“All the great franklins of Greenland had large ships and vessels built to send to the ‘Norðrsetur’ for seal-hunting, with all kinds of sealing gear (‘veiðiskap’) and cut-up wood (‘telgðum viðum’); and sometimes they themselves accompanied the expeditions—as is related at length in the tales, both in the Skáld-Helga saga and in that of Thordis; there most of what they took was seal-oil, for all seal-hunting was better there than at home in the settlements; melted seal-fat was poured into sacks of hide [literally boats of hide], and hung up against the wind on boards, till it thickened, then it was prepared as it should be. The Norðrsetu-men had their booths or houses (‘skála’) both in Greipar and in Króksfjarðarheiðr [Kroksfjords-heath]. Driftwood is found there, but no growing trees. This northern end of Greenland is most liable to take up all the wood and other drift that comes from the bays of Markland....”

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

“The Greenlanders are constantly obliged to make voyages to the uninhabited regions in the northern land’s end or point, both for the sake of wood [i.e., driftwood] and sealing; it is called Greipar and Króksfjarðarheiðr; it is a great and long sea voyage thither;[271] as the Skáld-Helga saga clearly bears witness, where it is said of it:

“‘Garpar kvomu i Greypar norðr. The men came to Greipar in the north, Grönlands er þar bryggju sporðr.’[272] There is the bridge-spur (end) of Greenland.

“Sometimes this sealing season (‘vertið’) of theirs in Greipar or Króksfjardarheidr is called Norðrseta.”

Greipar and Króksfjardarheidr. Their situation

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 Grœnlands”) 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 an old chorography, copied by Björn Jónsson under the name of “Gronlandiæ vetus chorographia”[275] (in his “Grönlands Annaler”), there is mention of the Western Settlement and of the districts to the north of it. After naming the fjords in the Eastern Settlement it proceeds: “Then it is six days’ rowing, six men in a six-oared boat, to the Western Settlement (then the fjords are enumerated),[276] then from this Western Settlement to Lysefjord it is six days’ rowing, thence six days’ rowing to Karlsbuða [Karl’s booths], then three days’ rowing to Biarneyiar [Bear-islands or island], twelve days’ rowing around ... ey,[277] Eisunes, Ædanes in the north. Thus it is reckoned that there are 190 dwellings [estates] in the Eastern Settlement, and 90 in the Western.” This description is obscure on many points. From other ancient authorities it appears that Lysefjord was the southernmost fjord in the Western Settlement [now Fiskerfjord, cf. G. Storm, 1887, p. 35; F. Jónsson, 1899, p. 315], but how in that case there could be six days’ rowing from this Western Settlement to Lysefjord seems incomprehensible. It might be supposed that it is the distance from the southern extremity of the Western Settlement that is intended, and thus the passage has been translated in “Grönl. hist. Mind.,” iii. p. 229; but then it is strange that in the original MS. the fjords of the settlement should have been enumerated before the distance to the first fjord was given. If this, however, be correct, it would then have been twelve days’ rowing from the northernmost fjord in the Eastern Settlement to Lysefjord in the Western. This might perhaps agree with Ivar Bárdsson’s description of Greenland, where it is stated that “from the Eastern Settlement to the Western Settlement is twelve sea-leagues, and all uninhabited.” These twelve sea-leagues may be the above-mentioned twelve days’ rowing, repeated in this form. It was a good two hundred nautical miles (forty ancient sea-leagues) from the northernmost fjord of the Eastern Settlement to the interior of Lysefjord. With twelve days’ rowing, this would be at the rate of eighteen miles a day; but if we allow for their keeping the winding course inside the islands, it will be considerably longer. If we put a day’s rowing from Lysefjord northward at, say, twenty nautical miles, then “Karlsbuðir” would lie in about 65°, and “Biarneyiar” in about 66°; but there is then a difficulty about this island, together with Eisunes and Ædanes, which it is said to have taken twelve days to row round. On the other hand, it is a good two hundred miles round Disco Island, so that this might correspond to twelve days’ rowing at eighteen miles a day. And if this island is intended, then either the number of days’ rowing northward along the coast must be increased, or the starting-point was not the Lysefjord (Fiskerfjord) that lay on the extreme south of the Western Settlement. But the description is altogether too uncertain to admit of any definite conclusion. It is not mentioned whether the northern localities, Karlsbuðir and farther north, were included in Nordrsetur, but it seems probable that they were.

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

Himinrað and Hunenrioth