''The Greenlanders'' is a 1988 historical-fiction epic novel by American author

Jane Smiley Jane Smiley (born September 26, 1949) is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel ''A Thousand Acres'' (1991). Biography Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a su ...

. The novel gives a speculative account of the Norse inhabitation of

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 ...

in the 14th and 15th centuries, written in the style of an Icelandic or Norse saga.

Plot

''The Greenlanders'' describes the daily affairs of Nordic settlers living in medieval southern Greenland, including marriages, births, deaths, famines, epidemics, trials at the Thing, church affairs, land feuds, seal hunts, military invasions, and encounters with Greenland's aboriginal inhabitants. In particular, the book follows the lives of Gunnar Asgeirsson, an unlucky, violent, litigious man, and his sister, Margret Asgeirsdottir, a quiet, solitary, melancholic woman on their homestead in the

Vatnahverfi Vatnahverfi was a district in the Norse Greenlanders’ Eastern Settlement (Eystribyggð) and is generally regarded by archaeologists and historians as having the best pastoral land in the colony. The Norse settled Vatnahverfi in the late 10th centu ...

district. Though the novel also follows the lives of many other Greenlanders, Gunnar and Margret function as the novel's protagonists. The novel also features several historically documented individuals and events in Greenland and elsewhere, including the spread of Islam into southern Europe, assaults on Greenlanders' settlements by English raiders, and the witchcraft trial of

Kolgrim Kolgrim, also spelled ''Kollgrim'' or ''Kolgrimr'' (d. 1407 in Hvalsey,Seaver, Kirsten A., The Frozen Echo: Greenland and the Exploration of North America, Ca. A.D. 1000-1500, Stanford University Press, 1996 Greenland), was an alleged Norse sorce ...

Reception

''The Greenlanders'' was reviewed favorably. ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' called it a "bleak, stirring picture of the slow slouch towards the death of a civilization". In a 2010 ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' article, American author

Jonathan Franzen Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel ''The Corrections'', a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Pr ...

included it in his list of influential books, and in an interview with

Big Think Big Think is a multimedia web portal founded in 2007 by Victoria Brown and Peter Hopkins. The website is a collection of interviews, presentations, and round table discussions with experts from a wide range of fields. Victoria Brown is the acting ...

, Franzen said, "I do not know of a better American novel within the last twenty years" than ''The Greenlanders''.

References

1988 American novels Alfred A. Knopf books American historical novels Epic novels Novels set in the 14th century Novels set in the 15th century Novels set in Greenland Novels set in Iceland Novels by Jane Smiley {{1980s-hist-novel-stub