That Eskimo were living on the south coast of Greenland when the Icelanders arrived there may also possibly be concluded from the mention, in the list of fjords of the Eastern Settlement in Björn Jónsson’s “Vetus chorographia,” of an “Ütibliks fjord” [Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 228; F. Jónsson, 1899, p. 319], which does not sound Norwegian and may recall the Eskimo “Itiblik,” a tongue of land. As Finnur Jónsson [1899, p. 276] points out, the name of the fjord in Arngrim Jónsson’s copy of the same list is “Makleiksfjörðr,” and both names may be misreadings of a man’s name ending in “-leikr,” from which the fjord was called (in the same way as Eiriks-fjörðr, etc.); but as “Ütiblik” has such a pronounced Eskimo sound, it appears to me more probable that “Makleik-” may have arisen through a misreading of this name, which was incomprehensible to Arngrim Jónsson and may have been indistinctly written, rather than that both names should be corruptions, of what? In that case it would afford strong evidence, not only that there were Eskimo in the Eastern Settlement when the Icelanders established themselves there, but also that they had intercourse with them.
The “Historia Norwegiæ” (thirteenth century) shows that a hundred years later the Skrælings of Greenland were known in Norway, and perhaps it is because they there seemed stranger that the Norwegian author mentions them. He says [Storm, 1880, pp. 76, 205]:
“On the other side of the Greenlanders towards the north [i.e., on the northern west coast of Greenland] there have been found by hunters certain small people whom they call Skrælings; when these are struck while alive by weapons, their wounds turn white without blood, but when they are dead the blood scarcely stops running. But they have a complete lack of the metal iron; they use the tusks of marine animals [‘dentibus cetimes,’ here walrus and narwhale tusks] for missiles and sharp stones for knives.”
The curiously correct mention of the Skrælings’ weapons must be derived from a well-informed source, and the statement established the fact that the Norsemen met with the Eskimo of Greenland at any rate in the thirteenth century, while at the same time it may imply that at that time the Skrælings were not generally seen in the settlements of Greenland. The statement as to their wounds, although connected with myth, may further point to there having been conflicts between them and the Norse hunters, who in Viking fashion dealt with them with a heavy hand; but at the same time it discloses the view of the Skrælings as troll-like beings (see [p. 17]).
A valuable piece of evidence of the Norsemen having early had intercourse with the Skrælings in Greenland is a little carved walrus, of walrus-ivory, which was found during excavations on the site of a house in Bergen, and which appears to be of Eskimo workmanship.[61] Unfortunately the age of the find has not been determined, nor has it been recorded at what depth it lay; but as it was amongst the deepest finds “right down in the very foundations,” and so far as can be made out from the description much deeper than “a burnt layer, which lay under the remains of the fire of 1413,” this walrus may be of the twelfth, or at the latest of the thirteenth, century. It might, no doubt, have been accidentally found by Greenlanders in a grave or dwelling-site of Skrælings, and afterwards accidentally found on the site of this house in Bergen; but this is assuming a good many accidents, and it is most natural to suppose that the Greenlanders obtained it from the Skrælings themselves, and that it is thus an evidence of intercourse with the latter at that time.
Carved walrus of Eskimo work,
of the twelfth century (?);
found on the site of
a house in Bergen
(after Koren-Wiberg, 1908)
Silence about Skrælings in Icelandic literature
Allusions to Skrælings in Icelandic literature
It is striking that the Skrælings are scarcely ever mentioned in the descriptions of the Norsemen in Greenland in the Icelandic saga literature, and that it is only in one or two places that Greenland Skrælings are mentioned in passing in Icelandic narratives; but at the same time there are detailed descriptions of both peaceful and warlike encounters with the Skrælings in Wineland, and also in Markland (see vol. i. pp. 327, ff.). This is like what we found in Are Frode. The explanation must be that, while the saga-teller could bring out the distant Skrælings of Wineland in large bodies and as dangerous opponents, quite worthy of mention even for nobles, the harmless and timorous Skrælings of Greenland were too well known to be used as interesting material; they were met with in small, scattered bands, and could be maltreated without any particular danger. They belonged to the commonplace, and commonplace was what a saga-writer had to avoid above all; it is for the same reason that we scarcely hear anything about the Greenlanders’ and other Norsemen’s whaling and sealing and their expeditions for this purpose (e.g., to Nordrsetur); only here and there a few words are let fall about these things, which to us would be of so much greater value than all the tales of fighting and slaughter. But as regards the Skrælings of Greenland there was the additional circumstance that they were heathens; consequently intercourse with them was forbidden by the laws of the Church, and it was therefore best to say nothing about it. Besides, they were always regarded in Iceland as fairies or trolls, and, as we have said, their name was translated by “pygmæi,” and it has been the same with them as with huldre-folk and goblins, who as a rule are not mentioned in the sagas either in Iceland or Norway, though of course they were believed in, and there can have been no lack of “authentic” stories about them. In several passages of Icelandic literature the Skrælings are alluded to as trolls; to kill them was perhaps meritorious, but it was nothing to boast about. In the Floamanna-saga it is related that Thorgils Orrabeinsfostre, on his wonderful voyage along the east coast of Greenland, one morning saw a large sea-monster stranded in a creek, and two troll-hags (in skin-kirtles) were tying up big bundles of it; he rushed up, and as one of them was lifting her bundle he cut off her hand so that her burden fell, and she ran away. They may be regarded as Eskimo. It is true that this saga is so full of marvels and inventions (cf. vol. i. p. 281) that we cannot attribute much historical value to it, but it shows nevertheless the way in which they were looked upon. In another passage of this description Thorgils saw two “women,” which must mean the same. It is stated that “they vanished in an instant” (“þær hurfu skjótt”), just like the underground beings. In the description of the voyage of Björn Einarsson Jorsalafarer (given in Björn Jónsson’s Annals of Greenland) it is related that when in 1385 the same Björn (together with three other vessels) on his way to Iceland was driven out of his course to Greenland, and had to stay there till 1387, he rescued on a skerry two “trolls,” a young brother and sister, who stayed with him the whole time [Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 438]. These, then, were Skrælings in the Eastern Settlement; but the designation troll is here used as a matter of course, although nothing troll-like is related of them.
It may further be mentioned that in legendary tales and in many of the fanciful sagas we hear of trolls in Greenland, who may originally have been derived from the Skrælings, but who have acquired more of the troll- or giant-nature of fairy-tale. In the tale of the shipwreck of the Icelandic chief Björn Thorleifsson and his wife on the coast of Greenland,[62] the two were saved by a troll man and a hag who each took one of them in panniers on their shoulders and carried them to the homestead enclosure at Gardar. In the “Þáttr af Jökli Búasyni” Jökul is wrecked in the fjord “Öllum Lengri” on the east coast of Greenland, which was peopled by trolls and giants, and where a friendly troll woman helps him to slay King Skrámr, etc. [Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 521]. It will be seen that here there is nothing left of the Skrælings’ nature, but the usual Norse ideas of trolls and giants predominate.