Under the leadership of the chieftain Erik the Red, around six hundred men, women and children left Iceland with farm animals and building materials onboard, to go and settle in the green fiords of South Greenland.
WHEN ERIK THE RED GAVE GREENLAND ITS NAME.
During the years prior to the exodus, Erik had explored the fiords of Southern Greenland and had found fertile and uninhabited land. He named the country Greenland as a means of easier persuading people to join him, but also because he thought the name fit the land he saw.
Iceland, which today is a place many think of as warmer and greener than Greenland, was given its name due to the many glaciers that mark the countryside in central and southern Iceland. Greenland got its name, because of the fiords of South Greenland, that were far more lush compared to the area Erik was familiar with in Northwest Iceland. So this is how the first connection between Iceland and Greenland was established.
COME TO VIKING GREENLAND FROM REYKJAVIK
Whereas the journey, a thousand years ago, took place in sail boats and often in stormy and ice filled waters, today there is a direct flight with Air Iceland from Reykjavik to Narsarsuaq, and from there it is only a short ride by boat to Qassiarsuk, the location of Brattahlid, Eric the Red’s old chief seat.
At Qassiarsuk today, one now has the opportunity to view both the ancient ruins and the new reconstructions of Erik the Red’s farm and of the first Christian church in North America, Tjodhilde’s church. It was from Qassiarsuk that Erik’s son, Leif Ericsson, set out on his famous expedition to Vinland.