Herjolfsfjord was the
Norse name of a
fjord
In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...
in
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
where one of their major homesteads was located. The fjord is approximately 50 km northwest of
Cape Farewell and is now called Narssap Sarqa.
Norse period
The name Herjolfsfjord was in honour of
Herjolf Bardsson, one of the founding chieftains of the Norse colony in
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
established circa 985 AD, as recounted in the
Greenlanders Saga and The
Landnámabók
(, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE.
is divided into five parts and over ...
. Herjolf's homestead,
Herjolfsnes
Herjolfsnes was a Norse settlement in Greenland, 50 km northwest of Cape Farewell. It was established by Herjolf Bardsson in the late 10th century and is believed to have lasted some 500 years. The fate of its inhabitants, along with all ...
, was located on the western shoreline of the fjord's end, facing the open ocean. The other chieftains favoured the heads of fjords, inland and away from the ocean, where farming conditions were better, which suggests that Herjolf was more interested in establishing a port-of-call than farming.
[Farley Mowat, ''Westviking'' (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1965), pg. 84-5] Herjolfsfjord was the southern- and easternmost extent of major Norse homesteading in Greenland. Archeologists have identified 8 other smaller Norse sites on the fjord, about half on each side.
Modern period
The modern Greenlandic name of the fjord is Narssap Sarqa, with the northwest fork called Amitsuarssuk. It features one community,
Narsarmijit
Narsarmijit, formerly Narsaq Kujalleq and Frederiksdal, is a settlement in southern Greenland. It is located in the Kujalleq municipality near Cape Thorvaldsen. Its population was 66 in 2020. There has been a slow but steady pattern of emigration ...
(sometimes appearing on maps as Narsaq Kujalleq and formerly Frederiksdal), located on the eastern shoreline about 3 km across the fjord from the ruins of the old Herjolfsnes homestead. The Herjolfsnes site later became known by Inuit Greenlanders as
Ikigait
Ikigait is a former community in Greenland about 3 kilometers west of Narsarmijit. It was the site of Herjólfr Bárðarson's farm Herjolfsnes ("Herjolf's Point"), one of the easternmost of the Norse settlements during their colonization of Gr ...
, but is now uninhabited.
Details
The fjord is approximately 16 km long, about two-thirds of which extends north from the ocean end (59.986577, -44.692687) up to a fork, then turning northwest further inland for approximately 5 km, to the fjord's head (60.125168, -44.754610).
References
External links
A satellite view of HerjolfsfjordA tourist's photo of the ocean end of Herjolfsfjord/Narssap Sarqa, looking eastward from Herjolfsnes/IkigaitA tourist's photo of the head of Herjolfsfjord/Narssap Sarqa, looking southeast. This northern-third of the fjord is known as Amitsuarssuk to modern GreenlandersSailing instructions for the navigation of Herjolfsfjord/Narssap SarqaThe Book of Settlement (English)
{{coord, 60.037, -44.699, type:waterbody_region:GL_dim:20000, display=inline,title
Fjords of Greenland