Qassiarsuk, Greenland
The year 986 – the middle of summer
(a place soon to be known as) Eiric’s Fjord, Greenland
The only sounds that could be heard on board the knarr (a Viking age cargo ship) were from the knarr itself: The planks creaking slightly, the water gently hitting the sides of the ship and the big square sail toiling to catch the mild breeze. Hushed and nervous the crew sat along the sides watching their chief and master standing at the helm - body like a statue, head moving slowly from side to side and eyes intensely focused on the coast line. Eiric ‘The Red’ Thorvaldson was in his early thirties, chief and leader of 14 ships (it had been 21 when they left Iceland) and proud father of the little blond boy fast asleep down in the bottom of the ship. Right now though, there was only one thing on his mind: The high seat pillars. His high seat pillars – the holy symbols of his power and position and his most prized possessions for which he had killed rightfully. Though the men at the Thorsnes Assembly had rather disagreed about the rightfulness and had sentenced him to be outlawed for three years. “Condemned by men without honour”, he thought scornfully. But he really didn’t mind that much anymore. His exile had turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Three years he and his men had explored this coast and these fjords before being able to return to Iceland with the tales of a new land with beautiful mountains, breath taking glaciers and – most important of all – lush green valleys just waiting to be farmed and grazed. Much better than those windswept infertile corners of Iceland that were left to new settlers in Iceland these days. He had given it a good name, Greenland – and he had told great stories. And people had listened. Listened like they would only listen to a man like Eiric the son of Thorvald Asvaldson and descendant of Ox-Thorir. Now if he could only find those pillars and see the land that the gods had chosen for him…
1022 years, 33 days & 4 hours later (August 11th 2008):
A little noisier than Eiric’s knar – but not much – National Geographic Explorer made its way up through Eiric’s Fjord today. The hills were still lush and green and the newly harvested hay fields stood out clearly as we approached the modern day Greenlandic sheep farming village of Qassiarsuk. We anchored out in the fjord with Qassiarsuk and the ruins of Eiric’s farm Brattahlid on the west shore and the American airbase turned Greenlandic International Airport of Narsarsuaq on the east shore. A short Zodiac ride later and we stepped upon the same bed rock as Eiric and his men did so many years ago. The Qassiarsuk of today is a sheep farming village with a little more than 40 inhabitants and it is the main village for a farming district which has around 2500 mother sheep. The sheep graze the mountain slopes and valleys behind the village and are rounded by up by riders on horseback in late spring before the winter sets in. This is farm work very much as it would have happened between year 1000 and 1400 when the Vikings/Norse were the inhabitants of this area. The main attractions of Qassiarsuk are the reconstructions of a Viking long house and the famous Tjodhildur’s Church (named after Eiric’s wife), the first Christian church on the American continent. At this site –which is an outdoor museum – we were today met by Edda Lyberth, who, with her charisma, Viking age costume and talent for storytelling, brought us all vividly back to at time a thousand years ago. The wildlife background of today’s excursion gave us several ravens – often flying in pairs like Hugin and Munin the servants of Odin, chief of all Norse gods – a couple of good sightings of the huge white tailed eagle and even a lone gyr falcon.
