settlement the same spring. In any case they may have been in company with Eskimo, whom we know to have lived on Disco Bay, and probably also farther south at that time. From them the Norsemen may have learnt to hunt on the ice, by which they were able to support themselves in the north during the winter.

Runic stone from Kingigtorsuak (after A. A. BjÖrnbo)

The earliest mention of hunting expeditions to the northern west coast of Greenland is found in the “Historia NorwegiÆ” (thirteenth century), where it is said that hunters “to the north” (of the Greenlanders) come across “certain small people whom they call SkrÆlings” (see later, chapter x.).

There are few references to the “NorÐrsetur” in the literature that has been preserved. A lay on the subject, “NorÐrsetudrÁpa,” was known in the Middle Ages, written by an otherwise unknown skald, Sveinn. Only a few short fragments of it are known from “SkÁlda,” Snorra-Edda [cf. “GrÖnl. hist. Mind.,” iii. pp. 235 ff.]. It is wild and gloomy, and speaks of the ugly sons of FornjÓt [the storms] who were the first to drift [i.e., with snow], and of Ægi’s storm-loving daughters [the waves], who wove and drew tight the hard sea-spray, fed by the frost from the mountains.

Reference is also made to these hunting expeditions to the north in “SkÁld-Helga Rimur,” where we read [“GrÖnl. hist. Mind.,” ii. p. 492]:

It appears from HÅkon HÅkonsson’s Saga that the NorÐrsetur were a well-known part of Greenland; for we read of the submission of the Greenlanders to the Norwegian Crown that they promised

In BjÖrn JÓnsson’s “GrÖnlands Annaler” (cf. above, p. 263) these expeditions to the NorÐrsetur are mentioned in more detail, as well as a remarkable voyage to the north in 1267 [“GrÖnl. hist. Mind.,” iii. pp. 238 ff.]. We there read:

In an extract which follows: “On the voyage northward to the uninhabited regions” (probably from a different and later source) we read:

According to this description we must look for Nordrsetur, with Greipar and KrÓksfjardarheidr, to the north of the northern extremity of the Western Settlement, which from other descriptions must have been at Straumsfjord, about 66½° N. lat. (see map, p. 266). There in the north, then, there was said to be driftwood, and plenty of seals. The latter circumstance is especially suited to the districts about Holstensborg and northward to Egedes Minde (i.e., between 66° and 68½° N. lat.), and further to Disco Bay and Vaigat (see map, p. 259). Besides abundance of seals there was also good walrus-hunting, and this was valuable on account of the tusks and hide, which were Greenland’s chief articles of export [cf. for instance, “The King’s Mirror,” above, p. 277]. There was also narwhale, the tusk or spear of which was even more valuable than walrus tusks. “Greipar”[273] may have been near Holstensborg, about 67° N. lat. “KrÓksfjarÐarheiÐr” may have been at Disco Bay or Vaigat.[274] It also agrees with this that the northern point of Greenland (“Þessi norÐskagi Groenlands”) was in NorÐrsetur, and that “Greipar” was at the land’s end (“bygÐar sporÐr”) of Greenland. For what the Greenlanders generally understood by Greenland was the Eastern and Western Settlements, and the broad extent of coast lying to the north of them, which was not covered by the inland ice, and which reached to Disco Bay. It was the part where human habitation was possible, and where there was no inland ice; it was therefore natural for them to call Greipar the northern end of the country.

In this connection the statement in Ivar BÁrdsson’s description must also be borne in mind:

It is true that Ivar’s description as a whole does not seem to be very trustworthy as regards details, nor do the whirlpools here spoken of tend to inspire confidence, suggesting as they do that it was near the earth’s limit, where the ocean ends in one or more vast abysses; but it is nevertheless possible that the mountain in question may have been an actual landmark in the extreme north, on that part of the west coast of Greenland to which voyages were habitually made, and in that case it must have been situated in “Nordrsetur.”

For many reasons it is unreasonable to look for “Greipar” and “KrÓksfjardarheidr” so far north as Smith Sound or Jones Sound (or Lancaster Sound), as, amongst others in recent times, Professor A. Bugge [1898] and Captain G. Isachsen [1907] have done:[283](1) In the first place this would assume that the Greenlanders on their Nordrsetu expeditions sailed right across the ice-blocked and difficult Baffin’s Bay and Melville Bay every summer, and back again in the autumn, in their small clinker-built vessels, which were not suited for sailing among the ice. We are told indeed (see above, p. 299) that the franklins had large ships and vessels for this voyage; but this was written in Iceland by men who were not themselves acquainted with the conditions in Greenland, and the statement doubtless means no more than that these vessels, or rather boats, were large in comparison to the small boats (perhaps for the most part boats of hides) which they usually employed in their home fisheries. Timber for shipbuilding was not easy to obtain in Greenland. Drift-wood would not go very far in building boats, to say nothing of larger vessels, and they must have depended on an occasional cargo of timber from Norway, or perhaps what they could themselves fetch from Markland. They could hardly have got the material for building vessels suited for sailing through the ice of Baffin’s Bay in this way. Moreover, we know from several sources that there was great scarcity of rivets and iron nails in Greenland; so that vessels were largely built with wooden nails. In 1189 a Greenlander, Asmund Kastanrasti, came with twelve others from Kross-eyjar in Greenland to Iceland “in a ship that was fastened together with wooden nails alone, save that it was also bound with thongs.... He had also been in FinnsbuÐir.” He did not sail from Iceland till the following year, and was then shipwrecked.[284] This ship must have been one of the largest and best they had in Greenland. It is therefore impossible that they should have been able to keep up any constant communication with the countries on the north side of Baffin’s Bay.

(2) Then comes the question: what reason would they have had for exposing themselves to the many dangers involved in the long northward voyage through the ice? Their purpose may have been chiefly to kill seals and collect driftwood. But where there is much ice for the greater part of the year, the driftwood is prevented from being thrown up on shore; and it is the fact that in Baffin’s Bay there is unusually little of it, so that the Eskimo of Cape York and Smith Sound are barely able to get enough wood for making weapons and implements. In addition to the ice the reason for this is that no current of importance bearing driftwood reaches the north of Baffin’s Bay. Consequently, this again is conclusive proof that the Nordrsetur of the descriptions is not to be looked for there, nor was sealing particularly good; they had better sealing-grounds in the districts about Holstensborg, Egedes Minde and Disco Bay.[285]

Everything points to the Nordrsetur having been situated in the districts either in or to the south of Disco Bay,[286] which must have been a natural hunting-ground for the Greenlanders, just as the Norwegians sail long distances to Lofoten for fishing. Moreover, one of the objects of the voyages to Nordrsetur was to collect driftwood; now the driftwood comes with the Polar Current round Cape Farewell and is thrown up on shore along the whole of the west coast northward as far as this current washes the land—that is to say, about as far north as Disco Bay. In the south of Greenland, the ancient Eastern Settlement, there is drift-ice for part of the year, and not so much driftwood comes ashore as farther north, in the ancient Western Settlement (especially the Godthaab district) and to the north of it. Besides, in the settlements there were many to find it and utilise it, while in the uninhabited regions there were only the Eskimo, of whom perhaps there were as yet few south of 68° N. lat. On their way to and from the Nordrsetur, therefore, the Greenlanders travelled along the shore and collected driftwood wherever they found it. In Iceland this was misunderstood in the sense that driftwood was supposed to be washed ashore chiefly in Nordrsetur; and they believed it to come from Markland, perhaps because the Greenlanders sometimes went there for timber, and it was thus regarded by them as a country rich in trees. It is, however, also possible that the name Markland, i.e., woodland, itself may have created this conception. In reality most of the driftwood comes from Siberia, which was unknown to them, and it is brought with the drift-ice over the Polar Sea and southward along the east coast of Greenland.

Driftwood. From an Icelandic MS., fifteenth century

The following is the account of the voyage of about 1267, given by BjÖrn JÓnsson (taken, according to his statement, from the HauksbÓk, where it is no longer to be found):

BjÖrn JÓnsson says that this account of the voyage was written by Halldor, a priest of Greenland (who did not himself take part in the expedition, but had only heard of it), to Arnold, the priest of Greenland who was stranded in Iceland in 1266. It was then rewritten in Iceland (or Norway ?), perhaps by one of the copyists of the HauksbÓk, who was unacquainted with the conditions in Greenland; and afterwards it was again copied, and perhaps “improved,” at least once (by BjÖrn JÓnsson himself). Unfortunately, the leaves of the HauksbÓk which must have contained this narrative have been lost. There is therefore a possibility that errors and misunderstandings may have crept in, and such an absurdity as that “they could not land on account of the bears” (though they nevertheless saw ancient Eskimo dwellings!) shows clearly enough that the narrative is not to be regarded as trustworthy in its details; but there is no reason to doubt that the voyage was really made, and it must have extended far north in Baffin’s Bay. It cannot have taken place in the same year (1266) in which the men spoken of came from NorÐrsetur, but at the earliest in the following year (1267).

We may probably regard as one of the objects of the expedition the investigation of the northward extension of the Eskimo. The voyagers sailed out through Vaigat (KrÓksfjord), in about 70½° N. lat.; they met with a southerly gale and thick weather, and were obliged to keep along the coast; the south wind, which follows the line of the coast, also swept the ice northwards, and in open sea they came far north in the Polar Sea; but, if the statements are exact, they cannot have gone farther than a point from which they were able to return to KrÓksfjardarheidr in four days’ sailing and rowing.[289] If we allow at the outside that in the three days they sailed on an average one degree, or sixty nautical miles, a day, which is a good deal along a coast, and if we put a good day’s rowing at forty miles, we shall get a total of 220 miles; or, if they started from the northern end of Vaigat in 70½°, they may have been as far north as 74° N. lat., or about Melville Bay. In any case there can be no question of their having been much farther north. Here the land is low, and the inland ice (“jÖkull”) comes right down to the sea, with bare islands outside (see map, p. 259). Here they found old traces of Eskimo. Then they returned south to Vaigat, but on the way thither they found Eskimo dwellings (that is, in this case tents) on some islands at which they put in.[290] It may be objected to this explanation that it does not agree with the statement as to the sun’s altitude. But here there must be a misunderstanding or obscurity in the transmission of the text. KrÓksfjardarheidr is always mentioned elsewhere as a particularly well-known place in Nordrsetur, to which the Greenlanders resorted every summer for seal-hunting, and it is far from likely that the statements as to the midnight sun being visible, as to the frosts at night, and the detailed information as to the sun’s altitude (in a description otherwise so concise), referred to so generally familiar a part of the country. It is obvious that it must refer to the unknown regions, where they were farthest north; but we thus lose the information as to the date on which the sun’s altitude was observed; it must in any case have been four days before St. James’s day, and it may have been more. Moreover, the information given is of no use for working out the latitude. The measurement of the shadow on a man lying athwartships does not help us much, as the height of the gunwale above the man’s position is not given. The statement as to the sun’s altitude at midnight might be of more value; but whether “at home in the settlement” means the Western Settlement, or whether it does not rather mean Gardar (in the Eastern Settlement) to which they “returned home,” we do not now know for certain, nor do we know on what day it was that the sun was at an equal altitude in the north-west. If St. James’s day (July 25) is meant, then it is unfortunate that the sun would not be visible above the horizon at Gardar when it was in the north-west. According to the Julian Calendar, which was then in use, July 25 fell seven or eight days later than now. If Midsummer Day is intended, of which, however, there is no mention in the text, then the sun would be about 3° 41' above the horizon in the north-west at Gardar. If it is meant that on July 20 the sun was at this altitude, then the latitude would be 74° 34' N. [cf. H. Geelmuyden, 1883a, p. 178]. But all this is uncertain. We only know that the travellers saw the sun above the horizon at midnight. If we suppose that at least the whole of the sun’s disc was above the horizon, and that it was St. James’s day, then they must at any rate have been north of 71° 48' N. lat. (as the sun’s declination was about 17° 54' on July 25 in the thirteenth century).[291] If the date was earlier, then they may have been farther south.

From an Icelandic MS., fourteenth century