Hvalsey Church ( da, Hvalsø Kirke; non, Hvalseyjarfjarðarkirkja) was a Catholic church in the abandoned
Greenlandic Norse
Greenlandic Norse is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in the Norse settlements of Greenland until their demise in the late 15th century. The language is primarily attested by runic inscriptions found in Greenland. The limited ...
settlement of
Hvalsey
Hvalsey ("Whale Island"; Greenlandic ''Qaqortukulooq'') is located near Qaqortoq, Greenland and is the site of Greenland's largest, best-preserved Norse ruins in the area known as the Eastern Settlement (''Eystribyggð''). In 2017, it was inscri ...
(now modern-day
Qaqortoq
Qaqortoq, formerly Julianehåb, is a city in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland, located near Cape Thorvaldsen. With a population of 3,050 in 2020, it is the most populous town and the municipal capital in southern Greenland and the ...
). The best preserved Norse ruins 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 i ...
, the church was also the location of the last written record of the Greenlandic Norse, a wedding in September 1408.
["Hvalsey Church" Blue Ice Explorer]
History
According to the
sagas, the land around Hvalsey was claimed by
Thorkell Farserk, a relative of
Erik the Red. Christianity arrived in Greenland around the year 1000 and churches began to be built in the country.
[ It is thought that Hvalsey Church was built in the early 14th century,][ The church is mentioned in several late ]medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
documents as one of the 10-14 parish churches in the 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 ...
.
The Church hosted the wedding of Thorstein Olafsson and Sigrid Björnsdóttir on either 14 or 16 September 1408. The wedding was mentioned in letters from a priest at Garðar and by several 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 ...
ers, and is the last written record of the Greenlandic Norse. The married couple later settled in Olafsson's native Iceland.[
According to Eskimo legend, there was open war between the Norse chief Ungortoq and the Eskimo leader K'aissape. The Eskimos made a massive attack on Hvalsey and burned the Norse inside their houses but Ungortoq escaped with his family. K'aissape defeated him after a long pursuit which ended near Cape Farewell. However, according to archaeological studies, there is no sign of a conflagration.
The site is now part of a sheep farm.
]
Buildings
Hvalsey is located on a narrow strip of land at the head 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, Förden and East Jutland Fjorde, Germany, ...
, with the church situated around from the water. The church is located in a classic Greenlandic Norse farmstead,[ with several additional adjacent buildings. The farmstead included a large building approximately in size. It had eleven rooms, combining living quarters, an banqueting hall and livestock pens. There were other livestock pens away from the main building, a horse enclosure for visitors to keep their horses, a storage building further up the hill and a warehouse at the edge of the water.
The dwelling was built on the top of an earlier building that dates back to the time of Erik the Red, and may have been Thorkell Farserk's home.][
]
Architecture
Around long and wide, the church was constructed in the Anglo-Norwegian style of the early 13th century.[ The church held around 30–35 people, and was surrounded by a dyke marking the limits of the cemetery.][
It was built from ]granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...
fieldstones.[ The stones are carefully laid and fitted. Some of the stones weigh between 4 and 5 ]tonne
The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...
s, and some even more. Mortar was also used, but it is not known if it was used between the stones or only as plaster on the outside walls. The mortar was made from crushed shells so the church would have been white when built. Qaqortoq means "the white place", and the modern town of that name at the mouth of the fjord could have got its name by association with the church.
The walls are approximately thick.[ It is thought that it had a ]turf
Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls.
In Australian and British English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricult ...
-covered wooden roof. All doors and windows are constructed using lintels, except for one window in the eastern gable, which had an arch.Abandoned Colony in Greenland: Archaeologists Find Clues to Viking Mystery
Der Spiegel, 13 January 2009 The window openings are wider on the inside, a detail not found in Icelandic churches, but well known in early churches in Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
which may have been the source of this building type.
Thanks to the good construction quality, Hvalsey Church has resisted the elements better than other Norse structures in Greenland. Nevertheless, it has partly collapsed, mainly because it was built over a graveyard. Graves were not removed before the construction and this caused the sinking of the foundation.
Gallery
Image:Hvalsey arch window.jpg, The church's arch window
Image:Hvalsey Church southern aspect.jpg, Southern aspect of the church
Image:Hvalsey farmstead.jpg, The Farmstead buildings
Image:Hvalsey banquet hall.jpg, The banquet hall
Image:Hvalsey stables.jpg, Nearby stables
Image:Hvalsey horse pen.jpg, The horse pen
See also
*Greenlandic Norse people
* Something of, from, or related to Greenland, a country
* List of people from Greenland
*Greenlandic Inuit are people identified with the country of Greenland, or of Greenlandic descent: see Demographics of Greenland
** List of Greenlandic Inuit
...
*Norse colonization of North America
The Norse exploration of North America began in the late 10th century, when Norsemen explored areas of the North Atlantic colonizing Greenland and creating a short term settlement near the northern tip of Newfoundland. This is known now as L'Ans ...
References
{{reflist
Roman Catholic churches in Greenland
Ruins in Greenland
Norse settlements in Greenland, Hvalsey
Church ruins