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.).
Norðrsetur
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]:
| “Gumnar fóru i Greipar norðr Grönlands var þar bygðar sporðr. virðar áttu viða hvar veiðiskapar at leita þar. Skeggi enn prúði skip sitt bjó, skútunni rendi norðr um sjó, höldum ekki hafit vannst, hvarf i burtu, en aldri fannst.”[270] | Men went north to Greipar, There was the end of Greenland’s habitations. Men might there far and wide Seek for hunting. Skegge the Stately fitted out his ship, With his vessel he sailed north in the sea, By the men the sea was not conquered, They were lost, and never found. |
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
“to pay the king fines for all manslaughter, whether of Norsemen or Greenlanders, and whether they were killed in the settlements or in Norðrsetur, and in all the district to the north under the star [i.e., the pole-star] the king should have his weregild” [“Grönl. hist. Mind.,” ii. p. 779].
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: