home · China · Who discovered Greenland. Citadel, old town and fortifications of Derbent Description of the island of Greenland during the Viking times

Who discovered Greenland. Citadel, old town and fortifications of Derbent Description of the island of Greenland during the Viking times

Opening of the sea route to the White Sea.

Discovery of Greenland and America.

Traveling to the White Sea was greatly facilitated by the fact that it was possible to stay along the coast all the time. However, storms often carried sailors to the open sea, and then they ended up on mysterious islands that cannot be accurately identified. From a conversation with people who visited the White Sea, I got the impression that the descriptions of the Icelandic sagas, mainly the saga of Orvar-Odda, come closest to Solovki. But this is contradicted by the fact that the islands to which the Normans land do not lie in the White Sea, but in the ocean, and the nearest camp from them is in Finnmark. From this it is clear that the Normans knew and visited, although perhaps against their will, driven by bad weather, the islands lying in the Arctic Ocean, Kolguev and, perhaps, Novaya Zemlya. If such and such an island was later attributed to the nature of the more southerly coast proper, then the error is quite understandable in the oral transmission of our sources.

Undoubtedly, the Norman trips to the northwest were much more dangerous, since in this direction there was no mainland coast along which it was possible to swim. We see how the Normans move west carefully, in separate stages, moving from island to island. Even before the settlement of Iceland, they established themselves in the Shetland, Orcadian and Ferey Islands. At one time it seemed that this desire to the West would be limited to Iceland and would not go further. But stormy winds knocked travelers off the beaten path here too. In 920, a certain Gunbiorn was carried by a storm to the west and saw islands unknown until then. To our surprise, to this day we have not been able to find these islands on the map. Therefore, Mogk thinks that these islands were finally destroyed by volcanic eruptions. In any case, word spread in Iceland about the newly discovered land in the west. Eirik the Red remembered her when he was expelled from Iceland for murder. He really managed to discover a new country. For three years he explored it and finally decided to settle in it. To this end, he returned to Iceland to recruit comrades with him. He called the country Greenland, I think, as opposed to Iceland. If the homeland that rejected him was known as the “land of ice”, then how promising the name sounded - the “green country!” This name suggested to him not only a well-known sense of revenge, but also a desire to lure as many comrades as possible with him. In addition, green pastures can really be seen in some places along the Greenland coast. This colonization of Greenland dates back to about the year 985 and was quite successful, so that, as far as we can now judge, the population of the Normans reached up to 5000 souls.

In 999, Leif, son of Eirik the Red, makes the first journey from Greenland to Norway. On the way back, he wanders the sea for a long time and, finally, sticks to an unknown shore. Here he is struck by three things: vines, wild-growing wheat and large maple trees. From all these rarities, he takes with him a model and sails to the northeast, to Greenland. Understandably, the news of the new discovery excited everyone. But some evil fate pursued further enterprises. Eirik the Red himself was going to go, but on the way to the ship he fell off his horse, broke his rib and injured his shoulder. In general, this trip was extremely unsuccessful: the travelers rushed across the sea for months and, having not reached their goal, they returned tired to Greenland. Among them was Leif's older brother Thorstein; he died shortly after this trip. But in 1002, two Icelandic ships arrive in Greenland. Thorfin, one of the visiting merchants, married Gudrida, Thorstein's widow. Probably only now the Greenlanders gave them the secret of their discovery. And then a whole expedition of many ships is equipped. On their way they discover three countries: the first because of the abundance of rocks they call Helluland, the second, where they were amazed by dense forests, Markland, and finally Vinland hin goda = the land of grapes. With a high probability, we can assume that Helluland is Labrador, Markland is Newfoundland, and Vinland is Nova Scotia (or the area near New York). An attempt by the Normans to settle in this last country was unsuccessful. They were stubbornly attacked by the natives, and soon began to quarrel among themselves. Torfin reached Greenland safely, but another Icelandic ship was lost in a storm. This trip lasted probably more than three years: on the way, Gudrida gives birth to a son who is already three years old when they return to their homeland. Up to 140 people participated in this expedition. But its outcome did not particularly encourage repetition. It was too risky to swim in open water. So out of 35 ships that sailed with Eirik the Red to Greenland, only 14 reached their new homeland. Such misfortunes sufficiently show us how dangerous such a voyage was in unknown waters, without a compass, without a shore.

In addition to the saga of Eirik the Red, from which we draw all the news about the discovery of the North American coast by the Normans, only fragmentary references to these lands have come down to us. There is a note that in 1121 Bishop Eric set off to look for Vinland, but whether he achieved his goal, whether he returned home from this trip, we still do not know. The latest indication of Norman relations with America dates back to 1347. Icelandic chronicles note that a Greenland ship on the way back from Markland was abandoned by a storm to Iceland. However, the Normans are unlikely to have founded any colony in these parts. Not only the complete silence of the Norman sources speaks against such an assumption. From the dead colonies in Greenland, ruins have remained, by which we can restore both the place of residence of the Normans who settled here, and the number of their yards. No such traces have been found in North America. True, mysterious inscriptions have been found on the rocks; at one time they followed the runic ones, but a more thorough study of them showed that these inscriptions owe their origin to the Indians. In vain, too, they turned to Mexican manuscripts, hoping to find in them news of the first discoverers of America, or even the influence of Christianity brought here by the Normans. All these attempts have proved futile, and we must content ourselves with the conclusion that the Normans only occasionally came to the American shores for the purpose of fishing or for other products of the country.

Despite the fragility of relations, new discoveries have left their traces in cartographic representations. Let's go back to the original meaning of Gandvik. The belief that the Arctic Ocean to the north of Europe is a large bay developed because the Normans, on their journeys from Norway, Finnmark or Biarmaland to the north, constantly came across land. Then the Greenlanders began to explore their country, its more northern parts and the impregnable eastern coast. Finally, they reached the island of Svalbardr, which Storm found it possible to identify with Svalbard. In this way, they began to think that only to the west is it possible to travel, otherwise there is land all around. After all, for a long time they thought that the Kara Sea was also inaccessible for navigation, and then again they believed that Asia was already bending a little further to the extreme north, until Nordenskiöld destroyed this legend. The question of the northeast passage (Nordostpassage) is actually only an account with the old misconception about Gandvik. Adam of Bremen did not know the way past the North Cape. Therefore, he has no idea about the northern coast of Norway, about Biarmaland and Gandvik. But he has the skeleton of a cartographic construction: Greenland is located against the Swedish (that is, Norwegian) or Riphean mountains. So the entrance to Gandvik was between Greenland and North Cape. Saxo places a large desert north of Gandvik, without naming it. Neither its location nor its name are known; it is completely removed from the human settlement, only wild extraordinary animals are there in abundance. Very few have visited these parts. We find more definite indications in the so-called Breve Chronicon, a 15th-century manuscript, although the original probably goes back to the 13th century. The author of the chronicle tells such a case that the ships heading from Iceland to Norway met a contrary wind and were carried to the sea located between Greenland and Biarmaland, and landed on the shore where people of incredible size live (that is, to Risaland) and to the land Amazons. From their edge, Granland is separated only by icy mountains. It is clear that since the author clearly imagined a map of the European north, he could not place the Amazons near the Scandinavian peninsula, as his predecessors, Tacitus, Adam of Bremen, and others, did. Therefore, he moved them north of Gandvik, where there were only giants, but , in general, they could still fit - monstra varia. Greenland, according to the author, lies against Biarmaland and is connected with him. So, all the polar lands, from Greenland to Norway, make up a continuous continental coast without interruption and form a semicircle, inside of which is Gandvik.

Later in the same chronicle we find the definition of the extreme west. This is still the same Greenland - Viridis terra, which, thus, has acquired monstrous proportions. It is located near the African islands, where the waters of the oceans flow. The Atlantic Ocean must somehow be fed by the waters of the oceans. But the idea of ​​the American lands was closely connected with this question. While the Norman considered America, the strait necessary for the confluence of the oceans could be placed either between Greenland and America or between America and Africa. With America out of sight, there is only one place left for this strait between Greenland and Africa. This could happen all the more easily because the Normans imagined America not as a large mainland, but as a series of large islands. Of these, the southernmost is Vinland, which has even been considered to be associated with Africa. This idea of ​​Vinland was extended to the rest of the "islands", and in this way the famous "African islands" were obtained. They appeared as a memory of American lands, about which the author is extremely curious for us! - does not mention at all. This means that the memory of their existence is still preserved, while the names have already been forgotten. But have they really been forgotten?

In the Orvar-Oddsaga interpolation, which, in any case, arose no later than the beginning of the 15th century, Odd's enmity with Ogmund is described. For a long time, Odd has to find his enemy. Finally, he learns that Ogmund has retired to the desert - i Hellulands ubygdum. There he stopped in the Skuggi fjord. The last name means actually - a shadow, darkness, but is also used in the sense of a devil or monster, ghosts, in general. According to this indication, Odd travels to the "Greenland Sea" and looks for his enemy in the south and west along the coast. In addition to various monsters, Odd does not see anyone. Then Odd sets sail again and only now reaches Helluland. The described route leaves no doubt that this country is located in America and corresponds to those lands that the Normans discovered in the 11th century.

Fischer's careful research revealed that Greenland was first mapped by the Danish scientists Claudius Clavus in the 15th century, but the American lands were ignored by them. So these Norman discoveries were never recorded by cartographers. However, some memories may have been passed down orally and then accidentally landed on the map. One name convinces me of this, not on maps of the 15th century. On one Catalan map, a longish rectangle is inscribed with the designation illa verde and next to it is a round island - illa de brazil. On the map of 1507 and others we find viridis insula. Obviously, illa verde and viridis insula are the same Greenland. But carta marina has instead of Greenland an island called Obrazill. Then this name under different variants, such as: Brazir or Brezir, is repeated on maps of the 15th, 16th and even 17th centuries. On the map of 1367 we find the following postscript: novus cotus de Brazir. In 1498, the Spanish ambassador to the English court reported that the inhabitants of the city of Bristol began to equip expeditions to the unknown island of Brazil. Finally, after Columbus, the discovery of that land followed, to which the name of Brazil has been timed up to the present day. Storm argued that the Spanish navigators under Brazil generally understood the area overgrown with rich forest. But then Brazil would correspond to the Norman Markland, and the mysterious island of Brazil would be a direct memory of the discoveries of the 11th century. If Markland got on the Spanish maps under the name illa de brazil, then there is nothing surprising in this. On the one hand, relations with Markland were not completely interrupted until the middle of the 16th century, on the other hand, news of even the most remote parts of the north undoubtedly reached the south, as Fischer pointed out in a number of examples.

While the memory of Helluland survived in some sagas, and Markland was even listed on Spanish maps, Vinland disappeared without a trace from subsequent literature. But this oblivion of Vinland we can explain to ourselves. Anyone who had to read ancient writings and chronicles was clearly struck by the strange spelling of Finland - Vinland. Even on the maps, we sometimes clearly distinguish Vinland where we expect Finland. Already Rudbeck in his Atlantis notes this strange confusion: vocabulum Finlandiae provinciae ad regnum nostrum pertinentis pro quo apud Snorronem et in historia Regum non semel occurit Vinlandiae nomen. With such a complete coincidence of names, the differentiation of both areas was maintained only for the time being. Since the idea of ​​American Vinland began to fade, the European (or even Scandinavian) Vinland = Finland completely obscured the memory of the first region. Let us not forget that Vinland lay much further than other American places known to the Normans; Let us remember that it was in Vinland that the Normans suffered from the attack of the Eskimos, and we will understand why communication with Vinland ceased before anything else.

Despite the fact that the Norman discoveries did not completely disappear without a trace, only the settlement of Greenland by the Normans gave lasting results in terms of familiarization with the globe. But the strange idea of ​​Gandvik at one time interfered with the correct outline of Greenland on the map. Fisher, in appendices V and VI to his work, reproduces such maps on which Greenland is drawn east of Iceland and north of the Scandinavian Peninsula. On other maps, Greenland is placed correctly - to the west of Iceland. But the first misconception, it seems to me, must have caused an exaggerated idea of ​​the size of Greenland. The consequence of such a mistake was also the circumstance that the navigators mistook for the Greenland coast different lands located in the direction to the north, but having nothing in common with Greenland. I have noted the following cases.

Strange name. This land is not at all green, as it is called. It is white, or rather, icy. The name Iceland would suit her well. But it stuck to an incomparably greener island. This is a geographical paradox. But, like any genuine paradox, it has a logical explanation.

North-Western Europe at the beginning of a new era was increasingly densely populated by enterprising strong and courageous people. They pastured livestock, farmed, hunted and fished. However, despite the relatively mild climate of Scandinavia, there were not very many lands suitable for agriculture. And the soil was rapidly depleted.

The increase in population density with the impossibility of more intensive agriculture and cattle breeding caused internal conflicts. More and more young strong people began to go to robbery sea fishing - to the Viking, as they called it.

At first, perhaps, they simply tried to find and populate new territories. But the path to the west and southwest across the sea led to the well-populated lands of Britain and Ireland. The same was on the western outskirts of Europe. In these parts, the Vikings made predatory raids and conquests.

The largest geographical discoveries fell to the share of those Scandinavians (Normans, Norwegians) who were looking not for wealth, but for a decent peaceful life.

The inhabitants of the British Isles suffered from Viking raids. For this reason, or simply from a desire to escape the worldly fuss, groups of Irish monks began to go to sea, settling on deserted islands.

According to the medieval Irish chronicler Dicuil, at the end of the 8th century, one such group spent the spring and summer on a large uninhabited island northwest of Ireland. It was Iceland. Some people returned to their homeland, but some remained.

In 867, one of the leaders of the Vikings, Naddod, returned with a retinue from Norway to his possessions in the Faroe Islands. The storm had driven his drakar far to the northwest. He saw a mountainous land with snow-capped mountains and named it Iceland. Perhaps he did not want her to attract people to her.

Soon another group of Vikings, led by Gardar, discovered this land, walked around it and made sure that it was an island, and that it was quite attractive. The Norwegian chronicler Ari Thorgilsson Frode left the following description: “In those days, Iceland was covered with forests from the mountains to the coast, and Christians lived there, whom the Norwegians called paparas. But later these people, not wanting to communicate with the pagans, left there, leaving behind Irish books, bells and staves; from this it appears that they were Irish."

The name Greenland would suit such an island. But for some reason, the Norwegians preferred to call it "ice land". According to one version, the choice of the name was influenced by the impression of the wintering that one of the princes spent on the island, the Viking Floki, who sailed from Norway. These settlers did not stock up enough fodder for livestock. The winter turned out to be long and snowy, the cattle died. People could not leave the land because the sea was covered with ice. With considerable hardships, they lasted until the summer and returned to their homeland.

Over time, not only economic, but also state life improved on the island. In 930, at a general meeting, the inhabitants decided to establish a supreme council - the Althing. It was the first parliament in the world. However, about a century earlier, the Novgorod Republic arose with its government elected by citizens. But it did not last long due to internal strife and was replaced by a monarchy,

Althing allowed the inhabitants of the island to restore order and coordinate their actions, to fight crime. This circumstance played a role in the discovery of a new land.

The owner of one of the estates, Eirik, nicknamed the Red, in a quarrel that turned into a fight, killed two people. He was sentenced to three years of exile. The circumstances of this case are unclear. Apparently, there were some contentious issues over land ownership or long-standing feuds; and there was not just a fight, but a whole massacre, in which representatives of the two clans participated. It is unlikely that the murder was vile and unreasonable, otherwise the punishment would not have been relatively mild: three years of exile. By the way, Eirik's father and his family were also expelled from Norway to Iceland for murder. It can be seen that the men in this family were generally distinguished by a sharp disposition.

So, in 981 or 982, Eirik and his people boarded dracars - sharp-nosed long boats - and left Iceland. They knew that in the east, in Norway, and in the south, in Ireland and Britain, there was no place. The cold ocean stretched to the north to unknown limits. In the west, as some sailors told, there is some unknown land. Perhaps Eirik himself had approached her before during his voyages.

This time they had to settle down on the inhospitable desert shores, behind which glaciers piled up. The sailors moved south along the coast, choosing a suitable harbor with green meadows suitable for cattle breeding. They traveled more than 600 km to the southern edge of the island and set up a settlement. Here is how Ari Thorgilsson Frode described this event:

“The country called Greenland was discovered and settled from Iceland. From there, Eirik the Red from Beidi Fjord went to Greenland. He gave the country a name, calling it Greenland; he said people would want to go there if the country had a good name. They found traces of habitation in the east and west of the country, as well as the remains of boats and stone tools. So told Thorkel, the son of Gellir, in Greenland, a man who himself was on this journey with Eirik the Red.

After the first wintering, the settlers explored the western shores of the island, also for about 600 km. In some places there were plots where it was possible to organize settlements. Eirik from an unfortunate outcast turned into the master of a vast country. One problem - nature was harsh. And another - there was no population. How to attract people here?

By that time, apparently, there were no territories left in Iceland that were more or less suitable for habitation. When, after serving his sentence, Eirik returned to his native island, he managed to persuade a lot of people to go to Greenland - a green country. Moreover, it was located (in its part surveyed by Eirik) at the same latitudes as Iceland, even further south.

Eirik did not exaggerate too much when he called the land he had discovered "green". He could not know either the true size of the island - the largest in the world, or the fact that it is almost entirely under the ice cover. The researchers did not go deep into the island, and its coast almost everywhere, especially in the southwest, was really green. Perhaps, in some places in the valleys there were even small groves. Tree trunks nailed to the shore served as building and heating material.

In 985, Eirik led a whole flotilla to the new land - 25 ships with families, belongings, and livestock. On the way they were caught by a storm. Several drakars sank, a few turned back, but most reached Greenland. In total, 400-500 people are expected to arrive. They settled on the southern outskirts of the great island in places preselected by Eirik.

Soon life in the new place improved. The population of Greenland grew. In the XIII century there were already about a hundred small villages and up to five thousand inhabitants. There was an established regular connection with the continent: from there bread, iron products, building timber were delivered to the colonists. And to the mainland, the Greenlanders sent the products of hunting for birds, sea animals: eiderdown, whalebone, walrus tusks, skins of marine animals.

However, in the XIV century, the situation on the island began to deteriorate more and more, the settlements fell into decay, people more and more often fell ill and died. Two hundred years later, the Norman population of Greenland almost completely died out.

Many geographers believe that the reason for this is the cooling zone, the so-called "Little Ice Age". However, there is no reason for such global climate change. Was it? In any case, the most significant difference is that the political situation in Northwestern Europe has changed.

Iceland lost its independence in 1281 and was annexed to Norway. Now the trade relations between the Greenlanders and Iceland have been disrupted, they have ceased to be regular.

About a century later, Denmark established its rule over Norway. Ships almost completely stopped going to Greenland. The settlers had to increasingly engage in armed skirmishes with the Eskimos, who pushed them from the north, where they had previously been forced to retreat. Now all that was left to dream of was a calm and satisfying life. After all, agriculture, which already required a lot of work, fell into decline: in the north, soils quickly lose their fertility, and vegetation cover is poorly renewed.

The Danes sent only one ship a year to Greenland (all others were forbidden to have trade links with the northern islands). Deprived of proper nutrition, good wood and metal tools, hunting tools, the Normans were in a critical situation. Those of them who did not die and did not move to the mainland destroyed churches and mixed with the Eskimos.

It turns out that both the prosperity and the death of Europeans in Greenland were determined not by geographical reasons, more or less stable, but by ecological and socio-political ones. You can live in isolation on an island where nature is harsh and scarce, only by joining the primitive economic system, which is quite consistent with the local nature.

Mainly for the same reason, the first attempt by Europeans to establish colonies in the New World, in North America, failed. But this is another story and another great geographical discovery.

Greenland is the largest island in the world, located northeast of North America and washed by the waters of the Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. Translated "Greenland" means "Green Island". There are two versions of the origin of the name of the island. According to one version, the island was named by the Vikings because of the large amount of green grass that previously grew on glacier-free land, according to another, this name was given to the island intentionally in order to attract a large number of people who want to move to new lands.

Near Greenland there are a large number of smaller islands and rocks. The largest is Disko Island (geographic coordinates: 69°47′46″ N 53°05′54″ W), located in the Baffin Sea off the western coast of Greenland. Off the east coast there are a number of smaller islands, these are, first of all, the islands of Shannon, Clavering, Jens-Munk, Treill, Store Colleway, Hovgor and others.

Greenland and the adjacent islands and rocks are part of the Kingdom of Denmark and is its autonomous unit.

As a result of archaeological excavations, it was possible to establish that before the discovery of Greenland by the Vikings, starting from about 2400 BC, peoples belonging to Paleo-Eskimo cultures lived on its territory. Gradually, these cultures fell into decay, and people left the island, which is explained by a sharp deterioration in the climate in the populated areas.

In 982, Eric Raudi (Redhead), the leader of one of the Viking tribes that had previously settled the island of Iceland, was punished for the murder of a neighbor by a three-year exile and, together with his family, servants and cattle, sailed westward in search of an unknown land, which was mentioned in sagas. The unknown land was quickly discovered, but floating ice prevented the Vikings from going ashore, which forced the Vikings to go around the southern tip of the island and land in Julianehob (Kakortok). Further Viking exploration of the island showed that it was uninhabited.

In 986, Raudi returned after his exile to Iceland and gathered a lot of people who wanted to move to the newly discovered lands, according to the sagas, their number exceeded 350 people. Upon arrival on the island, two large colonies, Western and Eastern, were founded, in which the number of inhabitants in their heyday reached five thousand people.

Around the year 1000, Leif Erickson from Greenland, with 35 men under command, reached the coast of the Labladore Peninsula and the island of Newfoundland, thereby discovering America long before Columbus.

In 1261, Greenland, which until then had been effectively independent, assumed the authority of the Norwegian crown. And after the union of Norway and Denmark, the island actually became part of the Danish Kingdom.

the worsening of the climate and the plague epidemic significantly devastated Greenland, which, after all the twists and turns and cataclysms, again turned out to be almost deserted and began to be settled by the Inuit (Eskimos), who came from the north of Canada.

In 1500, Greenland was rediscovered by the Portuguese expedition of the Kortireal brothers.

Throughout the Middle Ages, Greenland was constantly the subject of territorial disputes between Norway and Denmark.

In 1940, after the occupation of Denmark by Germany, Greenland refused to recognize the Danish puppet government and began to move closer to the United States and Great Britain, giving them the opportunity to build military bases and airfields on its territory. During the Second World War, 4 German and 1 British submarines crashed or were sunk off Cape Farvel.

In 1968, a strategic bomber with a hydrogen bomb on board crashed near one of the American Air Force bases, the accident almost caused an ecological catastrophe in the region.

Greenland's status as a Danish colony was abolished in 1953, at which time Greenland was recognized as an integral part of the Kingdom of Denmark. And in 2009, after a referendum held on the island, the Danish parliament expanded the autonomous powers of Greenland, which, according to many, was the first step towards the island's independence.

The island of Greenland is quite large in area, so it is customary to show its geographical coordinates in general, namely: 72°00´N, 40°00´W.

Cape Maurice Jesup is the northernmost point of Greenland (83°37′39″ N 32°39′52″ W), which until 1921 was considered the northernmost landmass, until it was discovered successively the islands of Kaffeklubben and ATOW1996, which took over the palm. Cape Farvelle (59°46′23″ N 43°55′21″ W), which is a surface rock, is considered to be the southernmost point of Greenland, even despite the fact that it is located on Eggers Island. The westernmost point of the island is considered to be Cape Norostrunningen, and the easternmost point is Cape Alexander (78°11′ N 73°03′ W), located in the west of the Heiss Peninsula.

The total land area of ​​the island is over 2.1 million square kilometers. The coast along the entire length of the coastline is very heavily indented by fjords, all kinds of bays and bays. In the southwest, the island is washed by the waters of the Labrador Sea, in the west - by the Davis Strait and the Baffin Sea (near Baffin Island), Disko Bay (near Disko Island), as well as Melville Bay, in the northwest (near Ellesmere Island ) - a series of straits Smith, Cane Besin, Robson, in the north - the Lincoln Sea and Wendel Bay, in the northeast - the Greenland Sea, in the east - the Denmark Strait (separates Greenland and Iceland). The coast of the island is usually divided into sections by analogy with Antarctica, which are called "lands". So, on the east coast of the island stretch the lands of King Frederick VI, King Christian IX, King Christian X and King Frederick VIII, on the north - the Land of Piri and the Land of Knud Rasmussen, on the west - the Lauge Koch Coast and the Coast of the Western Settlement.

The relief of the island of Greenland, if we exclude the ice sheet, is mostly flat, and closer to the center - even low. In the east and south of the island is the Watkins Range, in the east of which, almost on the coast of the Denmark Strait, is the highest point of Greenland - Mount Gunbjorn, reaching a height of about 3,700 meters above sea level.

Greenland and a number of small islands adjacent to it lie entirely in the northern part of the Canadian Shield on a geological platform, which indicates the mainland origin of the island, which was formed by separation from the continent of North America.

The geological structure of the island is represented mainly by gneisses, basalts, quartzites, marble and granites. Of the minerals on the island, deposits of cryolite, marble, graphite, brown coal were found, there is some gas and oil.

Most of the island's surface is covered by an ice sheet that covers an area of ​​more than 1,800 square kilometers. The thickness of the ice sheet in some low-lying areas of the island is about 2300 meters. Frozen lakes are located in the depressions in the center of the island, under a layer of ice. It is estimated that the melting glaciers of Greenland would raise the world's sea level by about 7 meters.

Early Paleo-Eskimo cultures

The History of Ancient Greenland - A History of Repeated Paleo-Eskimo Migrations from the Arctic Islands of North America. A common feature of all these cultures was the need to survive in the extremely unfavorable conditions of the most remote edge of the Arctic, on the very border of an area suitable for human existence. Even small fluctuations in climate have turned barely favorable conditions into incompatible with human life and led to the disappearance of maladjusted cultures and the devastation of entire regions through migration and extinction.

Archaeologists distinguish four Paleo-Eskimo cultures in Greenland that existed before the discovery of the island by the Vikings, but the dates of their existence are determined very approximately:

  • Saqqaq culture: 2500 BC e. - 800 BC e. in the south of Greenland;
  • Culture Independence I: 2400 BC e. - 1300 BC e. in the north of Greenland;
  • Independence II culture: 800 BC e. - 1 BC e. predominantly in northern Greenland;
  • Early Dorset culture, Dorset I: 700 BC e. - 200 n. e. in southern Greenland.

These cultures were not unique to Greenland. As a rule, they arose and developed in the territories of Arctic Canada and Alaska long before their penetration into Greenland, and could persist in other places in the Arctic after their disappearance from the island.

After the decline of culture, the island remained uninhabited for centuries. In the early 13th century, bearers of the Inuit Thule culture, the ancestors of the modern native inhabitants of Greenland, began to penetrate the north of the island.

Viking settlements

The last written record of the Greenlandic Vikings - a record of a wedding in the Hwalsi Church - dates back to 1408. The ruins of this church are one of the best preserved monuments of Viking culture.

There are many theories regarding the reasons for the disappearance of Norse settlements in Greenland. Jared Diamond, author of Collapse: Why Some Societies Survive While Others Die, lists five factors that may have contributed to the disappearance of the Greenlandic colony: environmental degradation, climate change, enmity with neighboring peoples, isolation from Europe, failure to adapt. A large number of scientific studies and publications are devoted to the study of these factors.

Environmental degradation

The vegetation of Greenland belongs to the tundra type and consists predominantly of sedge, cotton grass and lichens; trees are almost completely absent, with the exception of dwarf birch, willow and alder, which grow in some places. There is very little fertile land here, which, as a result of the lack of forests, suffers from erosion; in addition, the short and cold summers make farming almost impossible, so the Norwegian settlers were forced to mainly engage in cattle breeding. Overexploitation of pastures in an extremely sensitive tundra environment with unstable soils could increase erosion, lead to deterioration of pastures and a drop in their productivity.

Climate change

The results of the drilling of glacial ice allow us to learn about the climatic situation in Greenland over the centuries. They show that during the medieval climatic optimum there was indeed some softening of the local climate from 800 to 1200, but at the beginning of the 14th century a cooling began; The "Little Ice Age" reached its peak in Greenland around the 1420s. The lower layers of waste bins near the oldest Norwegian settlements contain significantly more sheep and goat bones than pigs and cattle; however, in the deposits of the middle of the XIV century. near the rich dwellings there are only bones of cattle and deer, and near the poor there are almost solid seal bones. The version about the decline of pastoralism as a result of a cold snap and a change in the diet of the Greenland Vikings is also confirmed by studies of skeletons from cemeteries near Norwegian settlements. Most of these skeletons bear traces of pronounced rachitic changes, are characterized by deformity of the spine and chest, and in women - of the pelvic bones.

Enmity with neighbors

At the time of the founding of the Norse settlements, Greenland was completely devoid of the native population, but the Vikings were subsequently forced to come into contact with the Inuit. The Inuit of the Thule culture began arriving in Greenland from Ellesmere Island in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Researchers know that the Vikings called the Inuit, like the natives of Vinland, Skrelings (Nor. skræling). The Icelandic Annals is one of the few sources that testifies to the existence of contacts between the Norwegians and the Inuit. They tell of an Inuit attack on the Norwegians, during which eighteen Norwegians were killed and two children were captured. There is archaeological evidence that the Inuit traded with the Norwegians, as many items of Norwegian work are found during excavations of Inuit sites; however, the Norwegians do not appear to have been very interested in the Inuit, at least finds of Inuit artifacts in Viking settlements are unknown. The Norwegians also did not adopt the technology of building kayaks and hunting techniques for ringed seals from the Inuit. In general, it is believed that the relationship of the Norwegians with the Inuit was quite hostile. It is known from archaeological evidence that by 1300 Inuit winter camps already existed along the banks of the fjords near the Western Settlement. Somewhere between 1325 and 1350. The Norwegians completely abandoned the Western Settlement and its environs, possibly due to unsuccessful opposition to the attacks of the Inuit.

Kirsten Siver, in her book Frozen Echo, tries to prove that the Greenlanders had much better health and ate better than was thought, and therefore denies the version of the Greenlandic colony dying out from starvation. More likely, she argues, that the colony perished as a result of an attack by Indians, pirates, or a European military expedition, about which history has not preserved records; it is also likely that the Greenlanders will move back to Iceland or to Vinland in search of a more favorable home.

Contacts with Europe

In calm winter weather, the ship made the 1,400-kilometer journey from Iceland to southern Greenland in two weeks. The Greenlanders had to maintain relations with Iceland and Norway in order to trade with them. The Greenlanders could not build ships themselves because they did not have timber, and depended on the supplies of Icelandic merchants and on expeditions for timber to Vinland. The sagas tell of Icelandic traders who sailed to trade in Greenland, but the trade was in the hands of the owners of large estates. It was they who traded with the arriving merchants and then resold the goods to small landowners. The main Greenlandic export was walrus tusks. In Europe, they were used in the decorative arts as a substitute for ivory, whose trade had declined during the Crusade era feud with the Islamic world. It is considered likely that as a result of the improvement of European relations with the world of Islam and with the beginning of the trans-Saharan caravan trade in ivory, the demand for walrus tusks fell significantly, and this could contribute to the loss of merchants' interest in Greenland, the reduction of contacts and the final decline of the Norwegian colony on the island.

However, the cultural influence of Christian Europe was felt quite well in Greenland. In 1921, the Danish historian Paul Norland dug up a Viking burial in a church cemetery near the Eastern Settlement. The bodies were dressed in European medieval clothing of the 15th century and showed no signs of rachitic changes and genetic degeneration. Most had a crucifix around their necks and hands drawn up in a prayerful gesture.

From the records of the papal archives, it is known that in 1345 the Greenlanders were exempted from paying church tithes due to the fact that the colony was seriously suffering from poverty.

The last ship to visit Greenland sometime in the 1510s was an Icelandic ship that was blown west by a storm. His team did not come into contact with any inhabitants of the island.

Around the same time, around 1501, a Portuguese expedition visited the Greenland region. The European rediscovery of Greenland is believed to have been made around 1500 by the Portuguese expedition of the Kortireal brothers. They are usually credited with the rediscovery of Greenland by Europeans.

Danish expeditions to Greenland in the 15th century

Since that time, Greenland has become a territory quite well known throughout the world. Various English expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage explored its shores to at least 75° north latitude.

strategic importance

Autonomous Greenland proclaimed itself the state of the Inuit people. Danish place names have been changed to local ones. The country was named Qalaallit Nunaat. The island's administrative center, Gotthob, became Nuuk, the capital of a near-sovereign country, and the Greenlandic flag was adopted in 1985. However, the movement for the independence of the island is still weak.

Thanks to the progress of the latest technologies, especially the development of aviation, Greenland has now become much more accessible to the outside world. In 1982, broadcasts of local television began.

In 2008, a referendum on self-government was held in Greenland, as a result of which, on May 20, 2009, the Danish Parliament passed a law on extended autonomy for Greenland. Extended autonomy for Greenland was proclaimed on June 21 of the same year. Both inside Greenland and outside it, there are people who see the expansion of autonomy as a step towards Greenland's independence from Denmark.

The discovery of North America by Europeans began in the 10th century - half a millennium before the first expedition of Christopher Columbus - the Normans (northern people). The movement of Norwegian colonists to the west, which led to the discovery of Greenland, began from Iceland. It is impossible, even approximately, to date the first voyage known to us to the west from Iceland, attributed to the Norwegian Gunbjorn Ulfson, dates back. Historians of the 19th-20th centuries date this voyage to a variety of dates, and none of them can be substantiated: some authors attribute it to the period of the first colonization of Iceland by the Norwegians, that is, to the seventies of the 9th century, others to the end of the 9th century, others to the first quarter of the 10th century. The earliest proposed date is 870, the latest is 920 (K. Gassert); F. Nansen carefully indicates the average date - about 900. So, between 870 and 920, the Norwegian Gunbjorn Ulfson, on his way to Iceland, was driven far to the west by a storm and discovered a number of small islands, which in the Landnamabok (Book of Landowners) are called Gunbjorn's Skerries. Behind them, mountainous land covered with snow and ice was visible, but Gunbjorn could not approach it because of the heavy ice. The first voyage of Europeans to the shores of northeastern America was made in 985 by the Norwegian Bjarni Herulfson. Bjarni declared that he also intended to go there; all the combatants supported him, although in Iceland their decision was considered unreasonable, since none of them had yet been to the Greenland Sea. They set sail and sailed west for three days until they lost sight of the mountains of Iceland. "Then the fair wind died down and the north wind rose on the sea and fog fell, so that they did not know where they were, and this went on for many days. Finally they saw the sun again and could determine 8 cardinal points." As soon as the weather cleared they went back to their former westerly course. A day later, Bjarni saw the land, but it was not Greenland. Coming closer, they saw that it was low and overgrown with forest and there were only small hills there. Bjarni ordered to change course from west to north. Two days later, the sailors saw the land again, but this land was also covered with forest, and in Greenland there were large glaciers, so they raised their sails and continued on their way. All commentators who recognize the authenticity of the story about Bjarni agree that in both cases he and his companions saw the American shores covered with forest. But what kind of American lands did they see? In this respect, after more than a century of dispute, opinions differ: the coast of the mainland of North America? Peninsula Nova Scotia? Isle of Newfoundland? Yes, this question can hardly be resolved on the basis of a short story alone, without using other materials than the physical map of North America and the map of its vegetation. And there are no other materials yet. In ancient times and in the Middle Ages, the coastal peoples of Western and Southern Europe firmly believed in the existence of islands in the "Western" (atlantic) ocean with wonderful nature and a mild climate; some of these "blissful" or "happy" islands allegedly served as a refuge for hermits, exiles, or entire peoples, oppressed by conquerors. Already Aristotle (4th century BC) reports islands in the ocean on the other side of the "Pillars of Hercules" (Strait of Gibraltar). Later authors say that some islands in the ocean, discovered by the ancient Phoenicians, became a refuge for the Carthaginians after the destruction of their hometown by the Romans. In the first century AD, Pliny spoke about the Atlantic islands, and somewhat later (late I or early II century) Plutarch. He places them around Britain, and moves some of the "sacred" islands much further west, five days' journey. It is likely that these messages were based on the actual discoveries by ancient navigators not only of the Canary Islands close to northwestern Africa, but also of the more distant Madeira, and maybe even the Azores, located about one and a half thousand kilometers west of the Iberian peninsulas. In the XVIII-XIX centuries, one can trace the revival of the legend (more precisely, legends, because there were several of them) about the "blissful" islands in the western ocean. As can be seen from the book of the Irish monk Dikuil, in the monasteries of his country they read and reread the works of ancient authors, looking for direct indications or hints of the existence of distant happy islands. The stories of the actual voyages of the Irish ascetics to the islands in the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean were mixed with the reports of ancient authors about the paradise islands in the central part of the Western Ocean. This is how the origin of the legend about the wanderings of the "saint" Brandan and about the island discovered by him can be explained. At the end of the 16th century, Brandan allegedly sailed westward from the coast of Ireland, along with a group of his followers and students, wandered in the ocean, found some wonderful remote island, lived there and returned to his homeland after a long absence. This legend, embellished and colored by folk fantasy, went around almost all Western European countries. Medieval cartographers showed the island of St. Brandana in the most deserted parts of the Western Ocean. It was applied first to the west of Ireland. Later, in the XIV-XV centuries, as lands really opened up in the temperate and subtropical strip of the ocean, which by their nature had nothing to do with the paradise islands, as they were described in the legend, the island of St. Brandana "slid" on the maps farther south. On the Venetian map of 1367, this island stands in the place of Madeira, and Martin Beheim on his globe (1492) shows it already to the west of the Cape Verde Islands, near the equator. In other words, the island of St. Brandana became a "wandering" island and eventually disappeared completely, without giving his name to any real land. Happier was the fate of another mysterious "wandering" island - Brazil. Born in the Middle Ages by no one’s imagination and approved by cartographers earlier southwest of Ireland, the island of Brasil moved south and west of European coasts until (at the beginning of the 16th century) it gave its name to the imaginary island of the New World, located near the equator, turned out to be the eastern part of the South American mainland. The name of this fantastic island was "christened" in the 16th century a huge Portuguese colony (Brazil). To the west of the Strait of Gibraltar, medieval fantasy (probably in the 18th-19th centuries) approved the "island of the Seven Cities". According to a Spanish-Portuguese legend, after the Moslems (Moors) defeated the Christians at the battle of Jerez and extended their power to the message of the Iberian Peninsula (early 18th century), one archbishop, together with six bishops, fled to a remote Atlantic island, where they founded seven Christian cities. On the maps, this fantastic island appears only at the beginning of the 15th century, sometimes next to another, even more mysterious island with an undeciphered name - Antilia. The discovery of new Atlantic lands in the XIV-XV centuries pushed these fantastic islands far to the west. Their fate was different. In the middle of the 16th century, the Spanish conquistadors searched in vain for the "Seven Cities" north of New Spain (Mexico), that is, in the center and west of that mainland, behind which the name of North America was established in the second half of the 16th century. The legendary name Antilia has been preserved to the present day for quite real islands (the Greater and Lesser Antilles). For the first time they are named so on the Cantino map of 1502. These mirages played a big role in the history of the Great Discoveries. Drawn on maps according to the instructions of medieval cosmographers, they seemed to H. Columbus when drawing up his project with reliable stages on the western sea route from the coast of Europe to the "Indies". And the search for the "Seven Cities" led, as we will see, to the discovery by the Spaniards in the middle of the 16th century of the interior regions of North America - the Mississippi and Colorado River basins.