The first settlement of Greenland was the work of an
Icelander, Eric the Red, who reached the island toward the end of the tenth
century. He called the country Greenland, not because it was green, but
because, as he said, "there is nothing like a good name to attract
settlers." Intercourse between Greenland and Iceland was often dangerous,
and at times was entirely interrupted by ice. Leif Ericsson, the son of Eric
the Red, established a new route of commerce and travel by sailing from
Greenland to Norway by way of the Hebrides. This was the first voyage made
directly across the Atlantic. Norway and Greenland continued to enjoy a
flourishing trade for several centuries. After the connection with Norway had
been severed, the Greenlanders joined the Eskimos and mingled with that
primitive people.
THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA
Two of the sagas give accounts of a voyage which Leif
Ericsson about 1000 A.D. made to regions lying southward from Greenland. In the
sagas they are called Helluland (stone-land), Markland (wood-land), and
Vinland. Just what part of the coast of North America these countries occupied
is an unsolved problem. Leif Ericsson and the Greenlanders who followed him
seem to have reached at least the shores of Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova
Scotia. They may have gone even farther southward, for the sagas describe
regions where the climate was mild enough for wild vines and wild wheat to
grow. The Northmen, however, did not follow up their explorations by lasting
settlements. Before long all memory of the far western lands faded from the
minds of men. The curtain fell on the New World, not again to rise until the
time of Columbus and Cabot.
