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 “Miðjǫkull” (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 “Miðjǫkull” (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 “Miðjǫkull” (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 Jǫkull” (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 “Miðjǫkull” 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.