The Greenland Vikings’ Collapse The origin of the Greenland Vikings began as a violent one. In the 960s, Thorvald Asvaldsson in Norway murders a man, which results in his exile. Thorvald, with his young son Eric, move to Iceland. Like his father, Erik, known as Erik the Red, murders two men in the 980s, which results in his banishment. Eric with a group of Viking settlers then came to Greenland to take over the best areas for farming there. After finding a hospitable place to live, Erik then named the island “Greenland” with the hopes of attracting more people to live there. When they settled on the island, they began implementing the same farming techniques that they used in Iceland. Early in settlement livestock that were used …show more content…
The first to occur is a drastic change in climate in the 1300's, with temperatures so low that the icebergs that formed made it undesirable to travel to Greenland by sea. The second event was the Black Plague pandemic that erupted in the mid-1300's (Diamond, 267). This caused the population to be cut in half, which even further lowered the number of ships going to and from Norway. The third event were the Christian Crusades in Europe in the 1400's that allowed elephant ivory to come into Europe, which took priority over the walrus ivory that the Greenlanders had to offer (Brown …show more content…
The Inuit were referred to as "Skraelings" by the Vikings, which roughly translate to “wretches” (Diamond, 261). This term was also referred to the Dorset and Indian natives that the Vikings came in contact with as well. Because of the Vikings poor judgment, they lost all trading and learning opportunities that they could have gained from the Inuit. Whale hunting was a valuable talent that the Inuit had because of the whale’s many benefits. The whale blubber could be used as fuel and lighting, and the meat provided large amounts of food for them to eat (Diamond, 258). They had developed a special way of hunting ringed seals which were abundant in that area. In Jared Diamond’s Collapse, he describes the process