DECLINE OF GREENLAND SETTLEMENTS 



direction: that the Norsemen in Greenland became more and 

 more absorbed by the Eskimo. 



Of course there may have been occasional hostile en- 

 counters between the Eskimo and Norsemen in Greenland, 

 especially as the latter, as pointed out in the last chapter, 

 must frequently have acted with a heavy hand when they 

 had the power. But that the Eskimo should have carried 

 on a regular war of extermination, which resulted in the 

 complete destruction first of the Western and then of the 

 Eastern Settlement, as has been generally assumed until 

 quite recently — this is incredible to anyone who knows the 

 Eskimo and considers what their conditions of life were. 

 Where should they have developed this warlike propensity 

 which was afterwards foreign to them, and where should they 

 have had training in the art of war? This idea of the 

 destruction of the settlements by hostilities is the result 

 mainly of three statements about Greenland, of which one is 

 very improbable and on many points impossible, another 

 deals possibly with an actual attack, and the third is 

 demonstrably false., We must here examine these notices a 

 little more closely. 



In 1 341 Bishop Hakon of Bergen sent a priest, Ivar 

 Bardsson, to Greenland. He was for a number of years 

 steward of the bishop's residence at Gardar, and is said also 

 to have visited the Western Settlement. We do not know 

 for certain how long he was in Greenland, but in 1364 he 

 again appears in Norway [cf. G. Storm, 1887, p. 74]. There 

 exists in Danish a description of the fjords, more especially 

 of the Eastern Settlement, which, according to his own words, 

 must to a great extent be derived from oral communications 

 of this Ivar (see below). These must originally have been 

 taken down by another Norwegian, in Norwegian, and were 

 thence translated into Danish [cf. F. Jonsson, 1899, p. 279]. 

 There is thus a double possibility that the third-hand version 

 we possess may contain many errors and misconceptions, 

 of which, in fact, it bears evident marks. After speaking of 



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