At the end of the Middle-ages a change came in these conditions, which can only be explained by an alteration in the oceanic circulation. Such changes in the oceanic circulation will of course be more perceptible in the border-areas where the waning Gulf stream branch contents with currents of the northern origins as in Cattegat, the Baltic, Baffin Bay and at the south-point of Greenland. It is inconceivable that a state of equilibrium lasting through thousands of years should exist in those parts. Even now the conditions, especially the ice conditions, vary greatly from year to year in these seas. In Greenland there are good ice-years and bad ones. Now I will show the conditions in south Greenland in a good year like 1883 when Nordenskiöld on the Sophia landed at Fredriksdal and penetrated into the sounds north of Cape Farewell which had not been navigated by European ships since the days of the Vikings. Then I will give an instance of the conditions and the route of navigation in a bad year like 1902 as described by the Danish archeologist Captain Bruun.
Finally I will draw a comparison between these conditions and those which prevailed a thousand years ago when Iceland and Greenland were colonized and the Norsemen discovered America. In our time the east coast of Greenland from 65º lat. to Cape Farewell is almost inaccessible.
In good years the pack-ice may form a narrow belt along the coast. But the pressure of this ice-girdle, which is packed close to the coast whenever the wind blows in that direction, is almost more formidable to navigators than in bad years when the ice spreads for miles over the sea but generally leaves an open channel along the shore. This channel was used by the Danish expeditions under Graah, Holm and Garde o.a. Nansen too used this channel to get to the point from whence he started on his ice-wandering after he had landed on the drift-ice and carried his boats across it, just as they did in cases of emergency in ancient times, as is told in Kungaspegeln (the King Mirror) from the 13th century. Doubtless 600-700 years ago it was at times dangerous and even impossible to penetrate to the east coast of Greenland if it happened to be a bad ice-year.
But it must be remembered that in the Viking-age such years were exceptions and not the rule as is now the case. In spite of the strong tidal currents the sounds between Cape Farewell and the mainland are now always blocked by drift-ice which is crammed into their eastern inlets by the polar current outside. West of Cape Farewell there is the great fjord-district with the settlements of the ancient "Eystribyggd". All summer the Bay is blocked by drift-ice, and navigation is generally impossible till authum and then only by circuitous routes as shown by the dotted lines in the map of plate 11.
Circumstances being exceptionally favourable, Nordenskiöld was able to get to Julianehaab as early as the 17th June 1883. It is generally necessary to wait till late in summer and, working through the ice-girdle, make the coast by the northliest route through Nunarsiut Sound then go south-wards on an inner route along the coast of Julianehaab and Fredriksdal which is the farthest accessible settlement. From here the expeditions of Wallö, Giesecke, Graah, Holm and Garde in Eskimo boats penetrated through the sounds north of Cape Farewell: the Ikerasak, the Ikek, the Tunua, the Kipisak a. o. which, though never sounded, were found to be navigable up to their eastern inlets, where the ice of the polar current was encountered. In spite of the favourable conditions in 1883 Nordenskiöld had no better luck. He was turned back by the ice when trying to penetrate through the sounds and was unable to reach the east coast. Such are the conditions in a good ice-year. The ice-charts of 1903 and Captain Bruun's description of his journey to Greenland in the summer 1903 show how the navigation must be performed in a bad year.
"Cape Farewell as usual lay shrouded by heavy mist from our sight (in May 1903). We put into Davis Sound and very soon encountered the great ice. Having made Cape Farewell you follow the ice-border till south Nunarsäut, at the earliest, you may break through the ice. South of that headland you change your course making the coast in a curved line. "Commander Norman says: "East of Cape Farewell the ice presses continuously on to the coast so that it must be regarded as impossible to reach it from the south. West of Cape Farewell the ice also presses on to the coast, part of the year, and makes navigation difficult, but as a rule this only concerns the harbours in Julianehaab Bay, for as soon as Nunarsiut (Cape Desolation) is passed the current heaves the coast and the ice begins to scatter, so that only in bad years and after continuous sea-wind the sailor will be troubled by it. "
Great indeed is the difference between the experiences of those modern travellers and those of the Vikings as told in the Sagas. Eric Röde's discovery of Greenland is described in this manner:
It is inconceivable that Eric should have carried out this program without the greatest hindrance from the ice in the Julianehaab bay if the ice-conditions had been the same then as now. But if drift-ice existed in these parts in Eric's time, the Sagas do not mention it. Nor is it mentioned by any Sagas from the Viking-age. As my knowledge of the Icelandic Sagas is not sufficient to authorize such a statement, I asked for information from Professor Finnur Jonsson of Copenhagen in this matter. By Professor Jonsson's leave I here give an extract of the letter containing his answer to my question:
"With regard to your question I can tell you that there is no mention of ice in the original records of the journeys to Wineland. They go from Greenland to Wineland as if there was no question of difficulties from the ice. Indeed there is no hint at all of such hindrances on the coast of the ancient Österbygd. This has always struck me when thinking of the present conditions. The spread of colonization from Ikigait (Herjolfsnes) up to Erik's fjord has always appeared more natural to me, provided they could get into the inner fjords directly from the sea. I think it would was much likely that the colonization should have spread southwards from the Erik's fjord to Ikegait, by land. Judging from present conditions, however, we must surmise this to have been the case. "
G. Brynjulfsson in a lecture to Nordisk Oldskrifts Forening 1871, pointed out that the colonists in Greenland experienced little difficulty from the ice in their hunting expeditions to Baffin Bay. In Nordr-setudrapa (the 11th century) there is no mention of ice in these northern parts though dangers arising from wind and waves are dwelt upon. The Norsemen possessed two fishing- and hunting-places: Greipar and Furdudustrandir on Baffin Bay. South of these was Helluland. He mentions the rune-stone that was found on an island 25 miles north of Upernivik. This stone was put up by Erling Sivatsson "Loverdag for Gangdag" (25th of April, 1135), viz. at a time of year when this place is inaccessible nowadays. (The deciphering of this rune-stone is however disputed). Björn Jonsson's version of the Hausbook (but not the Hauksbook as it now exists) describes an adventurous journey in 1266 or 1271 to Smith's Sound and further on an open sea. Eskimoes were first encountered at Smith's sound (Krogsfjordsheden?). Their invasion into Greenland appears to have commenced in the 14th or at the end of the 13th century. Reading the ancient records in chronological order we find:
The only mention of icebergs I can find in the older writings is from the Kungaspegel and runs thus:
According to the commentor of Gr. Hist. Mindesm. The translation is that they sailed "round the headland", meaning Cape Farewell. This translation is quite unwarranted. The sound may as well have been the neighbouring Ikek or Allumlengri as any of the more distant ones west of Cape Farewell. The Saga tells further how, having anchored, they saw a ship putting into de fjord from the sea which kept the same course. It was Thorsten Hvide, the foster-father and stepfather of Thorgils, who had sailed from Norway and Iceland in search of Thorgils. Together they went to Eric Röde.
"Greenland faces south west. Farthest south is Herjulfsnäs, but Hvarfsgnipa next west to it. (Thereunto came Eric Röde farthest and then said that he had come outside of the innermost of the Eric's fjord). There is a star (beacon) in the place which is called Hafhverf on the east side of the country, then Spalsund, then Drangö, then (comes) Sölvadal, which is the settlement farther east, then Tofafjord, then Melrakkanäs, then Herjolfsnäs abbey a. s. o. "Should Björn Jonsson's copy of the ancient manuscript be incorrect (which I do not believe), conjecture n:o 2, stjórn à instead of stjarna would be the simplest and most plausible.
The Fenderbothen haven on the east coast has not yet been identified. The place appears to have been much frequented in the 10th century but only as a haven of refuge where shipwrecked crews were brought ashore and the bodies of those who lost their lives on the dangerous east coast were recovered and buried in consecrated ground. In the Saga of Lik-Lodin it is told "how Lik-Lodin (Corpse-Lodin) got his by-name because he often in summer ransacked the northern wilderness and brought to church the dead men he there found in caves and mountain clefts" to which they had come from the ice or the shipwrecks, but with them were usually carved runes telling of their adventures and sufferings. In another Saga about Lik-Lodin it is told that he brought the bodies of Finn Fegin and his crew from “Finnbbudir east of the glaciers in Greenland”. [2]. In Nansen's version, pag. 217 from which this note is taken, this is said to have occurred some time before the downfall of Harald Hårdråde in 1066. Similar accounts are told from the 12th century of ship wrecks on the east coast near Hvitserk. (Einar Sokkason 1129, Ingimund 1189).
Probably Fenderbothen (Finnbudir) was what we should call an outpost lying north of the eastern inlets of Allumlengri and Spalsund near mount Hvitserk. From the Saga about Asmund Kastanrazi who visited Finnbudir in 1189 on his voyage to Iceland, we see that the haven was used by merchant-men as late as the end of the 12th century. It is difficult to understand how, with this testimony from bygone days, anyone who by experience knows that "The climate and ice conditions in Greenland are the same now as of old. "
The local description by Ivar Bårdson completes the ancient sailing direction and gives a clear though somewhat incomplete notion as to the extension eastward Österbydg and of some of its inlets, f. inst. the Allumlengri and the Bearefjord. The results of Holm's expedition in 1881 have settled beyond doubt that the latter is identical with the sound Itivdliak. Holm says: "On the east coast of the big island east of Ilua there is a dwelling place called Igdlorsuatsikit. There is a sound to the north from this place very narrow and bordered by precipitous mountain-sides of fantastic shapes. The northern inlet to this sound is cut off by a barrier of blunt edged stones, the Itivdliak, and falls dry at low-tide". This then is the Bearefjord of Ivar Bårdson with the reef that prevented big vessels to enter excepted at spring tide. Since this reef, according to Holm, still falls dry at low-tide, we may conclude that the elevation of the south-coast of Greenland has not altered perceptibly in the last 5 centuries. Geographically the sounds have not altered since the time of the Vikings, but in their hydrographical state there is a change as the fishery conditions indicate.
According to A. Jensen the Hellefisk [1], the Hakval [2], and a special kind of cod are found in nearly every fjord in South Greenland. The migratory salmon, the halibut and sea-cod (Gadus calligaris) again are only occasional visitors to certain shoals off the Greenland coast and to those fjords into which the warm water of the deeper layers in Davis sounds can penetrate 3. In the other fjords the cold water of the polar current prevails in the deep layer.
In 1883 A. Hamber investigated the hydrographic state of the Amistok fjord, in August the result of which is seen in this section. Our boreal fishes cannot exist in fjords of this hydrographic type. Knowing that in old times a great cod-fishing was carried on Österbygd and even at Gunbjörnskär, we must conclude that the ice-conditions were not favourable then.
I shall now consider the effect of the ice conditions on the climate of Greenland. Since the advance of the drift-ice round Cape Farewell to the west coast of Greenland the former colonies Vesterbygden and Österbydgn are wedged in between two ice-areas, the sea-ice and the inland-ice. This fact alone is sufficient to account for the deterioration of the climate of Greenland. Those who with Nansen hold, that no change has occurred since the age of the Vikings will discredit the description in the ancient records of the fertility and cultivation of the land. Thus Ivar Bårdssons statement that:
we must remember that these early inhabitants were monks and anachorets who from their homes in Ireland were all acquainted with gardening. Also the climate of Iceland in the 7th century may have been much more temperate when the frequent blocking of the coast by drift-ice had not yet commenced. Still fruit-growing in Iceland must always have been more difficult than in Greenland because of the more exposed position of the former island.
As to the cultivation of grain, regard must be taken to local conditions such as night-frost, etc. Probably Greenland was never well adapted for corn-growing though in certain places, as stated in Eric Röde's Saga the want of corn to make malt is mentioned and the Kongaspegel, though admitting that grain was grown in Greenland, adds that its cultivation was not general and that the majority 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 fishing grounds 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 representative of the genus Bos taurus.
Commander Holm who spent several years in Julianehaab's District and visited more than a hundred ruins of old Norse dwellings says:
Another effect of the climate 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 between glaciers and rivers so as to be very difficult of access. That ruins of farmhouses are found in such places nowadays may be because the glacier has advanced after they were built. In the interior of Ilua Captain Holm found 4 groups of ruins just below 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 Österbygd that 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. Blåserk and Hvitserk. Nansen says: (page 223)
There is a later addition to Ivar Bårdsson´s description of the new route to Greenland (see Gr. Hist. Mind. III, p. 491):
The problem is: how the same mountain, Hitserk, could serve as landmark to both routes, the old and the new. Bardsson's statement that Herjolfnaes lies between the two mountains Hvitserk and Hvarf, has made Finnur Jonsson assume Hvitserk to be identical with Cape Farewell. This conjecture can scarcely be considered correct if you take the elevation into account. Cape Farewell is certainly a good sized rock (some 900 feet high) and would be a good landmark in itself if seen against a less elevated background, or if you sail close to it. But the topographic curves on the map show that Cape Farewell is quite insignificant if compared to the towering mountain peaks on Christian the IVth's island and the continent of Greenland. The distance of these peaks from Cape Farewell is 30 miles but on account of their height, 5-6,000 feet, they must be visible at a distance of 150 kilometers when Cape Farewell still is below the horizon. We must also conclude that the direction for the new sailing route which was taken up to avoid the ice, did forbid any closer approach to Cape Farewell which, surrounded as it is by maelstroms had become still more dangerous because of the drift-ice. It is evident that the addendum to Ivar Bårdson's sailing direction viz. to get Mount Hvitserk north before sailing along the west-coast to Hvarf and the Ericsfjord is found on experience.
Cape Farewell
The numerous sailing directions recorded in Gr. Hist. Mindesm. agree pretty well with this, but are fragmentary and obscure on account of how the curious terms by distance in time and place is measured. Ivar Barsson's and Björn Jonsson's directions however are so definite and clear that they might be used even now if the ice conditions had remained unchanged. In our time, however, the sounds in the archipelago of South Greenland are shut up by ice and the ancient Eriksstefna is closed. Cape Farewell is surrounded by storm clouds and mist so as to be seldom visible. Still rarer will be the alpine peaks beyond it be visible, least ways not on so close approach to it as the rise of land suggests. Nor is it possible to stear on Hvarsfsgnipa (Cape Egede) and to put into Herjolfsnäs sound (Fredriksdal) which nowadays is so inaccessible that Nordenkiöld's ship, the Sophia, was said to be the first European ship to anchor in that harbor since the time of the colonies. The way to take now is bay Cape Desolation, passing through Torsukatak sound at Nunarsiut and others of the inner straits between the coast and the surrounding ice-girdle until you reach the fjords of the ancient Östgerbygd.
One more statement has to be examined, viz. Björn Jonsson's description (in the Gripla) of the three glaciers on the east coast.
According to Gisle Brynjulfsson, Björn Jonsson's statement does not allude to a journey from Iceland with the swift sailing-ships of the Vikings. What is really meant is a journey in rowing-boats starting from the southernmost places of the Österbygd and going east and northeast. Brynjulfsson estimates that the 30 eng. miles a day would be covered in this manner. Thus the Puisortok-glacier would be reached in a week. This glacier Brynjulfsson concludes to be Hvitserk.
Even to admit that it is possible to cover 30 miles a day in a calm sea with a rowing boat, the experience of Gieseke, Holm, Graah a.o. show that it requires 6 weeks rather than 6 days under the present conditions to go from Ilua or Fredriksdal by way of the sounds to the east coast in 60º lat. and thence to Puisortok in lat. 62º10. Even if we assume with Brynjulfsson that the ice conditions 600 years ago were so favourableas to allow the distance to Puisortok to be covered in only 6 days, still Gripla's description of Hvitserk does not fit in with Puisortok because of the words:
This description instead fits in on the highland between Allumlengri and the fjord Kangerdluksuatsiak, where the highest mountain-peaks in south Greenland are situated. With open water it would be quite possible to reach this place on the east coast in lat. 60º-60º15 in a week's journey by rowing-boat passing through the Allumlengri-sound or the Ikek. There, at the eastern inlet to these sounds the coast really bends northwards. It is significant too that all expeditions sent out in the 15th and 16th century to rediscover the lost colonies had orders to approach Greenland (and attempted to do so) from the eastside. In the maps from the 15th and 16th century e. g. in that of Thorlacius, these two sounds play a prominent part. These maps are of no use however for the problem we here try to solve and since the two sounds were confounded with the two inlets on America's coast discovered by Frobisher they have become a subject of endless idle discourses among geographers. The fact however that in these maps two sounds are shown through the South of Greenland shows, that the tradition of the Eriksstefna of the eastern inlets to the Österbygd had survived the closing of these passages by the drift ice.
I reproduce here the contour lines of such a map discovered by H. Pettersson in the archive of British Museum.
Evidently the ice conditions of Davis Sound and Bafin's bay were also different in the Viking-age. A large contingent of the drift-ice in Davis Sound is supplied by the Greenland ice current. Failing this supply, the quantity of ice in Davis Sound and the Labrador current will be reduced. Besides a decrease in the ice would mean an increase in the heat supplied by the Gulf stream-branches. We may therefore a priori conclude that the Labrador current in Mediaeval time did not carry ice, or at least not in the same degree as at present. This conclusion is born out by the fact that no mention is made in the Sagas and the existant documents from year 1000 to the end of the Middle-ages of ice as impeding the traffic between Greenland and Wineland.
It is impossible that the Greenland colonists should have landed on the Labrador coast or Newfoundland without having been in contact with the drift-ice and icebergs of the Labrador current. The complete silence on this point is remarkable and becomes still more so when we remember that the records of Cabot, who discovered Newfoundland in 1497, do not mention ice or ice-hindrances. In the records of the journey of the younger Sebastian Cabot in 1508-1509 to the coast of America (which however is considered unreliable) it is said he went as far as lat. 60º and saw quantities of ice in the sea at a depth of more than 100 fathoms (which means that he was in the Labrador current). But in a later journey, 1516 or 1517, he is said to have gone as far as lat. 67 ½º end there found open sea and no hindrance from ice. This is the reason why Nansen, who finds it surprising that ice is not mentioned in connection with the elder Cabot's journey to New-foundland, doubts the veracity of Sebastian Cabot's journey to these parts in 1516-1517.
This, however, is immaterial. Fact is, that reports of ice outside the American coast are not forthcoming till the 15th century although communication with that continent was established as early as the 10th century as recorded in ancient literature. The utter silence on this subject in the records would be inexplicable if the Labrador current had had the same character then as now.
The first mention of ice in American waters we find in Cortes Reales journeys to Newfoundland in 1501, further in the journey to St. Lorent's Bay in 1534, and in Frobisher's (1576-1578) and Davis' (1585-1587). Records of ice at that time however are very rare and the 15th century explorers of the coast of America do not appear to have been much troubled by ice, whereas the east coast of Greenland was then already blocked by ice and quite inaccessible. In the 16th century the conditions were changed and the account of Hudson's 3rd and last journey mentions ice and ice-hindrances which shows that at least along the Labrador coast conditions were approaching the present conditions. It is however noteworthy that Hudson, when pushing along the Newfoundland bank in lat. 44º-45º where he sounded and fished, found no ice in that bank.
In continuing his journey to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the American coast, he everywhere reports on weather to be very warm and the country exceedingly fertile with "goody grapes", rosetrees, etc. He sometimes fought and bartered with the Indians obtaining “greene tobacco, Indian Wheath and Maize whereof they make good bread”, a.s.f. in exchange for his goods. If the Wineland expeditions of the ancient Greenlanders extended past Newfoundland (Markland) to the south west, as G. Storm has shown, then no objection can be raised on account of the climate to they really having found wine and wheat, as described in the Saga.
The problem of Wineland is getting more complicated from the theory propounded by Professor Fernald, an American, who transfers the Windeland of the Sagas to Labrador, changing the grapes into cranberries, the wheat into lyme-grass, a. s. v. In the 14th Chapter of the Taakeheimen Nansen also adds to the confusion by indiscriminately mixing the Icelandic Sagas with the fantastic folk-lore of Moltke Moes collection.