Grænlendingar / sources

This article covers the sources of the history of the Grænlendingar .

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The sources of the settlement of Greenland are sparse.

The main sources are the Íslendingabók by the scholar Ari Þorgilsson , the Landnámabók (the land grab book) by an unknown author, but probably with Aris' participation, the anonymous Grænlendinga saga (Tales of the Greenlanders) and the equally anonymous Eiríks saga rauða (saga of Erik the Red). But there is also news about the inhabitants of Greenland in other works: The Flóamanna Saga (Story of the People of Flói), the Einars þáttr Sokkasonar (the story of Einar Sokkason), the Króka-Refs Saga (The story of Fox the Sly) ( a rather novel-like tale from the 14th century), the Fóstbræðra Saga (The Story of the Sworn Brothers ), the story of Olav Tryggvason in Heimskringla , the Königsspiegel and Adam von Bremen .

Individual messages can also be found in the Icelandic annals, which are reproduced in translation below. Geographical notes about Greenland ( Gripla , Landabók and others) are not mentioned here. It should also be mentioned that there are three Eskimo stories about the Northmen that were passed on in the oral tradition. They were recorded in the 19th century and published by Hinrich Rink under the title "Eskimoiske Eventyr og Sagn" in Copenhagen from 1866 to 1871. Even if these stories are very legendary and fairytale-like, they are the only evidence of the memory of the Eskimos on this subject. The most important source from the 14th century is the description of Greenland by Ívarr Bárðarson , who stayed there for several years. The Skarðárannáll also enjoys a high reputation, although some dating errors can be found in later additions by a third party, especially with regard to Greenlandic information. There were evidently written sources. B. could not be read exactly whether it should be 1406, 1456 or 1460.

It is striking that there is not a single source that was written in Greenland itself. There is no set of laws in Greenland, no chronicles, no annals. This deficiency is particularly noticeable after 1300, when the heyday of saga literature declined and nothing new was produced, and the reports on the events before seem out of context.

The sources vary in value and credibility. If Adam praises the Danish King Sven Estridsson for his erudition and confesses that he has learned many important details for his book from him, it certainly cannot refer to the description of the Greenlanders, which he describes as "pale green as the sea", from which Greenland got its name. Something like that certainly didn't come from the king. In the Vita Anskarii of Rimbert to-find news that Pope Gregory Ansgar from Bremen also appointed legate for Greenland and Pope Nicholas I had him with the missionary Greenland mandated, is considered later fälschender slot. The news of Adam that Archbishop Adalbert consecrated the first Bishop Ísleifur Gissurarson for Iceland and also for Greenland is not doubted. Some messages do not have their own source value because they have been taken over from other sources. Other rather novel-like texts have no source value with regard to their plot, but their embedding in Greenlandic society can nevertheless correctly reproduce the conditions there as a background.

Ari Þorgilsson writes in his Íslendingabók that he got his information from his uncle, who had a good memory and who spoke to someone in Greenland who had sailed to Greenland himself with Erik the Red (Eiríkr rauði Þorvaldsson).

Archeology has now produced results that can be used to review individual reports.

Translations

In the following, texts are reproduced that are not yet available in German, as well as a piece from Gripla in the translation by Rudolf Simek.

Printed edition Annales Islandici - Annálar 1400-1800. (6 volumes) Reykjavík 1922-1958 and 2 register volumes (2001, 2002). Texts relating to Greenland up to the beginning of the 17th century translated verbatim, including the editors' notes.

As a rule, nothing can be said about the source value of the annals. Rather, this question must be decided separately from entry to entry, which cannot be done here. Historians only agree on the uselessness of Íslenzk annálar bread . It is mentioned here anyway, as there are now and then popular science books that base their theories on this source (e.g. Paul Herrmann).

Annales Roseniani: 986: Byggving Gręnlandz . (Settlement of Greenland)
Lögmanns annáll: 986: Byggingh Grénlandz.
Gottskálds annálr: 986: bygging Grænlands
Oddverja annáll: 986: Þa for Eirekur towards raudi til Grænlandz and bygdi Eirekz fiord.

Annalium in Islandis farrago = Íslenzk annálarbrot 1106-1636.

• 1342: The inhabitants of Greenland abandoned true faith and Christian doctrine of their own accord and rejected all honorable customs and virtues and turned to the customs of the peoples of America. Quite a few believed that Greenland was much closer to the western continent. As a result, Christians avoid sailing to Greenland. In the northeast of Iceland and also of Greenland, a country is believed to be Jötnaland (Land of Giants), called Tröllbotnaland by others. For this nation many once struggled to investigate and speculate about it, among them Gormur, the ancient Danish king, who ended the venture with his loyal followers and officials unhappy, due to rainy and bad weather and many other obstacles. Later, Harald, nicknamed Hardråde, went on a trip to the same area, but he got into dangerous wanderings into great darkness and finally into some kind of unknown charybdis or gullet, and barely got away with his life and never saw Jotnaland .

Nýi Annáll

• 1406: That year went to Greenland: Þorsteinn Helmingsson, Snorri Torfason and Þorgrímur Sölvason in the same ship; they left Norway and wanted to go to Iceland. They stayed there 4 winters.
• 1410: Wedding of Gísli Andrésson and Guðrún Styrsdóttir. At that time, Snorri Torfason was alive, her husband. He had been in Greenland for 4 years. That year Þorsteinn Helmingsson, Þorgrímur Sölvason and Snorri Torfason and others drove away from their shipmates from Greenland to Norway.

Skarðsárannáll

• 1406: In 1406 Andrés was ordained Bishop of Greenland by Archbishop Áskel . He was the last bishop sent there from Norway. After that it was never determined again whether the ship he was on came to Greenland or perished at sea and whether Bishop Henrik of Greenland, his predecessor, lived or died; but this one was sent, who was to be Electus if he was alive, bishop if he was dead, the aforementioned Henrik, his predecessor. Claus Christofferson
• Anno 1461: Bishop Andreas (who writes of himself to be bishop in Garðar in Greenland), authorized representative in Skálholt, has 12 priests here in Iceland pass a judgment against the priest Jón Jónsson in Hruni, who is illegal and against the instruction and the ban of the archbishop as an official in Skálholt. Therefore he loses the benefit and the office and all his property to the church and to the bishop until he has paid everything. In the same year Andreas, the bishop of Garðar, gave the Junker Þorleifur Björnsson the benefit of Hruni and all the fortune that the aforementioned pastor Jón had owned.
• Anno 1530: There was someone in Denmark who claimed he was a bishop in Greenland; his name was Mr. Vincentius; he writes himself bishop over Greenland. ...
• Anno 1534: Bishop Ögmundur sailed out for wood and other business. On the way in, a storm drove him westward from Iceland into the sea near Greenland and along the land northward. He and some other men said it was Herjólfsnes in Greenland. It was late in the day and they were so close that they saw people at the lambs' pens and lambs. There they got good wind and good weather and the morning after the milking season they dropped anchor in Patreksfjörður.
• Anno 1569: (Inserted chapter about the family of Einar and Grundar-Helga): ... 1385 Bjarni (Einarssons) second trip abroad. He got to Greenland with 3 other ships. With him was his wife Solveig. In 1387 Björn came from Greenland with 4 ships.
• Anno 1577: ... Martin Forbysser undertook a dangerous journey to Greenland and west to America: He found a large sum of gold there.
• Anno 1586: ... Magnús Henisson was looking for Greenland. He came to Hafnir here in the south and found no one.
• Anno 1605: 3 ships of the King of Denmark came to Copenhagen after they found Greenland, one on June 28th, the other on August 7th. They had five men with them and some Greenlandic goods.
• Anno 1606 back: King Christian IV had three ships search for Greenland for the first time, and they found the country.
• Anno 1613: Spanish whalers were moored on 18 ships around Iceland, and there were skirmishes here and there. One in the Westfjords got lost, sailed into the western sea, got caught in the ice, got stuck there for nine days, and they came to Greenland with great difficulty (as some believe). The natives shot three of them with their bows and bone arrows, but the Spaniards saw no one, turned back from the country and said it was lucky. As they sailed away from land, they saw a large crowd ashore.
• Anno 1619: ... Fredrick Friis was sent to be bailiff of Iceland. ... There are 16 letters from the kings that came with Fredrik: ... 7) Item that in the following year men from Iceland should go on a kingship to look for Greenland, which should then be sent, and that these men from this onwards Time should be taken care of. ...
• Anno 1635: A ship from Hofsós sailed on September 12th, came back to Siglufjörður and got lost twice near Greenland. They sailed from here again on October 24th, came there and were shipwrecked. Five men drowned.

Seiluannáll

• 1652: Description of the voyage by David Danell, a Dutch captain of Inuit appearance, trade, clothing and other matters.
• It must be seen as astonishing that everything in Greenland has gotten so bad and vice versa, and that the entire lineage of the former Greenlanders, who descended from the Northmen when the country was colonized by the Icelanders, died. Homesteads and other buildings have also crumbled, so that you can't see anything where there used to be well-known courtyards, a bishopric and two monasteries, including bishops, law speakers and district heads and other institutions of jurisdiction and government, as here. There was constant shipping here and there, as well as on the ships that the Greenlanders had built themselves. His name was Ásmundur kastendrazi, who sailed here on the same ship tied with wires and with hardened keels underneath. The Chronica Groenlandica and other informative annals testify that there were 12 bishops in Greenland in Garðar. 1. Eirikur, consecrated 1122 (... see elsewhere) and 12. Andrés, consecrated 1406 It is not known whether he ever came to Greenland, but after that he was the last bishop to be sent there by the Norwegian archbishop, and it is known that he came here to Iceland and was an official in the Skálholt Church for 1 year and called himself Gardar Bishop of Greenland. There were two monasteries. One was called “Alba”, and the first church was built there, the Þjoðhilda church and a market town near the monastery. Insightful and reliable annals report that when Bishop Ögmundur Pálsson went out to get wood for the church, bad weather drove him under Greenland and he came to Herjólfsnes on Greenland in the evening. There he saw people, sheep in sheep pens, as the Icelanders do, etc. See above. Greenland's northernmost cemetery is in Herjólfsnes. Björn Einarsson Jórsalafari and his wife were also driven away on their last pilgrimage to Greenland and were shipwrecked. The Greenlanders gave Björn the Eiríksfjarðarsýsla. An old priest ruled in Garðar, who performed all the functions of bishop. It is surprising that the Greenlandic family is said to have perished so quickly, and everything was changed for the worse, especially that the language should have been completely lost and corrupted, as no more than 146 years have passed since Bishop Ögmundur found a settlement there which used to be the most populous. Because it was written that Leifur the Happy had Christianized the whole country. 50 churches in one winter. But their clothing is reported in the saga of Þormóðr Kolbrúnarskáld - but only about seven men. But about their appearance, demeanor, way of life, knowledge and magic is reported in the saga of Þorfinn Karlsefni, and there they are called “Skrælingr”. And you can see that the Greenlanders feared these men most, that they had come there and had wronged the peasantry and enslaved some, but whether they killed the whole Greenlandic race is not known unless one would Do research in Eiríksfjörður and other areas previously mentioned where there is most hope of human habitation. Either people and houses should be found, or ruins and walls that the Greenlanders had and that they inhabited. Perhaps one would find some who kept the language, if some had the courage and strength to look for it, even if these people have settled in remote places and remote headlands. But they deviated from their religion. Most of all one will fear their magic that one finds there. As the speculum regale attests, the weather conditions on Greenland are better than here, so that all forest animals are kept, and this is especially true of the weather conditions in the nearby northern desert and unpopulated Greenland or the glaciers that stretch north of Greenland to the sea end and to the ice deserts of Helluland and also in the area of ​​the Riesenland.

Vallholtsannáll

• 1661: King Friedrich enfeoffed Jónas Trelund with Hrisey for four accommodations for whaling and with the right to buy food from the residents if necessary. They built themselves nice shelters, and there were more than 30 wintered there, but in the spring some went to Greenland to whale….

Mælifellsannáll

• 1718: A protection ship that had followed merchant ships here (to Iceland) drifted away from Greenland, crashed into pieces and sank near southern Þorlákshafnarskeið. There were 160 men on it, 18 were killed.

Fitjannáll

• 1453: It is said that this Björn and Ólöf, daughter of Loptur the Rich, son of Gutormr, his wife, often traveled to many countries. And so it happened once that they went on a boat trip to Greenland and were shipwrecked because the ship got lost. All but these two drowned. There came a giant and a giantess. She (Olöf) tied three measures of linen around her (the giantess) head, and he (Björn) tied 2 measures of cloth around his (the giant's) head. They (giant and giantess) had large cribs on their shoulders, and they put them each in a crib, and carried them until they came to the do of Gardar, where the bishopric of Greenland was. And they were there over winter, and the following spring they came to Iceland.
• 1530: A serious epidemic raged in the northern lands that year and no trip has been made to Greenland after that time. So far there had been a total of 10 bishops.
• 1605: Christian IV had three ships searched for Greenland, and they found it. Nobody understood the language of these people. It wears sealskin clothes, lives from fishing and hunting, has no houses but holes in the ground. It has bows and arrows made of bone. These Greenlanders shot three Danes with their arrows, and when they heard gunshots they fled. The Danes took 5 or 6 men who were on boats and took them and their sealskin boats and other things they got and found there, both a piece of a unicorn horn and a lot of other things. When the Danes took their goods to the country to be shown, some of the people came with bearskin , foxskin and the like, and they exchanged silently. The Danes left a young man behind because they had been ordered in Denmark to leave him in Greenland. He had disobeyed his parents and was punished like this. The parents sued him with the authorities, asking that he be taken away so that they would never see him again, or otherwise. One of them (the Greenlanders) who were brought to Denmark died instantly. Because he couldn't stand the cooked food. The others ate raw food initially until they got used to human food.
• 1606: Editors' footnote: There were three trips to Greenland at that time. The first 1605 with three ships, the second 1606 with five ships and the third 1607 with two ships. They were supposed to go to the east coast of Greenland to look for norrænen settlements, but turned around because of the ice. Icelanders were there as interpreters on this trip. About these Greenland voyages 1605-1607 see Greenland's historiske Mindesmerker III pp. 670–699.

Vatnsfjarðarannáll

• 1406: Andrés is ordained Bishop of Greenland, the last from Norway.
• 1534: Bishop Ögmundur sailed to Norway for wood for the church and was thrown back to Greenland.
• 1577: The Englishman Marteinn Forbysser makes a dangerous journey to Greenland and West America. There he found a lot of gold.
• 1586: Magnús Hemingsson seeks Greenland.
• 1605: Danes go to Greenland. 3 royal ships came from Greenland and have 5 Greenlanders with them.
• 1606: Christian IV sends ships to Greenland for the second time. There are 4 ships coming and they had 4 Greenlanders with them and some goods.
• 1607: King Christian IV sent two ships to Greenland for the third time, and some Norwegians and Icelanders go with them. The ships did not come to Greenland because of ice and turned back.
• 1621: Danish castaways from Greenland stayed in Iceland in winter.

Gripla

Bavaria is with Germany, with Germany is Holsten, Denmark, through which the sea flows into the Baltic Sea. Sweden is east of Denmark, Norway north of it, Finnmarken north of Norway. Then it recedes to the northeast and east until it reaches Bjarmaland, which Garðarríki has to pay tribute to. From Bjarmaland to the north there are wastelands to where it is called Greenland. But the Greenlanders do not believe this and think that there are other signs, both of the driftwood, which shows signs of human processing, and of the reindeer, which has an ear tag or a band in their antlers, as well as of the sheep that roam there, but now in Norway, some of which are marks from Trondheim, others from Bergen, many of which can be found there, are deceptive. But there are bays there, and the land turns to the southwest with glaciers and fjords. Outside the glaciers are islands. They couldn't explore one glacier at all, it takes half a month to drive around another, and 3 weeks for a third one. The next settlement is there. There it is called Hvítserr. The country turns to the north, but if you don't want to miss the settlement, steer to the southwest. Garðar is the name of the bishopric in the Eiriksfjord. There is a church dedicated to St. Nicholas. In Greenland there are 12 churches in the east settlement and four in the west settlement. ... [bordering on Greenland] Furðurland is the name of a country. There is severe frost there, so as far as we know it is not habitable. South of this is Helluland, which is called Eskimoland. Then it is not far from the good Vinland, which some people believe reaches across from Africa. Ginnungagap lies between Vinland and Greenland, there goes the sea, which is called Mare Oceanus and goes around the whole earth.

Editor's Notes

1. ↑ Both in German in Iceland's settlement and oldest history .
2. ↑ Everything in German in Greenlander and Faroese stories.
3. ↑ Printed in sources of the 9th and 11th centuries on the history of the Hamburg Church and the Empire . Lat. and German. Darmstadt 1978.
4. ↑ Adam III, 54
5. ↑ Adam IV, 37
6. ↑ Printed in sources of the 9th and 11th centuries on the history of the Hamburg Church and the Empire . Lat. and German. Darmstadt 1978.
7. ↑ Vita Anskarii 13
8. ↑ Vita Anskarii 23
9. ↑ Íslendingabók chap. 6th
10. ↑ Addition by Bishop Jón Arason
11. ↑ This name should indicate that this information from the Greenland Chronicle (1608) was taken over by Claus Christoffersen Lyskander, the Danish historian († 1624), and it seems that he knew something from the Icelandic annals; at least he had a source or a letter concerning this Bishop Andrés, although it is possible that the year is wrong, e.g. B. instead of 1456 or 1460.
12. ↑ This is mentioned in the Grönlandannáll by Björn in Skarðá without specifying the year, and later more precisely in the Seiluannáll (by Halldór Þorbergsson) with the year 1652, but after that, as was calculated, it was 1506 when Ögmundur priest was in Breiðabólsstaður. At that time he got wood for the church there. It is wrong here that Bishop Ögmundur traveled in 1534 because he went in late autumn 1533 (certainly in November) and came back after 1534. It is not unbelievable that on this voyage he got under Greenland like in 1522.
13. ↑ This is a Faroese name, Magnús Hænisson (Mogens Heinesen) was beheaded on January 18, 1589 in Copenhagen for having hijacked an English ship and for several crimes. It must have been in 1581 and not 1586 that he came here to Iceland in search of Greenland.
14. ↑ Ásmundur kastendrazi came to Breiðafjord in Iceland in 1189, then returned in 1190, but was lost with all the men.
15. ↑ Eirikur Gnúpsson, called "Upsi" from the Icelandic family. It must have been consecrated before 1122 because it was already consecrated as a bishop when he set out in 1121 to look for Vinland.
16. ↑ There are all sorts of rumors about this Bishop Andrés, and it is likely that he was confused with the Greenland Bishop Andrés, who was in Iceland from 1460-1462, who incidentally also appears in this Annáll.
17. ↑ That must have been 1506 when Bishop Ögmundur was a priest in Breiðabólstað.
18. ↑ The King's Mirror
19. ↑ This text is entered in a manuscript for the year 1534.
20. ↑ He was killed immediately by the Greenlanders in revenge for their compatriots who had been kidnapped.

Notes from Wikipedia

1. ↑ by Bishop Gísli Oddson in Skálholt . (17th century). Is not used by historians as unusable.
2. ↑ written by Halldór Þorbergsson (* around 1623 † 1711) as a continuation of Skarðsárannáll. This ends in 1640. Seiluannáll begins in 1641. He got his information about Greenland from Captain David Danell. He had fled to Greenland from an epidemic in Iceland in 1652, but found no Scandinavian there, only a native and destroyed houses.
3. ↑ († 1661) His report on his Greenland trips in 1652, 1653 and 1654 are printed in "Grönlands historiske Mindesmærker Bd. III pp. 713-725
4. ↑ By Hrólfr Sigurðsson (* ca 1612 † 1704)
5. ↑ Written by the provost Ari Guðmundsson (* October 8, 1632 † July 25, 1707) and the pastor Magnús Arason in Mælifell (* around 1667 † 1738). His son Ólafur Dahl was a missionary in Greenland.
6. ↑ Written by Oddr Eiríksson in Fitja (* 1640 † 1718 or 1719).
7. ^ Written by Provost Jón Arason (born October 19, 1606 in Reykhólar † August 16, 1673 in Vatnsfjörður).
8. ↑ It is a medieval compendium that has not survived. But there are excerpts from it in the Gronlandia by Arngrímur Jónsson (* 1568 † 1648) and the Grænlands annáll by Björn Jónsson from Skarðsá, written shortly after 1640, handed down. Gripla relied on other compendia, very often on Isidore of Seville .
9. ↑ after Simek, Old Norse Cosmography p. 507