27 



attacking us !" The Greenlanders fled and hid themselves between 

 the heaps of stones, yet the Norsemen managed to get hold of 

 some of them and maltreated them. The Greenlanders, however, 

 by means of artifice, lured their enemies out on the slippery 

 fjord-ice, where they could not stand firmly, and thus the 

 Skraelings succeeded in overcoming them one at a time and 

 killed them all. — This is the only tradition that has been 

 found in North Greenland about the old Norsemen. We shall 

 see later that in South Greenland are preserved more abundant 

 traditions about them. 



In the course of the 14**' C., the Greenland Eskimo gradually 

 moved farther south, either because the Norsemen ceased their 

 expeditions to the north so that the way to the south lay open 

 to them, or because the Eskimo population had increased — 

 perhaps through new immigrations from the north. At all events, 

 the Eskimo had begun to come into closer contact with the 

 Norse inhabitants. The first encounter between them that луе 

 hear about took place in 1379, when the invading people made 

 a hostile attack on the Norsemen, of course this first time on 

 the northernmost colony (Vesterbygd, or now Godthaab), 

 killed 18 men and took 2 boys captive, whom they kept as 

 slaves*). Then they withdrew again toward the north. 



That Vesterbygd was completely destroyed by the Skrælings, 

 we know from Ivar Bards son (Bårdtszen or Bere), who after 

 1341 was for many years the director of the bishop's estate, 

 Garöar, in Greenland, and to whom we are indebted for a topo- 

 graphical description of Greenland, which was probably written 

 down on the basis of his oral communications after his return 

 to Norway (about 1370)**). ^'-Noiv the Skrælings possess all 



*) According to the account in the Icehindic annals, cf. Gr. hist Mind. Ill, 

 p. 32, year 1379: "Sicræiinsjar herjubu å Grœnlendinga ok drâpu af 

 peim 18 menn ok toku tvo sveina ok {irœikuôu". 



**) F.Jonsson: "Den islandsk-grönlandske Kolonis historie" (Nordisk Tid- 

 skrift for Vetenskap, Konst och Industri 1893). — Ivar's description is 



