The Western Settlement ( non, Vestribygð ) was a group of farms and communities established by

Norsemen The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the pre ...

from

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 ...

around 985 in medieval

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 ...

. Despite its name, the Western Settlement was more north than west of its companion

Eastern Settlement The Eastern Settlement ( non, Eystribygð ) was the first and by far the larger of the two main areas of Norse Greenland, settled by Norsemen from Iceland. At its peak, it contained approximately 4,000 inhabitants. The last written record from t ...

and was located at the bottom of the deep

Nuup Kangerlua Nuup Kangerlua is a long fjord in the Sermersooq municipalities of Greenland, municipality in southwestern Greenland. It was formerly known by its colonial name as Godthaab Fjord ( da, Godthåbsfjorden), Gilbert Sound and Baal's River.Nicoll, Ja ...

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 ...

(inland from

Nuuk Nuuk (; da, Nuuk, formerly ) is the capital and largest city of Greenland, a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the country's largest cultural and economic centre. The major cities from other co ...

, the modern-day Greenlandic capital). Much less is known about the Western Settlement than the Eastern Settlement, as there is very little mention and no direct description of it in any of the medieval sources on Greenland. At its peak, the Western Settlement probably had about 1,000 inhabitants, about a quarter of the size of the Eastern Settlement, owing to its shorter growing season. The largest of the Western Settlement farms was

Sandnæs Sandnæs, often anglicized as Sandnes, was the largest Norse colonization of Greenland, Norse farmstead in the Western Settlement of medieval Greenland. Similarly with the Norway, Norwegian city of Sandnes, its name meant "Sandy Headland" in Old No ...

. Ruins of almost 95 farms have been found in the area. The Western Settlement was last mentioned by Ivar Bardarson (''Ivar Bårdsson''), a Norwegian cleric who was sent to Greenland in 1341 to serve as superintendent of the bishop's seat at Gardar in the Eastern Settlement. After the death of Bishop Árni in 1347 or 1348, Greenland was without a Bishop until Bishop Álfur was ordained in 1365 and arrived in 1368. Ivar Bardsson served as principal of the diocese during the interim period. In his voyage to the Western Settlement, he found only vacant farms. He subsequently wrote to the

Bishop of Bergen The Catholic Diocese of Bergen or Diocese of Bjørgvin in Norway existed from the eleventh century to the Protestant Reformation (1537),

to describe conditions he observed. By 1360 he had returned to

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 ...

to serve as a

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...

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 ...

. The demise of the Western Settlement coincides with a decrease in

summer Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...

and

winter Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultures ...

temperatures commonly known as the

Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. Ma ...

. A study of North Atlantic seasonal temperature variability showed a significant decrease in maximum summer temperatures beginning in the late 13th century to early 14th century—as much as 6-8 °C lower than modern summer temperatures.William P. Patterson, Kristin A. Dietrich, Chris Holmden, and John T. Andrews (2010) ''Two millennia of North Atlantic seasonality and implications for Norse colonies''
/ref> The study also found that the lowest winter temperatures of the last 2000 years occurred in the late 14th century and early 15th century.

References

Other sources

* Diamond, Jared (2012) ''Norse Greenland: A Controlled Experiment in Collapse--A Selection from Collapse'' (Penguin) *Jones, Gwyn (1964) ''The Norse Atlantic Saga: Being the Norse Voyages of Discovery and Settlement to Iceland, Greenland, America''(London: Oxford University Press) * Lamb, Hubert H.(1995) ''Climate, History and the Modern World'' (London: Routledge) *Mowat, Farley (1965) ''Westviking: The Ancient Norse in Greenland and North America'' (Boston: Little, Brown) *Seaver, Kirsten A. (1996) ''The Frozen Echo: Greenland and the Exploration of North America, Ca. A.D. 1000-1500'' (Stanford University Press) {{Authority control Norse settlements in Greenland Populated places established in the 10th century 890s establishments 10th century in Greenland History of Nuuk

See also

References

Other sources