The lands of silence

by Sir Clements R. Markham

The ship of Bjarni was driven out to sea in a gale, and all perished except one boat’s crew which is said to have reached Dublin. When the ship began to sink it was found that the boat would only hold half the crew. So they cast lots, and it fell to the lot of Bjarni to go in the boat. When the lucky ones were all in the boat, an Icelandic youth, who was left in the ship, cried out “Dost thou intend, Bjarni, to forsake me?” “It must be even so,” answered Bjarni. “Not such was the promise thou gavest my father,” replied the youth. “So be it, it shall not rest thus,” answered Bjarni. “Do thou come hither and I will go to the ship, for I can see thou art eager for thy life.” So he went on board again and the youth got into the boat.

Karlsefni and Gudrid, with their little son, arrived safely in Greenland, and remained at Brattahlid during the following winter, with Erik and his son Leif. Then they sailed to Iceland and lived to a good old age at Reynistadr in the north, a little south of Skaga-fjord. Their son Snorri succeeded them, and, as has been already said, was the ancestor of many great people in Iceland and Denmark[15].

In the fulness of time old Erik the Red died at Brattahlid, and was succeeded by his son Leif. He died in 1021 A.D. Then Thorgils, Leif’s son by Thorgunna of the Hebrides, took his place as owner of Brattahlid and chief of the Greenland settlers. Later, in the same century, we hear of Skald Helga being Lagmand of Greenland. The colony throve and was prosperous. Settlements, called the West Bygd, were formed to the northward as far as the island of Disco. Several churches were built of stone at the settlements on the deep fjords of the East Bygd. There was an Augustinian monastery of St Olaus at the head of Ketil-fjord, and churches of St Nicholas and of Hoalsey in Hoalseyfjord. Ruins of the latter are still standing at a place now called Kakortak, near Julianshaab. The walls are of large and partly-hewn stones, with four rectangular window openings and two doorways. The chief entrance was at the west end, with a large window above it. There are small niches in the interior walls. The church is 51 feet long by 25, the walls 4 feet thick, and their height 22 feet[16]. Opposite to Brattahlid, up Einarsfjord, was the cathedral church of Gardar, the see of a bishopric. The first bishop of Greenland, named Adalbert, was consecrated in 1055 A.D.

Ruins in Kingoa-dal, S. Greenland.

The 11th century was a period of activity for the Greenland colony. There was communication between Iceland and Norway and the colony, and we are told that Thorgrim Troble, the head man in Einarsfjord, went to Norway and even to England, bringing back beautiful clothes. In the next century, 1121, Bishop Erik is said to have made a voyage to Vinland, and in 1124 Bishop Arnold was consecrated by the Archbishop of Lund, and arrived at Gardar. The Greenland settlers had cattle, horses, and sheep, which were all stalled during the winter. The churches and the foundations of the houses were of stone, but timber was in great demand forhouses and outhouses. There must have been voyages to cut wood in Markland and on the Wonder Strands, to supplement the supply of drift wood[17]. We have few notices of these voyages, however. The ancient annals of Greenland are scanty. But we may be quite sure that, with stalwart arm and poetic brain, these Norsemen did what they had to do with all their might. Our chief concern is with the Arctic discoveries away to the north of the West Bygd. The most northern station for a long time was in Disco Bay, at a place called Greipar. The name for the most northern district was Nordsetur. The fisheries were carried on with great activity. It is certain that, later, there was a station at a place now called Kingiktorsuak in 72° 55′ N., for the following runic inscription was found there in 1834:—

ERLING SIGVASSON AND BJARNE TORTARSON AND EINDRID ODSSON ON THE SEVENTH DAY BEFORE THE DAY OF VICTORY[18] ERECTED THESE STONES MCXXXV.

Thence these gallant explorers, or others, pushed still further north through the ice floes, and formed a station which was probably in what is now called Wolstenholme Sound, a little north of Cape York. It was called Kroksfjordar Heidi or “The heights of the winding fjord.”

Thirty years after the bold adventurers Erling, Bjarni, and Eindrid had set up their stones in 72° 55′ N., an Arctic expedition started from Kroksfjord, of which an account is given by a priest in Greenland named Hallder, in a letter to his friend Arnold, who had also been in Greenland but was then, in 1266, court chaplain to Magnus Lagaboeter, King of Norway. The notice of the letter in the Hauk book is so important with reference to the Arctic discoveries of the Norsemen, that we must consider it verbatim.

“This account was written by Priest Hallder from Greenland to the Priest Arnold who was then King Magnus Lagaboeter’s chaplain. He was in the ship that brought Bishop Olaf to Greenland[19], and they suffered shipwreck off Iceland, and found in the sea some planks which had been hewn with small adzes, and among them there was one in which tools still remained. This summer came people who had travelled further north than any one until that time of whom accounts had been reported. They found no signs but of Skrællings who had once resided at the Kroksfjord, and the people thought it might be the shortest way. Therefore the priests sent a ship north of the farthest inhabitable district that had yet been reached. They sailed away from Kroksfjord, and they were out of sight of land. Then there came a south wind with thick weather, and they let the ship go before the wind. The storm ceased and it again became light and they saw many islands, and different kinds of game, both seals and whales, and great numbers of bears. They came right into the bay, and the whole coast came in sight, as well as the south coast with glaciers, and south of them there were also glaciers as far as they could see. There were signs that Skrællingers had, in bygone times, lived in these places; but they could not land because of the bears. They sailed back for three days and found relics of Skrællingers. Then they came to some islands south of Snaefell. They sailed thence south to Kroksfjord, a long day’s rowing. On Jacob’s mass day[20] it froze at night, but the sun shone both day and night, and was not higher at noon than in the south, so that if a man lay across a six-oared boat, stretched out under the gunwale, the shadow from the side nearest the sun fell on his face, but at midnight the sun was as high as it is at home in the settlement when it is in the N.W. They then sailed home to Gardar.”