Paul Knutson (Pål Knutsson) was a 14th-century law officer in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

Biography

In the 1340s Pål Knutsson was an

ombudsman An ombudsman (, also ,), ombud, ombuds, ombudswoman, ombudsperson or public advocate is an official who is usually appointed by the government or by parliament (usually with a significant degree of independence) to investigate complaints and at ...

who owned much of the Tveit farm at Tysnes in

Hordaland Hordaland () was a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark, and Rogaland counties. Hordaland was the third largest county, after Akershus and Oslo, by population. The county government was the Hordaland County Municipal ...

. By 1348 he had been promoted to judge of the

Gulathing Gulating ( non, Gulaþing) was one of the first Norwegian legislative assemblies, or '' things,'' and also the name of a present-day law court of western Norway. The practice of periodic regional assemblies predates recorded history, and was fi ...

within the district of

Gulen is a municipality in the southwestern part of Vestland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Eivindvik. Other villages in Gulen include Brekke, Byrknes, ...

. In November 1354 Pål Knutsson was commissioned by King Magnus of Sweden and Norway to travel to

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 ...

and to assess the state of affairs there. The Bishop of Gardar in

as well as the Bishops of

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

Hamar Hamar is a List of cities in Norway, town in Hamar Municipality in Innlandet Counties of Norway, county, Norway. Hamar is the administrative centre of Hamar Municipality. It is located in the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Hedmarken. ...

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

, as well as

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

( Skalholt and Holar), were subject to the

Archdiocese of Nidaros The Archdiocese of Nidaros (or Niðaróss) was the metropolitan see covering Norway in the later Middle Ages. The see was the Nidaros Cathedral, in the city of Nidaros (now Trondheim). The archdiocese existed from the middle of the twelfth cent ...

. Gardar diocese in

was without a bishop during the decade following the death of Bishop Árni in 1347. Greenland was without a Bishop until Bishop Álfur was ordained in 1368. Ivar Bardsson served as principal of the diocese during the interim period. Ivar Bardsson was appointed Canon at the

Bergen Cathedral Bergen Cathedral ( no, Bergen domkirke) is a cathedral in the city of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. It is the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Bjørgvin as well as the seat of the "Bergen domkirke" parish and the seat of the Bergen domprosti ...

after having spent time in

as a substitute for the Bishop of the diocese. Bardsson expressed concern about the preservation of Christianity among the settlers in the

Western Settlement The Western Settlement ( non, Vestribygð ) was a group of farms and communities established by Norsemen from Iceland around 985 in medieval Greenland. Despite its name, the Western Settlement was more north than west of its companion Eastern Sett ...

of Greenland . King Magnus however was ruling Norway only as

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

for his son, King Haakon, who came of age a few months later. There is no evidence that the proposed expedition ever sailed, except for the negative evidence that the 1354 order seems to be the only document mentioning Knutson after 1348. Although this indicates that Knutson survived the arrival of the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

(''Svartedauden'') plague at

in 1349, many other government officials throughout the country did not. Arne Einarsson Vade, Archbishop of Nidaros, died in 1349 during the Black Death, along with the entire diocese staff and a breakdown in record-keeping means that it is very difficult to tell what was actually happening in the years following the plague. Some later day historians, including

Hjalmar Holand Hjalmar Rued Holand (October 20, 1872 – August 6, 1963) was a Norwegian-American historian and author. He was the author of a number of books and articles principally dealing with the history of Door County, Wisconsin, of the Upper Midwest and w ...

, have asserted that Knutson's expedition may have journeyed deep into

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and created the

Kensington Runestone The Kensington Runestone is a slab of greywacke stone covered in runes that was allegedly discovered in central Minnesota in 1898. Olof Öhman, a Swedish immigrant, reported that he unearthed it from a field in the largely rural township of So ...

.''Kensington Runestone'' ( North American Rune Stones)
/ref>

Note

''Unlike most earlier documents relating to Knutson, this order only survives via a 16th-century Danish translation, so its precise significance is open to interpretation.''

References

Other sources

*Bardarson, I. (ed. Jónsson, F.) ''Det gamle Grønlands beskrivelse af Ívar Bárðarson'' (Copenhagen, 1930) *

Hjalmar R. Holand Hjalmar Rued Holand (October 20, 1872 – August 6, 1963) was a Norwegian-American historian and author. He was the author of a number of books and articles principally dealing with the history of Door County, Wisconsin, of the Upper Midwest and ...

''Westward from Vinland: An Account of Norse explorations and Discoveries in Amerika, 982-1362'' (Meredith Publishing Co., 1940)

External links

Diplomatarium Norvegicum. volumes I-XXI
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul Knutson Norwegian explorers 14th-century deaths Year of birth unknown