694 W. Thalbitzer 



hostilities broke out and probably at different settlements there existed a 

 kind of comradeship between single individuals of the two races. 



The Icelanders came over to Greenland as farmers with their sheep, oxen, 

 goats, dogs, and horses^) and in the Greenland fjords took up the same mode 

 of living as in their native country, but were naturally obliged to accommodate 

 themselves to the special, natural conditions of the country^). We both read 

 in their sagas and see from their refuse-heaps that — in contrast to what their 

 hfe on Iceland led them to do — they also besides their breeding of cattle car- 

 ried on extensive seal-fisheries (seal, porpoise, walrus) partly in the fjords near 

 the settlements partly far up in the north on the coast north of 66° N. lat. in 

 summer. In Björn Jonsson's copy of Hauksbok (ca. 1320) we read^) : All the 

 important peasants of Greenland had large ships and sloops built for fishing 

 expeditions to the northern settlements, provided with all kinds of fishing gear 

 and wrought pieces of timber, sometimes the owners themselves were on board 

 ... .up there they used to make seal-tar^), for all the seal-fishing was on a larger 

 scale than at home; melted seal-blubber was poured into "skinboats" (boat-shaped 

 bags) that were hung against the wind in isolated drying-houses till the blubber 

 congealed; later on it was prepared for some special use. These so called Norör- 

 setumenn ("people from the northern residences or from the north season"^) 

 had their stalls or huts partly in Greipar partly in Kroksfjaroarheidi. Up there 

 drift timber occurred but no growing trees". 



This short description of the seal-fishery of the Icelanders in Greenland is 

 about all that we know of this side of their life. The historical sources and 

 archæological collections do not give us any accurate information of the ways 

 in which they hunted the animals of the sea, only at a single place seal-harpoons 

 have been mentioned''). The collections from the Icelandic house-ruins in Green- 

 land give ample evidence about their breeding of cattle and domestic industries 

 but contain till now no remains of boats, weapons or hunting implements. — 



The disappearance of the colonies of the Norsemen during the time when 

 the connection with Greenland had been interrupted is only indirectly indicated, 



1) Bruun (1895) pp. 434—437; AVinge (1902) p. 322. 



2) The number of the Norse farms in South Greenland is mentioned in an old 

 Icelandic manuscript to have been 190 farms in EystribygÖ, 90 in Vestribj'gÖ. 

 ^'■Garüar was the name of the bishop's seat in the interior of the Eiriksfjord; 

 there is a church consecrated to Saint Nicolaus. There are 12 churches in 

 EystribygÖ, 4 in Vestribygö". See Grønl. histor. Mindesmærker III, pp. 224 — 225 

 and 228-229. 



3) Grønl. histor. Mindesmærker, vol. III, pp. 234-243. Cf. F. Jonsson, Oldisl. Lite- 

 raturhistorie (1898) vol. II, p. 594. 



*) Seal-tar was mostlj' used for coating the ships in order to make them water- 

 tight and protect them against worms gnawing through the wood. 



^) This fishing-time ot theirs at Greypar and KroksfjorÖarheiöi is sometimes called 

 their "norÖrseta". G. h. M. pp. 244-245. 



®) In Fostbræora saga we have the following description of a meeting between 

 countrymen at the place of the judicial assembly near GarÖar in Einarstjord •' 

 "The Greenlanders [Icelandic colonists in Greenland] always used to have their 

 implements for hunting and fishing onboard their ships. When Thorgrim's 

 ship arrived the people went down to the beach to see his and his company's 

 splendour and suppl3' of weapons. Thormod was also present. He took up a 

 seal-harpoon which had been thrown on land and looked at it, but one of 

 Thorgrim's companions seized the harpoon and said : "Let go, man, it is of no 

 use for you to keep it in the hand and in my opinion you do not much un- 

 derstand its use in hunting". 



