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6 - The Norse Settlement of Greenland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2023

By
Jette Arneborg
Edited by
Adrian Howkins  and
Peder Roberts
Adrian Howkins
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Peder Roberts
Affiliation:
University of Stavanger
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Summary

Greenland has been peopled from the west by several different groups and only once – in the late tenth century ad – from the east, this time by Norse farmers from northern Europe. Unlike the mobile Arctic hunters, the Norse settlers were sedentary, and the society they established in southwest Greenland was based on the natural vegetation, hunting, and trade with their homelands. For almost 500 years the Norse population in Greenland thrived, and then it vanished for reasons not yet fully understood. Several explanations have been put forward: that the small Norse society failed because of inflexible social and economic strategies,1 or fell victim to a combination of unfortunate circumstances,2 or (as recently argued) suffered from organized and systematic violence by invading Inuit.

Keywords

GreenlandNorseInuitarchaeologyhistoryenvironmental changecultureextinctiontrade
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Polar Regions , pp. 129 - 152
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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