704 W. Thalbitzer 



when there was no bishop (ca. 1342 to 1368)^) and that he was one of the per- 

 sons appointed by the governor to drive out the Skræhngs from Vestribygö, 

 but when they came up there "they found no men, neither Christians nor hea- 

 thens but only some stray cattle and sheep". Further, it is stated in the re- 

 port, though however without giving the year or date, that at this time the 

 Skræhngs had ravaged the western (northern) colony found to be deserted. It 

 is very fortunate, that Ivarr's passport to Greenland issued by the bishop of 

 Bergen in the year 1341 has been preserved. We learn from this, that he must 

 have set out for Greenland either that year or the next and the question is now, 

 from what time dates the report, that Vestribygö had been ravaged by the 

 Eskimo and was deserted? Ivarr has probably again left Greenland about the 

 time when a new bishop was elected, namely, in 1368, at any rate before 1379^), 

 for he says not a word about the presence of Skrælings in the neighbourhood 

 of Eystribygö, still less the attack made by them on the settlement in that year. 

 The expedition to Vestribygö, of which he was a member, has probably not 

 been made immediately after his arrival in the country, but more Hkely about 

 1350, some years before or later. 



The Eskimo must have made their way to Eystribygö not long after Ivarr 

 had started on his return journey to Bergen. To begin with, their relations 

 with the Norsemen have undoubtedly been friendly, but the later report about 

 the sudden attack in 1379 shows that by this time the relations between them 

 have become more than strained or rather they have been distinctly hostile. 

 It is by no means improbable, that the Eskimo may for a long time have hved 

 on the outer skerries without coming into connection with the foreign people 

 living inshore and this may have been the reason, why they have only been 

 mentioned on rare occasions in the old literature of the Icelanders. 



But to return to the Eskimo's own traditions. Here there seems to be 

 some evidence, that Eystribygö may have been attacked from the north^), 

 but at the same time we have on the one hand the express statement of the 

 С text to the effect, that the Norsemen (in Vestribygö) were first discovered 

 by the Eskimo coming from the south, on the other the song about Oongortoq. 

 The latter is found in the two previously mentioned variations Bg and Dg which 

 may be cited here. Both originate from the southern settlement (Arssuk lies 

 only a little north of the Julianehaabsfjord) and in the latter (the last to be 

 ^vritten down) it is stated expressly, that the Eskimo approached from the 

 south. 



1) Ivarr has not written down this i-eport himself, but his Avords are cited in it 

 (in Norwegian). The text of this report is found in Grønl. histor. Mindesm. Ill, 

 pp. 248—260 (cf. 886-887) and in Meddel, om Grønl. vol. XX, pp. 322-329. 



2) In this year he would have been an old man, if he had been 25 when setting 

 out for Greenland. But he has probably not remained there for such a long 

 time. 



=^) From the text Bi it is seen, that during the time when the attack took place 

 the Julianehaab district was occupied at several places by the Eskimo, especi- 

 ally at Narssaq in the north-lying fjord and it was just the people from this 

 place wiio attacked Qaqortoq. Also in Grønl. histor. Mindesm. Ill, p. 832. 

 (Narssalikj. 



