Greenland was discovered. Citadel, old town and fortifications of Derbent. Greenland: Norman Colony

Who first discovered Greenland??? and got the best answer

Reply from Ђ@nyushka[guru]
The island was first discovered by the Icelandic sailor Gunbjorn around 875 (he did not go ashore).
In 982, an Icelander of Norwegian origin, Eirik Rauda (Red), made the first survey of the island and named it Greenland.
In 983, Norman (Icelandic) colonies were founded in southern Greenland and lasted until the 15th century. In the 11th century, the population of Greenland, including the indigenous Eskimos, adopted Christianity (in 1126 the first bishopric was founded in Greenland). From 1262 until the beginning of the 18th century, Greenland actually belonged to Norway. In 1721, the colonization of the island by Denmark began. In 1744, Denmark established a state monopoly (existed until 1950) on trade with Greenland. In 1814, with the dissolution of the Danish-Norwegian Union of 1380, Greenland remained with Denmark and until 1953 was its colony. In 1953, Greenland was declared part of the territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. In April 1940, after the occupation of Denmark by Nazi Germany, the US government announced the extension of the Monroe Doctrine to Greenland. On April 9, 1941, the Danish envoy in Washington signed the so-called so-called agreement with the American government. agreement for the defense of Greenland (ratified by the Danish Rigsdag on May 16, 1945). The United States has begun creating military bases on Greenland. After Denmark joined NATO (April 4, 1949), a new agreement was signed between the Danish and American governments on April 27, 1951, under which Denmark and the United States jointly defend the island. In 1971, the United States had 2 military bases and other military facilities in Greenland.

Greenland (Grønland, literally “green country”) is an island in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, northeast of North America.
State of the Inuit people, autonomous territory Denmark.
Greenland - largest island in the world. Area - 2,166,086 km². Population (2005, estimated) - 56,375 people.


Around 980, the Viking Erik Rauda (Red) was sentenced to three years of exile from Iceland for the murder of his neighbor [. He decided to sail west and reach a land that, in clear weather, can be seen from the mountaintops of western Iceland. It lay 280 km from the Icelandic coast; According to the sagas, the Norwegian Gunbjorn sailed there earlier in the 900s. Eric sailed west in 982 with his family, servants and livestock, but floating ice prevented him from landing; he was forced to go around the southern tip of the island and landed at a place near Julianshob (Qaqortoq). During his three years of exile, Eric did not meet a single person on the island, although during his travels along the coast he reached Disko Island, far northwest of the southern tip of Greenland.
At the end of his exile, Erik the Red returned to Iceland in 986 and began encouraging local Vikings to move to new lands. He named the island Greenland (Norwegian Grønland), which literally means “Green Land”. There is still ongoing debate about the appropriateness of this name; some believe that in those days the climate in these places, thanks to the medieval climatic optimum, was mild, and the coastal areas of the southwest of the island were indeed covered with dense grassy vegetation; others believe that the name was chosen for the sole purpose of attracting more settlers to the island.
Karl Lehmann
Connoisseur
(269)
Fascism was in Italy, Spain...

Reply from Elena Osinskaya (Pestova)[guru]
Vikings

Reply from User deleted[guru]
trust a professional!!

Reply from Albert[guru]
Actually I opened
But out of modesty I gave up the laurels... I don’t remember to whom! :))

Reply from Oras Dorofeev[guru]
The island was first discovered by the Icelandic sailor Gunbjorn around 875 (did not go ashore)
In 982 AD, the Icelander Erik Thorvaldson reached the south west coast Greenland. This stern and tough man, better known as Eric the Red, was sentenced in his homeland to three years of exile for murder. He decided to spend these three years exploring the western lands that Icelandic sailors had talked so much about.
Three years later he returned home and told his fellow tribesmen about his discovery. He wanted to arouse in his listeners the desire to go to this new land and therefore gave it an attractive name. Thorvaldson nicknamed the region he discovered “green” - Greenland!
The island belonged to Norway since 1386, after which it passed to Denmark. In 1979, the Danish parliament granted Greenland broad autonomy.
Also:
Archaeologists identify four Paleo-Eskimo cultures in Greenland that existed before the discovery of the island by the Vikings, but the dates of their existence are determined very roughly:
Saqqaq culture: 2500 BC e. - 800 BC e. in southern Greenland;
Independence I culture: 2400 BC e. - 1300 BC e. in northern Greenland;
Independence II culture: 800 BC e. - 1 BC e. mainly in northern Greenland;
Early Dorset culture, Dorset I: 700 BC e. - 200 N. e. in southern Greenland.
These crops were not unique to Greenland. As a rule, they arose and developed in the territories of Arctic Canada and Alaska long before their penetration into Greenland, and could persist in other places in the Arctic after their disappearance from the island.
After the decline of Dorset culture, the island remained uninhabited for centuries. The carriers of the Inuit Thule culture, the ancestors of the modern indigenous inhabitants of Greenland, began to penetrate the north of the island at the beginning of the 13th century.
The capital is Nuk (the old name is Gothob).
Most of Greenland's territory is hidden under ice cover, the thickness of which in some places reaches three kilometers. Only the most unpretentious plants and the strongest animals can survive on the border between land and ice. Winters in this region are harsh and last a very long time, and in summer the temperature rises very slightly, and the summer itself ends as soon as it begins.
Here and there, on small patches of land free of ice, you can find grass and some other low-growing plants, but for the most part, only stones covered with moss and lichens can be seen from under the ice.
Today, only about thirty-five thousand people live in Greenland, which is extremely small for such a vast territory. Most settled on the ice-free southwestern coast of the island. Only two and a half thousand people live in the eastern part and a little more than six hundred people in the northern part.

The Atlantic Ocean, which today is a great highway for shipping, was in ancient times an insurmountable desert of water between East and West. In three places, however, geographical conditions favored crossing the ocean. On both sides of the equator, trade winds and the currents they cause are directed from the Old World to the shores South America and West Indies. The water spaces south of the equator, favorable for navigation, were never used to any significant extent: the peoples of Africa were at too low a stage of development to develop them. The use of waters to the north for navigation is associated with the name of Columbus. The waters along the line passing through the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland were used for navigation before any other, and the Scandinavian countries raised a generation of sailors who were the first of the peoples of Europe to overcome the dangers of the open ocean. True, this did not lead to such practical results as the discovery of Columbus, and precisely because European culture in those early times was not yet mature enough to cope with the serious danger of navigation in the northern seas.

Thus, geographical location Greenland is the reason that this country came to the attention of Europe more than five centuries before Columbus landed in America. The discovery of Greenland is a natural link to sea voyages during the Viking era. The first period of these campaigns dates back to about 800. In a short period of time, this led to the creation of Scandinavian possessions from Ireland and Normandy right to the heart of Russia; the Vikings penetrated White Sea and Constantinople. After the unification of Norway, Iceland was discovered. Following this, almost simultaneously, the first, still inaccurate information about Greenland appeared. According to the old Icelandic written source “Landnamabok”, even then (about 875) Greenland was seen from afar by “Gunbjorn, son of Ulf Krake, when he was abandoned by a storm northwest of Iceland and discovered the Gunbjorn Islands.” Apparently, it was about a group of small islands near the modern trading post of Angmagsalik.

Discovery of Greenland by Erik Thorvaldsen (Red)

Following the relatively quiet tenth century, the spark of enterprise was suddenly rekindled. In the north, a route was found to Greenland and Vinland. The peasant Erik Thorvaldsen, nicknamed Red, who as a child moved with his father from his homeland of Norway to Iceland, where in 982 he was sentenced to exile for murder for three years, decided to find the country that Gunbjorn saw from afar. From Cape Snefellsnes he headed west and saw east coast Greenland “at the middle glacier in the place where it is called Bloserk”; natural conditions, apparently prevented the landing at this place, where the coast is completely blocked for most of the year floating ice. Then he changed course to the south in order to find out whether the land there was suitable for habitation, and, rounding Cape Farvel, apparently landed in the area of ​​​​the present settlement of Julianehob, near the southern tip of the island. This was the first white man to set foot in the New World! He gave the country the name Greenland because he believed that it would attract people if the country had attractive name“- this was reported one hundred and fifty years later in the oldest source about the discovery of Greenland - in Are Frode’s book “Islendingabok”. Eric intended to add a new link to the chain of widely scattered Scandinavian settlements and used his three years of exile for detailed research, extending into more northern territory, up to the present area of ​​Gothob.

First settlements in Greenland

The following summer, after returning to Iceland, he set sail again with no less than 25 ships in his wake, of which, however, only 14 reached promised land. The settlers settled in two areas - Österbygden (eastern settlement) and Västerbygden (western settlement); the first of them was located in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe present Julianehob and the southern part of the Frederikshob district, the second - in the present Gotthob district.

The settlers led a harsh life in this country, where even the unpretentious barley did not ripen. The struggle of the Scandinavians for existence led to the fact that they gradually became familiar with the surroundings of the settlements, and this knowledge was subsequently forgotten and restored only in the 18th century.

The Scandinavian exploration of Greenland was largely the result of summer trips to collect driftwood (precious in this treeless country) and hunt for seals, walruses and whales. The fishing grounds extended as far north as Disko Bay. Some industrialists reached even more northern places. In the far north, in the area of ​​the present colony of Upernavik, near the stone pyramids on the island of Kingigtorsuaq, a small stone with runic writing was found. Judging by the linguistic structure, the signature dates back to approximately 1300.

It is possible that the Normans penetrated even further. One of the Icelandic sources reports a journey to explore the country north of the fishing grounds in the summer of 1265 or 1266. How far the explorers penetrated is impossible to establish, since it is not possible to determine the distances indicated in the book; however, it is possible that the explorers reached Melville Bay. But this is not enough. In the northernmost part of the Thule region, near Marshall Bay, between Smith Sound and the Humboldt Glacier, during excavations of ancient Eskimo ruins, various objects of Scandinavian origin were found, including the remains of chain mail. It is possible that these items were introduced as a result of barter with the Eskimos; However, if we compare the finds and vague traditions of the Arctic Eskimos about many warlike white people who arrived in large rowing ships without masts, then the possibility can hardly be completely denied that the Scandinavians actually visited these extreme northern places.

Explorations of the east coast of Greenland

In contrast to the western coast, the eastern coast of Greenland, due to the presence of drifting ice, remained largely unexplored by the Scandinavians. There are indications that they knew the area in the vicinity of Scoresby Bay, which, despite its northern position, is still one of the most accessible parts of the coast. In any case, it is probably necessary to look for the Scandinavian settlement of Svalbard here, regardless of the fact that in later times this name was transferred to the island of Spitsbergen. For the most part, the eastern coast seems to have been visited only by shipwrecked people.

Then, towards the end of the Middle Ages, the darkness of the unknown spreads over Greenland and the Scandinavians there. The tragedy that unfolded here is reflected in the brief reports that have reached us about that period, which become increasingly scanty as time goes on. It may seem puzzling that so little has been done on the Scandinavian side to support the message. It must be noted, however, that Greenland was never completely forgotten. Immediately following the cessation of ancient sea voyages there follows a period during which fruitless attempts were made to explore Greenland.

The incentive for such research was the friendly relations that existed in the 15th century between the courts of Denmark and Portugal, the homeland of the great geographical discoveries. The Portuguese prince Dom Henrique, or, as the Danes called him, Henry the Navigator, according to a fictitious medieval description of the journey that has come down to us, came to the idea that it was possible to find a sea route leading directly from Norway to China and India. His cousin was married to the Danish king Eric of Pomerania, and Scandinavia at that time was considered the bearer of the old traditions of sea voyages to Greenland and Vinland. For this reason, the prince established cooperation with Denmark. Danish nobles were first invited to participate in dangerous journeys along the African coast, after which in Denmark itself they began preparing for the voyage to the north. In the summer of 1473, Christien I equipped an expedition that can be called the first Danish polar expedition. Two admirals were appointed as leaders - Dietrich Piening and Hans Potthorst. The expedition's navigator, or "navigator", was apparently a Scandinavian named Ion Skolp (Johannes Okolvus), and the Portuguese Joao Vas Corteral also took part in the expedition. Very little is known about the journey itself. The starting point seems to have been Norway, the expedition spent some time in Iceland, from there the journey continued towards the east coast of Greenland, where a “compass” was carved on Mount Vidserk, that is, a sign that, in all likelihood, was based on the Portuguese model was supposed to indicate that the country was occupied. In his book Carta Marina, written in 1539, and later in his descriptions of the northern countries, the Swedish archbishop Olaus Magnus gave a drawing of a “compass”, which, of course, was made from the imagination. In all likelihood, the expedition experienced severe storms and may even have been shipwrecked; it is also known that the expedition had a battle with Eskimo “sea robbers”.

But nevertheless the expedition was carried out, and its greatest achievement was that it penetrated west and south of Greenland and, undoubtedly, discovered Newfoundland.

The expedition did not have any practical significance. However, the desire to recapture Greenland did not die out, although all Danish expeditions undertaken in the next century ended unsuccessfully. The expedition planned by Archbishop Eric Walkendorf was canceled due to the fact that the archbishop quarreled with King Christian II, and when the king himself subsequently took the enterprise into his own hands, the Swedish uprising broke out in 1520. At the end of the turbulent period of feudal strife and reformation, which prevented equipment expeditions, other complications arose. The expeditions commissioned by King Frederick II - one in 1579 under the leadership of the Englishman Alday and another in 1581 under the leadership of the Faroese native Mogens Heinesen - were unsuccessful, as they encountered an impenetrable wall of drifting ice off the east coast and were forced to return without results. .

Strange name. This land is not at all green, as it is called. It is white, or rather, icy. The name Iceland would be quite suitable for it. But it was assigned to the incomparably greener island. This is a geographic paradox. But, like any true paradox, it has a logical explanation.

At the beginning of the new era, Northwestern Europe was increasingly populated by enterprising, strong and courageous people. They herded livestock, farmed, hunted, and fished. However, despite the relatively mild climate of Scandinavia, there was not very much land suitable for agriculture. And the soils were quickly depleted.

The increase in population density, coupled with the impossibility of more intensive farming and cattle breeding, caused internal conflicts. More and more young, strong people began to go to sea robbery - to Viking, as they called it.

At first, perhaps, they simply tried to find and populate new territories. But the path to the west and southwest across the sea led to the well-inhabited lands of Britain and Ireland. The same thing happened on the western edge of Europe. In these parts the Vikings carried out predatory raids and conquests.

The largest geographical discoveries fell to those Scandinavians (Normans, Norwegians) who were looking not for wealth, but for a decent, peaceful life.

The inhabitants of the British Isles suffered from Viking raids. For this reason, or simply from the desire to escape the bustle of the world, groups of Irish monks began to go to sea, settling on deserted islands.

According to the medieval Irish chronicler Dicuil, at the end of the 8th century one such group spent the spring and summer on a large desert island northwest of Ireland. This was Iceland. Some people returned to their homeland, but some remained.

In 867, one of the Viking leaders, Naddod, and his retinue were returning from Norway to their possessions on Faroe Islands. The storm threw his draka far to the northwest. He saw a mountainous land with snow-capped mountains and named it Iceland. Perhaps he didn't want her to attract people to her.

Soon another group of Vikings, led by Gardar, discovered this land, walked around it and became convinced that it was an island, and quite an attractive one at that. The Norwegian chronicler Ari Thorgilsson Frode left the following description: “In those days, Iceland from the mountains to the coast was covered with forests, and Christians lived there, whom the Norwegians called papars. But later these people, not wanting to communicate with the pagans, left there, leaving behind Irish books, bells and staves; from this it is clear that they were Irish.”

The name Greenland would be quite suitable for such an island. But for some reason the Norwegians preferred to call it “ice land.” According to one version, the choice of name was influenced by the wintering experience that one of the princes, the Viking Floki, who sailed from Norway, spent on the island. These settlers did not stock up on enough food for their livestock. The winter turned out to be long and snowy, and the livestock died. People could not leave the land because the sea was covered with ice. With considerable hardships, they survived until the summer and returned to their homeland.

Over time, not only economic life, but also government life improved on the island. In 930, residents at a general meeting decided to establish a supreme council - the Althing. This was the first parliament in the world. However, the Novgorod Republic arose about a century earlier with its government elected by citizens. But it did not last long due to internal strife and was replaced by a monarchy.

The Althing allowed the inhabitants of the island to restore order and coordinate their actions, and fight crime. This circumstance played a role in the discovery of a new land.

The owner of one of the estates, Eirik, nicknamed Red, killed two people in a quarrel that turned into a fight. He was sentenced to three years of exile. The circumstances of this case are unclear. Apparently there were some controversial issues over land ownership or long-standing feuds; and there was not just a fight, but a whole massacre, in which representatives of two clans took part. It is unlikely that the murder was vile and groundless, otherwise the punishment would not have been relatively mild: three years of exile. By the way, Eirik’s father and his family were expelled from Norway to Iceland, also for murder. Apparently, the men in this family were generally distinguished by their tough dispositions.

So, Eirik and his people in 981 or 982 embarked on drakars - long, sharp-nosed boats - and left Iceland. They knew that there was no room in the east, in Norway, and in the south, in Ireland and Britain. A cold ocean stretched to the north to unknown limits. In the west, as some sailors said, there is some unknown land. Perhaps Eirik himself had previously approached her during voyages.

This time they had to get used to the inhospitable deserted shores, behind which glaciers were piled up. The sailors moved south along the coast, choosing a suitable harbor with green meadows suitable for cattle breeding. They walked more than 600 km to the southern edge of the island and established a settlement. This is how Ari Thorgilsson Frode described the event:

“The country called Greenland was discovered and settled from Iceland. From there, Eirik the Red from Beidi Fjord headed to Greenland. He gave the country a name, calling it Greenland; he said that people would want to go there if the country had good name. They found traces of housing in the east and west of the country, as well as the remains of boats and stone tools. This is what was told to Thorkel, son of Gellir, in Greenland by a man who himself was on this journey with Eirik the Red.”

After the first winter, the settlers explored the western shores of the island, also about 600 km. In some places there were areas where it was possible to organize settlements. Eirik turned from an unfortunate outcast into the master of a vast country. One problem - nature was harsh. And another thing - there was no population. How to attract people here?

By that time, apparently, there were no territories left in Iceland that were more or less suitable for habitation. When, after serving his sentence, Eirik returned to his native island, he managed to persuade many people to go to Greenland, a green country. Moreover, it was located (in its part examined by Eirik) at the same latitudes as Iceland, even further south.

Eirik was not exaggerating too much when he called the land he discovered “green.” He could not know either the true size of the island - the largest in the world, or the fact that it was almost entirely under ice. The explorers did not go deep into the island, and its coast almost everywhere, especially in the southwest, was indeed green. Perhaps there were even small groves here and there in the valleys. Tree trunks washed ashore served as building and heating material.

In 985, Eirik led a whole flotilla to the new land - 25 ships with families, belongings, and livestock. On the way they were caught in a storm. Several Drakars sank, a few turned back, but most reached Greenland. In total, it is estimated that 400-500 people arrived. They settled on the southern edge of the great island in places chosen in advance by Eirik.

Soon life in the new place improved. The population of Greenland was growing. In the 13th century there were already about a hundred small villages and up to five thousand inhabitants. There was an established regular connection with the continent: from there, bread, iron products, and construction timber were delivered to the colonists. And on mainland Greenlanders sent products from hunting birds and sea animals: eider down, whalebone, walrus tusks, skins of sea animals.

However, in the 14th century, the situation on the island began to deteriorate more and more, settlements fell into disrepair, people were increasingly getting sick and dying. Two hundred years later, the Norman population of Greenland almost completely died out.

Many geographers believe that this is due to a period of cold weather, the so-called “Little Ice Age”. However, there is no reason for such global climate change. Was it there? In any case, the most significant thing is that the political situation in Northwestern Europe has changed.

Iceland lost its independence in 1281 and was annexed by Norway. Now the trade relations between the Greenlanders and Iceland were disrupted and ceased to be regular.

About another century later, Denmark established its power over Norway. Ships almost completely stopped sailing to Greenland. The settlers increasingly had to engage in armed clashes with the Eskimos, who were pressing them from the north, where they had previously been forced to retreat. Now all that was left was to dream about a calm and satisfying life. After all, agriculture, which already required a lot of work, fell into decay: in the north, the soils quickly lose fertility, and the vegetation cover is poorly regenerated.

The Danes sent only one ship a year to Greenland (all others were prohibited from having trade relations with northern islands). Deprived of adequate food, good wood and metal tools, and hunting tools, the Normans found themselves in a critical situation. Those of them who did not die and did not move to the mainland destroyed churches and mixed with the Eskimos.

It turns out that both the prosperity and death of Europeans in Greenland were determined not by geographical reasons, more or less stable, but by environmental and socio-political ones. Living in isolation on an island, where nature is harsh and scarce, is possible only by joining the primitive economic system, which is fully consistent with the local nature.

Mainly for the same reason, the first attempt by Europeans to establish colonies in the New World - in North America - failed. But this is another story and another great geographical discovery.

Greenland is the largest island in the world by area, located northeast of North America and washed by the waters of the Atlantic and Arctic Ocean. Translated “Greenland” means “ Green Island" There are two versions of the origin of the name of the island. According to one version, the island was named by the Viking discoverers because of the large amount of green grass that previously grew on the ice-free land; according to another, this name was given to the island deliberately in order to attract large number those wishing to move to new lands.

There are a large number of smaller islands and rocks located near Greenland. The largest island is Disko Island ( geographical coordinates: 69°47′46″ n. w. 53°05′54″ W d.), located in the Baffin Sea off the west coast of Greenland. There are a number of smaller islands off the east coast, these are, first of all, the islands of Shannon, Clavering, Jens Munch, Traill, Store Colleway, Hovgor and others.

Greenland and the surrounding islands and rocks are part of the Kingdom of Denmark and are its autonomous unit.

As a result of archaeological excavations, it was possible to establish that before the discovery of Greenland by the Vikings, starting around 2400 BC, peoples belonging to Paleo-Eskimo cultures lived on its territory. Gradually, these cultures fell into decline, and people left the island, which is explained by a sharp deterioration in the climate in the populated areas.

In 982, Erik Rowdy (Red), the leader of one of the Viking tribes who had previously settled the island of Iceland, was punished with a three-year exile for the murder of a neighbor and, together with his family, servants and cattle, sailed westward in search of an unknown land that was mentioned in sagas The unknown land was discovered quite quickly, but floating ice prevented them from going ashore, which forced the Vikings to go around the southern tip of the island and land in Julianehob (Qaqortoq). Further Viking exploration of the island revealed that it was uninhabited.

In 986, Raudi returned from exile to Iceland and gathered quite a lot of people who wanted to move to Iceland again. open lands, according to the sagas, their number exceeded 350 people. Upon arrival on the island, two large colonies, Western and Eastern, were founded, in which the number of inhabitants at their peak reached five thousand people.

Around the year 1000, Leif Erikson from Greenland, with 35 men under his command, reached the coast of the Lablador Peninsula and the island of Newfoundland, thereby discovering America long before Columbus.

In 1261, Greenland, which had previously been virtually independent, accepted the authority of the Norwegian crown. And after the union of Norway and Denmark, the island actually became part of the Danish Kingdom.

The worsening climate and the plague epidemic significantly devastated Greenland, which, after all the troubles and cataclysms, again found itself almost deserted and began to be populated by Inuit (Eskimos) who came from the north of Canada.

In 1500, Greenland was rediscovered by the Portuguese expedition of the Cortirial brothers.

Throughout the Middle Ages, Greenland was constantly the subject of territorial disputes between Norway and Denmark.

In 1940, after the occupation of Denmark by Germany, Greenland refused to recognize the Danish puppet government and began to move closer to the United States and Great Britain, giving them the opportunity to build military bases and airfields on its territory. During the Second World War, 4 German and 1 British submarines crashed or were sunk at Cape Farwell.

In 1968, a strategic bomber with a hydrogen bomb on board crashed near one of the American Air Force bases; the accident almost caused ecological disaster in the region.

Greenland's status as a colony of Denmark was abolished in 1953, at which time Greenland was recognized as an integral part of the Kingdom of Denmark. And in 2009, after a referendum held on the island, the Danish parliament expanded the autonomous powers of Greenland, which, according to many, was the first step towards the independence of the island.

The island of Greenland is quite large in area, so its geographical coordinates are usually shown in general, namely: 72°00´N, 40°00´W.

Cape Maurice Jesup is the northernmost point of Greenland (83°37′39″N 32°39′52″W), which was considered the northernmost landmass until 1921, when it was discovered alternately the islands of Kaffeklubben and ATOW1996, which took the palm. Cape Farwell (59°46′23″ N 43°55′21″ W), which is an above-water rock, is considered to be the southernmost point of Greenland, even despite the fact that it is located on Eggers Island. The westernmost point of the island is Cape Norostrunningen, and the easternmost point is Cape Alexandra (78°11′N 73°03′W), located in the west of the Hayes Peninsula.

The island's total land area is more than 2.1 million square kilometers. Coast along the entire length coastline very much indented by fjords, all kinds of bays and bays. In the southwest the island is washed by the waters of the Labrador Sea, in the west by the Davis Strait and the Baffin Sea (in the area of ​​Baffin Island), Disko Bay (in the area of ​​Disco Island), as well as Melville Bay, in the northwest (in the area of ​​Ellesmere Island ) - a series of Smith, Cane Basin, Robson straits, in the north - the Lincoln Sea and the Gulf of Vendel, in the northeast - the Greenland Sea, in the east - the Denmark Strait (separates Greenland and Iceland). The coast of the island is usually divided into sections, similar to Antarctica, which are called “lands”. Thus, on the eastern coast of the island there are the lands of King Frederick VI, King Christian IX, King Christian X and King Frederick VIII, on the northern - Peary Land and Knud Rasmussen Land, on the western - the Shore of Lauge Koch and the Shore of the Western Settlement.

The relief of the island of Greenland, if you exclude the ice sheet, is mostly flat, and closer to the center - even low-lying. In the east and south of the island there is the Watkins Ridge, in the east of which the most highest point Greenland - Mount Gunbjorn, reaching a height of about 3,700 meters above sea level.

The island of Greenland and a number of small adjacent islands lie entirely in the northern part of the Canadian Shield on a geological platform, which indicates the continental origin of the island, which was formed by separation from the continent of North America.

The geological structure of the island is mainly represented by gneisses, basalts, quartzites, marble and granites. Mineral resources on the island include deposits of cryolite, marble, graphite, brown coal, and some gas and oil.

Most of the island's surface is covered by an ice sheet that covers an area of ​​more than 1,800 square kilometers. The thickness of the ice sheet in some low-lying areas of the island is about 2300 meters. In the depressions in the center of the island, under a layer of ice, there are frozen lakes. It is estimated that the melting glaciers of Greenland would raise the level of the world's seas by about 7 meters.

Mysteries of history. Facts. Discoveries. People Zgurskaya Maria Pavlovna

Who discovered Greenland?

Who discovered Greenland?

At the turn of the 15th–16th centuries, the Portuguese sailors brothers Miguel and Gaspar Cortirial set out on three caravels in search of a northwestern route to Asia. One day they came across an island lying at the “intersection” of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. This is how Europeans discovered Greenland. second time. And in 1721, the colonization of this exotic piece of land began. The Scandinavians, although this time the Danes, were again reclaiming the lands that the Vikings had discovered long before them. Who owns the glory of the discoverer himself? big island in the world?

According to the sagas, it was the Norwegian Gunbjorn. Sometime between the 870s and 920s he sailed to Iceland, but a storm drove him west to the small islands off 65°30? With. w. 36° W d. Behind them there was high land covered with snow and ice, which the sailors could not approach due to heavy ice. Today, the highest point of the Arctic, which is located in Greenland, is named after the brave sailor Mount Gunbjorn.

Around 980, a group of Icelanders, sailing to the west, spent the winter on skerries, which they mistook for the islands discovered by Gunbjorn. Returning to their homeland, Icelanders also talked about mainland beyond the skerries. And in the summer of 982, the fiery hair of Eric Thorvaldson, who went down in history under the nickname Eric the Red, was already looming on the local shores.

Eric was born in Norway, but his father, Torvald, and his family were expelled from there for murder. So Eric ended up in Iceland, but from there he had to go home: this time he was expelled for two murders. According to sources, Eric’s anger was justified: one of the victims was his neighbor, who did not return the boat he borrowed. Eric committed his second crime out of revenge - he punished the Viking who killed his slaves. However, even the cruel laws of that time did not approve of lynching, and now the red-haired brawler had to spend three years in a foreign land. Eric did not lose heart: he decided to get to mysterious land, which in clear weather was visible from mountain peaks western Iceland. Eric decided to try his luck: he bought a ship, gathered a group of friends and rushed towards adventure. He took his family and servants with him. Eric even loaded his cattle onto the ship. The island, most of which is now covered with ice, oddly enough, seemed suitable for life to the Vikings. The thickness of the ice cover reaches three kilometers in some places, and therefore only the most unpretentious plants and animals are able to survive at the border of land and ice. There is practically no summer in these parts - it ends before it even begins, and summer days in Greenland are not much warmer than winter ones. Why did Eric and his companions like this island so much? Why did it receive such an absurd name - “Green Land”? The fact is that at the end of the 10th century, the climate of Greenland was much milder than it is today, and, having rounded the southern tip of the island, the sailors landed near Julianehob (Qaqortoq), where the grass was green near the fjords and the air was filled with the aromas of flowers. There is, however, another version: some researchers believe that the name “Greenland” was primarily an advertisement - Eric wanted to attract as many settlers as possible here. However, the name that Eric gave to these lands initially referred only to friendly corners southwest coast and spread to the entire island only in the 15th century.

During the three years that Eric had to spend in Greenland without going out - this was the period of his exile - the settlers cultivated enough land to feed themselves and raised livestock. They hunted walruses, harvested fat, walrus ivory and narwhal tusks.

One day, as the legend tells, Eric climbed one of the coastal peaks and saw in the west high mountains. Modern researchers suggest that it was Baffin Island: on a clear day it can be seen across Davis Strait. According to the Canadian writer F. Mowat, Eric was the first to cross the strait and swim to Cumberland. He explored the entire mountainous eastern coast of this peninsula and entered Cumberland Bay.

In the summer of 983, Eric passed from the Northern Arctic Circle to the north, discovered Disko Bay, Disko Island, the Nugssuaq, Svartenhoek peninsulas, and, possibly, reached Melville Bay, at 76° north latitude. He explored another 1,200 km of the western coast of Greenland. The Viking was delighted by the abundance of animals and birds that could be hunted: polar bears, arctic foxes, reindeer, whales, narwhals, walruses, eiders and gyrfalcons. But there were also different types of fish.

After two years of searching, Eric looked at several places - flat, but well protected from cold winds. In 985 he returned to Iceland, not to stay there forever, but to recruit future colonists. There were many people willing - about 700 people. They went to sea on 25 ships, but a storm began and 11 of them sank. Only 400 brave men reached Greenland. They based on south coast The islands are the so-called Eastern Settlement. Within ten years, another settlement appeared - Western. It was built by new colonists who arrived later.

Eric the Red

Of course, the settlers had a hard time: the winters were very harsh. Nevertheless, the Viking colony in Greenland flourished. As archaeologists say, the number of colonists grew steadily and eventually reached a peak of three thousand people.

Viking settlements stretched along the fjords. It was not so easy to build a house on the island - large trees did not grow here. We had to make do with driftwood or turf. Scientists estimate that the construction of one of the large buildings took about a square kilometer of turf - just how much work did the Vikings put in while ripping it off! There were also stone buildings. To keep the building warm, the walls were made very thick - sometimes more than two meters.

Since the summer was very short, grains grew poorly, but the traditional Viking diet included bread and porridge. Grain was also added to stews - fish and meat. The meat of domestic animals - goats, sheep and cows - was highly valued. Cattle were slaughtered extremely rarely, content with milk. The settlers caught fish with nets and hunted seals and deer.

In the 14th century, a cold snap began in Greenland. Glaciers were creeping into the lands of the Vikings, gradually depriving them of pastures. Trade with Scandinavia, which brought considerable income to the colonists, fell into decline - the plague raged in Norway and Iceland. We had to adapt to new conditions: scientists claim that the Vikings were saved by the sea, namely seafood. Their share in the diet was now more than 80%.

Around 1350, all the inhabitants of the Western settlement disappeared somewhere - about 1000 people. This became known because a priest from Eastern settlement When he came to the neighbors, he did not find anyone. Only wild livestock wandered between the empty houses. He did not see the dead either - as if the Vikings had suddenly disappeared. There is still no solution. If pirates had attacked the settlement, the bodies of the dead would have remained. The same thing would have happened if the plague had reached the colonists. People could not move somewhere: no one would leave their belongings and animals.

The eastern settlement survived until the beginning of the 16th century. But in 1540, Icelandic sailors landing on the shores of Greenland did not find a single colonist. They found only the body of a man in a cloak with a hood. Who was this man? And where did the rest go? Historians believe that people sailed back to Iceland - after all, the climate became much colder, and there were no more opportunities to engage in farming and cattle breeding. According to Eskimo legends, the inhabitants of the Eastern settlement were attacked by pirates. Archaeological excavations in Greenland this version is not confirmed, but it is curious why the Eskimos were so interested in the fate of the Vikings?

At first the island seemed uninhabited to the Vikings. But was it so? The fact is that the first to “master” Greenland were not the Vikings, but the Eskimos. Scientists argue that the history of ancient Greenland is a history of repeated migrations of the Paleo-Eskimos. They sailed here from the Arctic islands of North America. The Paleo-Eskimos adapted to an extremely unfavorable climate and survived at the very edge of the habitat suitable for human existence. But even very small climate changes could destroy an insufficiently adapted culture.

Scientists identify four ancient Paleo-Eskimo cultures in Greenland, whose representatives lived on the island long before the appearance of the Vikings. These are the Saqqaq culture, the Independence I culture, the Independence II culture and the early Dorset culture. The last one disappeared later than all others; it existed until about 200 AD.

But who did the Vikings find in Greenland, if the last Eskimo left this land seven hundred years before their arrival? Researchers have different opinions. Some believe that they are still representatives of the Dorset culture. This culture (beginning of the 1st millennium BC - beginning of the 1st millennium AD) was discovered in 1925 on Cape Dorset (Baffin Island). It was distributed in the far northeast of Canada, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and western and northeastern Greenland. The Dorset tribes were hunters. Their prey included seals, walruses and reindeer.

Perhaps the Scandinavian colonists who arrived with Eric the Red were not the only inhabitants of the island. A new migration of the Eskimos - representatives of the late Dorset culture - supposedly took place shortly before their appearance. But the Eskimos settled in the far northwest of the island, a very long distance from the Viking settlements. Indeed, during excavations of sites of the Dorset culture, no items of Scandinavian production were found. However, there is indirect evidence of contact, so-called "exotic elements" that are not typical for this culture: screw carvings on bone tools and carvings of people with beards.

Another culture whose representatives the Vikings definitely encountered is called Thule. It existed between the 900s and 1700s on both banks

Bering Strait, Arctic coast and Canadian islands. Some researchers believe that Dorset and Thule were neighbors in Greenland for some time. This was between the 800s and 1200s, after which Thule was replaced by Dorset. The Thule tribes adapted well to local conditions; they were fed by hunting animals, both sea and land. In the central part of the American Arctic, the Tuleans built rounded dwellings from whale bones and stone, and rode dog sleds. The same Thule representatives who lived in the Bering Strait region lived in houses made of driftwood. Archaeologists find sinkers, stone lamps, knives, figurines of people, animals and waterfowl there. The Tuleans were mostly sedentary. They saved up food supplies, and thanks to them they could survive the hungry winter months.

How did the Thule Eskimos get along with their Viking neighbors? There is no clear answer to this question. During excavations at Eskimo sites, archaeologists found many items of Norwegian work. But how did they get to the Thulians?

Due to the colder weather, the Eskimos migrated closer to the territories that belonged to the Vikings. A number of researchers believe that the Vikings not only met with the Eskimos, but even lived among them. But there are few supporters of this version. According to Eskimo legends, the Scandinavians were in conflict with the Tuleans. Sagas also tell about armed clashes with the Eskimos. It is possible that the Thulians interfered with the Vikings, displacing them from the hunting territories of the central part of the west coast.

Fragment of the Carta Marina map (XVI century). Thule is designated as Tile

Did these very different peoples trade with each other? Unknown. Things made by the Scandinavians could have reached the Thulians in another way: from the settlements left by the Vikings. Oddly enough, the colonists did not take advantage of the experience of their neighbors, whose clothing was more adapted to the conditions of the north, and did not even adopt individual elements of their costume. This surprises scientists, but the history of Greenland during the Viking times is generally full of mysteries, and who knows whether science will find the answer to them.