The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850 Read Online Free Page B

early 1900s.

    Sometime in the late tenth century, Eirik the Red and his father Thorvald
Asvaldsson left their home in southwestern Norway "because of some
killings." They sailed westward to Iceland but had to make do with farfrom-fertile land. Eirik was quarrelsome and endowed with a temper that
matched his red hair. He married a well-connected Icelandic woman,
there were more killings, and he was forced out to a farm on a windswept
island. Even there he quarreled with a man named Thorgest to whom he
had lent his ornamented high seat posts. The resulting bloodshed caused
Eirik to be banished for three years. He took his ship and sailed boldly
westward to explore some mysterious islands sighted by a drifting ship
captained by a relative about a half-century earlier.

    Armed with an invaluable body of sailing lore collected over generations by his kin, Eirik set off into unknown waters with a calm confidence that he would find new lands. Like other Norse skippers, he was an
expert latitude sailor who used the sun and North Star to stay on course.
He also carried a s6larsteinn, or "sun stone," a bearing dial or sun compass
in stone or wood that allowed a ship's captain with a knowledge of the
sun's positions to steer by a thin radial shadow cast on the disk when held
level in his hand. Eirik sailed westward, steering for some snowy peaks
that loomed over the horizon when the expedition was still not far from
Iceland. The sailors approached land, then coasted southward and westward until they reached a deeply indented coastline dissected by deep
fjords behind sheltering offshore islands. They had reached southwestern
Greenland.
    They had the land to themselves, a place where green summer pastures
and thick willow scrub offered pasture and fuel. The summers were brief
and fairly warm, with longer days than Iceland. The winters were long and
harsh, but the Norse were accustomed to climatic extremes. They found
much better grazing land than that at home, abundant fish and sea mammals, and edible birds aplenty. Eirik sailed back to Iceland with glowing
reports of a land so fertile he named it Greenland, "for he said that people
would be much more tempted to go there if it had an attractive name."3
    He must have been a persuasive leader, for twenty-five ships of potential colonists sailed back to Greenland with him. Fourteen reached what
was soon called the Eastern Settlement, in the sheltered waters of the
southwest in what are now the Julianehab and Narsaq districts. Eirik built
his chieftain's seat at Brattahlid ("Steep Slope") in the heart of the richest
farmland. At about the same time, another group of colonists pushed further north and founded the Western Settlement, centered around
Sandnes Farm (Kilaarsarfik), in the modern-day Godthab district at the
head of the sheltered Ameralik fjord. Life in Greenland was easier than on
the crowded, hardscrabble fields of Iceland, with, as yet, no competition
from indigenous Inuit people, plenty to eat, and harsh but usually endurable conditions at sea.
    The Norse soon explored the fjords and islands of the west coast. The
shoreline was relatively ice-free most summers, thanks to the north flowing West Greenland current, which hugs the west coast and flows
into Baffin Bay. The favorable current carried the colonists' ships into
the heart of a land of islands and fjords around Disko Bay they called
Nororseta, which teemed with cod, seals and walrus. Nororseta became
an important hunting ground, where the colonists obtained food for the
following winter and precious trade goods, especially narwhal and walrus tusks, which were much prized. For many years, the Greenland
churches' tithes to the diocesan authorities in Norway were partly paid
in walrus ivory.

    Greenlanders sailing to Nororseta must have quickly become aware of
lands to the west, if only because the prevailing currents in the northern
hunting grounds carried them that way. The Davis