The Norse Settlers and the Viking Period in Greenland
This final Inuit immigration took place at around the same time as the arrival in Greenland of the Norse settlers and Erik the Red, which was in 982 AD. This is described in detail in the Icelandic sagas.
The Norse population disappeared from Greenland in around 1500 AD for reasons that have never been fully explained – although countless well-founded theories about their disappearance still flourish today. Many of the Norse settlers’ ruins are still visible on plains and mountainsides in South Greenland and at Nuuk.
They are therefore popular destinations that attract tourists wishing to gain an insight into an exciting culture from the Viking period.
The Encounter with Danes, Norwegians and Whalers
Following the disappearance of the Norse population, expeditions from England and Norway came to Greenland throughout the 16th and 17th centuries and from the 17th and 18th centuries it was primarily the European whalers who came into contact with the Inuits. This resulted in extensive trade, and the Inuits were particularly taken with the Europeans’ small glass beads, which today are used in the national costume. The missionary Hans Egede from the joint kingdom of Denmark-Norway arrived in what is today known as Nuuk in 1721 in his search for the Norse settlers. He never found them, but instead converted the Inuits to the Christian faith. The Inuits today are Lutheran evangelists.
Tools from the past until the present day
The hardy Inuit cultures have survived in Greenland by inventing and developing essential tools and implements that have been adapted and refined over generations, and which are in fact still in use today.
This applies to, for example, the qajaq – the Greenlandic sea kayak – which is perhaps the best symbol of an Arctic culture that has lived on, by and from the sea and its resources.
The ulo, which is a special, curved knife used by the women to cut up the prey the men brought home from the seal hunt, is also worthy of mention.
From dogsled to snowmobile
Like the qajaq and the ulo, the dogsled is also a tool from the past, although it is probably the traditional appliance that is most used in today’s modern society.
Indeed, Greenland has become a modern society, where snowmobiles have in some cases replaced the sleds and where mobile phones and the Internet have become common means of communication for young and old alike.
However, some things never disappear from even the most modern cultures, and the traditional myths and legends still hold a key place in the Greenlandic consciousness.
Migration to Greenland
4,500 years ago waves of immigration populated Greenland from North America and contributes to the colorful culture and history.
Cultures at the mercy of mother nature
People have lived in Greenland for more than 4500 years although there have been long periods when the country has been completely uninhabited because conditions made it impossible.
This could have been due to a lack of animals to hunt or in the event of a change of climate that made conditions too harsh for survival.
Excavations from throughout Greenland and finds of ruins, tools, bones and clothing bear witness to highly developed cultures that immigrated in several separate waves.
First wave of immigration: Independence I
The first people in Greenland came from Northern Canada around 2500 BC. The Independence I culture spread along the northern coastline of Greenland to the southern parts of the present day National Park in Northeast Greenland.
These early hunters were dependent on relatively stationary animal populations and primarily lived of musk oxen and ringed seals. The latest finds from Independence I has been dated approx. 1730 BC.
Second wave of immigration: The Saqqaq culture
The second immigration from Canada to Greenland took place in around 2400 BC and lasted until 8-400 BC. The Saqqaq people settled from the southern part of Melville Bay, round Cape Farewell and up the southeast coast to what is today Ittoqqortoormiit.
At the small settlement of Saqqaq in Disko Bay the first tools from this culture were found, and subsequently gave the name to the culture. The people of the Saqqaq culture are the ones who has lived in Greenland for the longest unbroken period.
This was mainly due to the fact that these hunters were able to hunt and use a wide variety of animals, such as whales, seals, fish, birds and land mammals.
New DNA research has proven that the Saqqaq people originated from the Aleutian Islands and were not genetically related to the later Inuit.
Third wave of immigration: Independence II and the dorset culture third
The next two immigrations were by the Independence II culture along Greenlands northern coastline and into Northeast Greenland from approx. 800 BC to 0 AD and a new culture, the Dorset, which came across the ice near present day Qaanaaq, and moved then southwards along Greenland’s west coast and probably on to the southern part of the east coast.
The Dorset people brought with them a women’s knife, the ulo, which is still in use today in Greenland. Large knives for cutting snow indicate that this was the first culture to have learnt the art of building an igloo.
The culture, named after Cape Dorset in Canada, lived primarily on the tundra and hunted land mammals such as reindeer and musk oxen.
Forth wave of immigration: Dorset 2, norse settlers and the thule people
Around the end of the first millennium no less than three different cultures arrived in a fourth wave of immigration to Greenland. These immigrations happened after a seemingly uninhabited period of 800-900 years.
The Dorset 2 people arrived in the 8th-9th centuries AD. This group settled primarily around Qaanaaq, in North and Northeast Greenland.
Nearly the same time the first eastern immigrants arrived, when settlers from Iceland and Norway took land in South and Southwest Greenland. This immigration can be dated rather precisely to 982 AD thanks to the Icelandic Chronicles, when Erik the Red set foot in South Greenland.
The last historical evidence of the Norse settlers, who were primarily farmers, was a report of a wedding held in Hvalsey Church in 1408. Archeological findings indicate, that the norse culture in Greenland disappeared around 1450 AD.
The Thule culture presumably moved into Greenland around 1200 AD. This was the first people to settle all around Greenland both on the East- and the West coast.
Greenlanders today are direct descendants of the Thule people, who primarily were a maritime culture, highly specialized in the hunting for sea mammals. The last known immigration from Canada took place in around 1860.
Many places in Greenland traces of the last immigrant cultures, in particular the Thule and Norse, can be seen today, and local museums and the National Museum in Nuuk exhibits collections of finds from these cultures.
