re: #47 sattv4u2

I’ve always wondered why it was named “Greenland” in the 1st place!!

I figured some Norse explorer, never wanting to go back there, when he got home told everyone about “Greenland” so THEY would volunteer to go next time!!

Now Iceland,, THERES a permafrost name for ya !!!
//

Eric the Red chose the name, “Greenland,” to help recruit settlers according to touring exhibit on the Vikings I saw several years ago. It was developer-speak of the first order although at that time the climate was such that trees grew and crops and cattle prospered. The colony even grew large enough to have its own bishop, and people seemed to have visited back and forth with Iceland. Onset of Little Ice Age and bad relations with the natives caused most European Greenlanders to retreat to Iceland. When an expedition stopped by to check on the few die-hards later on, no one was left.

I, too, would be interested in knowing the extent of Greenland’s ice sheet at the time the settlement was thriving. I understand the recent retreat of the ice is exposing more and more Viking sites.