Norse expansion: Iceland and Greenland
Expansión vikinga: Islandia y Groenlandia
- Date
- c. 985 · confidence medium
- Place
- Brattahlíð, Greenland (Erik the Red's settlement)
- Credited to
- Ingólfr Arnarson (Iceland), Erik the Red (Greenland)
- People
- 👤 Erik el Rojo950–1003
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The Norse colonised Iceland around 870 and Greenland around 985, navigating the North Atlantic without a compass thanks to their knowledge of winds, birds and currents. The Greenland colonies lasted until the 15th century.
Iceland was uninhabited except for possible Irish monks; Greenland had been inhabited by Palaeo-Eskimo cultures (Dorset) and later by the Thule Inuit, with whom the Norse had contact.
What it led to
- Norse arrival in Vinland (North America)
- Icelandic sagas as historical record
- Study of the Medieval Warm Period and the abandonment of Greenland
Built on
- Viking longship with clinker hull and square sailc. 800-1000
- Longship and Viking navigation
- Demographic pressure in Norway
Made possible
- Viking sun compass and sunstonec. 1000-1200 (muy aproximado)
- Knarr (Norse merchant ship)
- Icelandic Althing