Ivar Bardsson, excellent wheat might very well have been grown. 

 Already in Eric Rode's Saga the want of corn to make malt is mention- 

 ed and the Kongaspegel, though admitting that grain was grown in 

 Greenland, adds that its cultivation was not general and that the ma- 

 jority of colonists depend on import to supply them with grain and 

 building material. 



With regard to pasture, however, Greenland seems to have been 

 quite as well off as any of the northern countries. Cattle-raising and 

 fishing appear to have procured a good living for the colonists until 

 the ice made the fishinggrounds barren and shortened the period of 

 vegetation so that the cattle had to be fed indoors most of the year. 

 At present the whole stock of cattle in Greenland probably does not 

 amount to a hundred animals although wealth is increasing and the 

 population is at least as numerous as in the time of the Colonies. 

 In 1780 there was (according to Crantz) probably no single represen- 

 tative of the genus Bos taurus. 



Commander Holm who spent several years in Julianehaab's Di- 

 strict and visited more than a hundred ruins of old Norse dwellings says: 



»In the neigbourhood of all larger groups of ruins there has been 

 ample fodder during summer to feed large flocks of sheep and cattle. 

 How these herds were fed in winter is difficult to say unless we as- 

 sume the climate in those ages to have been milder, so that the cattle 

 could graze in the open field a greater part of the year than now . The 

 ancient records state that the icedrift along the coast has increased in 

 historic time and this assumption seems indeed necessary in order to 

 explain how the ancients could navigate the inlets and f jords of the 

 District, nor can it be denied that the ice which now encloses this part 

 of the country greatly enhances the severity of the climate. » 



Another effect of the climatic deterioration is that the inland-ice 

 appears to have advanced for a considerable time, so that certain 

 groups of ruins have been buried underneath it. Ruins of ancient 

 dwellings were discovered by Captain Bruun, curiously wedged in bet- 

 ween glaciers and rivers so as to be very difficult of access. That ruins 

 of farmhouses are found in such places nowadays may be explained 

 so that the glacier has advanced after they were built. In the interior 

 of Ilua Captain Holm found 4 groups of ruins just below r the glacier. 

 The Eskimos told him that beneath that glacier was buried a village 

 and a churchyard. As many of the villages and churches enumerated 

 in the ancient Chorography have not been retrieved it may be that part 

 of the old Osterbygd has been covered by the advancing inland-ice 

 in the course of the last 5 centuries. Perhaps this may also explain 

 the curious confusion of names respecting the ancient landmarks on 

 the east-coast. Blaserk and Hvitserk. Nansen says: (pag. 223) 



»It is more difficult to explain the two names Blaserk and Hvit- 

 serk which were the most frequently mentioned especially later on. 

 They have often been confused with one another, and while Blaserk 

 is mentioned by the oldest records, Hvitserk gradually supplants it 

 in later writings. Later authors often mention the names in an op- 

 posite sense, Blaserk representing a dark glacier or mountain peak, 

 Hvitserk representing a white one. It is a curious fact, that, while 

 Blaserk is mentioned only in the elder writings, such as the Land- 

 nama and Erik Raude's Saga in Hauksbook, this name almost dis- 

 appears from later writings and is supplanted by that of Hvitserk 

 which name is first mentioned in manuscripts from the 14 th century 

 and later on. In the manuscript (A. M. 557 qv.) from the 15:th cen- 

 tury of Erik Raude's Saga (as also in other later extracts of this Saga) 

 Hvitserk is written in lieu of Blaserk. In no Icelandic manuscript I 

 have found both names used simultaneously, it is always the one or 

 the other, nor are they ever mentioned as representing different 

 localities on the Greenland coast. It then appears too rash to conc- 

 lude, as hitherto, that the names indicate two mountains, one some- 



where to the north on the east-coast, the other near Cape Farewell. 

 That the names indicate mountains is a very old conceptions 



Ivar Bardsson speaks of Hvitserk as *a lofty mountain near 

 Hvarf ». 



The solution of the problem appears to me to be this: 



All opinions agree that Hvitserk, the lofty landmark of Green- 

 land on which later was put up a beacon to warn sailors off the danger- 

 ous neighbourhood, was situated in the proximity of Cape Farewell. 

 According to Finnur Jonsson it was identic with Cape Farewell which 

 is not covered by ice. North of the sound Allumlengri however lies a 

 towering alpine country with some of the loftiest mountainpeeks found 

 on the eastcoast. These are now mostly covered by snow and are 

 probably surrounded by glaciers. Here in my opinion, is the site 

 of the acient »Blaserk» which was so called in the time of Eric Rode, 

 because it then was free from snow and ice, which a few centuries 

 later covered it and changed the name Blaserk »bla=blue- black ) into 

 Hvitserk (Hvit=white). 



Blaserk or Hvitserk played an important part in the old direc- 

 tions for the navigation, because it was the landmark of Greenland. 



Eric Rode went in search of Gunbjornskar. He came from the 

 sea to land at the Middle jokel (or glacier) and the place called Bla- 

 serk. In Bjorn Jonsson's version of the ancient record it is said; 



Item from Sneffclznes on Iceland which is nearest to 

 Greenland 2. days and 2 nights sailing straight towards west, 

 and there lies Gunbjornskiatr right midways between Greenland 

 and Iceland, 



Keeping to our rule not to alter the text of the manuscripts we 

 may consider Gunbjornskar to denote the islands surrounding 

 Cape Dan in lat 65°36 'almost straight west of Snefelsnses on Iceland 

 in lat. 64°50. According to Ivar Bardsson it took 2 days and 2 nights 

 sailing and rowing for the Viking-ships to cover this distance. It took 

 about the same time to reach the eastern settlements in Greenland from 

 Gunbjornskar. One would then reach the east-coast at lat. 61° where 

 commenced the ancient Osterbygd. On the road one would pass by 

 the big glacier Puisortok in lat. 62° and the lofty mount Blaserk (which 

 then was free from ice) somewhat more to the south. Then the goal 

 of the voyage would be reached, Spalsund (Ikek), the eastern inlet to 

 the Osterbygd. 



»0>is was old sailings (I. Bardsson). 



In this way I think that the much-discussed problem of the Eriks- 

 stefna can be solved. We must now look to how the new route which 

 Bardsson recommends agrees with the old bearings. 



— »But as they report there is Ice upon the same 



Riffe, come out of the long north Botberne, so that we cannot 

 use the same old passage as they think. Item, if you go from 

 Bergen in Norway, the course is right CClest, till you be South 

 of Rokenesse in Iceland and distant from it thirteen miles or 

 leagues. Hnd with this course you shall come under that high 

 Land that lyetb in the Bast part of 6roneland, and is called 

 Swafster. H day before you come there you shall have a sight 

 of a high Mount called Rvitserke and between Rvitserke and 

 6roneland, lyeth a Readland called Rernoldus Roche, and there- 

 by lyetb an Raven, where the Norway Merchants ships were 

 want to come, and it is called Sound Raven. » 



There is a later addition to Ivar Bardsson's description of the 

 new route to Greenland (see Gr. Hist. Mind. Ill, p. 491): 



»If men bee South from the Raven of Bred ford in Ice- 

 land they shall sayle Cdest, till they see Stlbitesarke upon 

 6roneland, and then sayle somewhat Southwest till SHbite- 

 sarke bee North off you, and so you need not feare Ice, but 

 may boldly sayle to CClbitesarke, and from thence to Bricks 

 Raven. » 



Old Sailing routes to Greenland (S = Snefjelsnass, G = Gunbjomskaer; H = Sailing-route to Greenland (present time). 



Hafhverf.) I Eriksstefna 1000—1200. II & III. Sailingsroutes from 1200—1400 

 [Ivar Bardsson]. 



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