Nordic Discovery
Explore a Medieval Viking Colony
23
Mar
Mar
Let’s visit Greenland – the land of the medieval Viking colony.
Greenland was a medieval Viking colony. This area is covered with ice all year round, making it extremely cold.
But no matter how harsh, Greenland also has its own beauty, extremely attracted by the love of nature and the friendliness of its residents.
Greenland from history…
According to Norse legend, Erik Red – a Viking accused of involvement in the manslaughter of his father and banished from Iceland, went into exile for 3 years. He had to bring his family and slaves to find a new land. Luck was with them, a promised land was found.
Contrary to the fierce, brutal, or plundering nature of the Vikings, Erik Red is quite gentle. His expedition, after arriving in the new land, lived in harmony with the natives.
He taught the people here how to create handicrafts and fur products. The Inuit natives showed Erik Red how to grow crops and raise livestock.
Erik Red named the land Greenland to attract more people to settle here. After many years, up to 4,000 people came here to explore and explore.
… until now…
Today, Greenland is an autonomous country within the kingdom of Denmark with more than 53,000 inhabitants. About 81% of Greenland is ice, the weight of which compresses the land into a basin 300 meters below sea level.
Almost all Greenlanders live along fjords southwest of the main island, where the climate is milder. Most are Inuit, a few are Danes whose ancestors were the mighty Vikings.
The average temperature of Greenland is quite low, only about 10 degrees Celsius. In the past, when the Vikings came here the climate was still quite warm, but now due to strong climate change, the island of Greenland has become polar. harsh period. Winters are longer and colder, and summers are much hotter.
A strange thing is that the people who discovered Greenland were Vikings following Norse god worship, but on the island there were quite a few churches serving Catholics.
The people here explained that Erik Land loved his wife very much, and his wife was a Catholic, so he built his wife churches so that she could pray and celebrate
The people on the island make a living by farming. Pictured is a famous farmer in the area, Sten Pederson, who is choosing the freshest cabbages to bring to a house about 19km away.
Some other families raise cattle for a living. Farms are more concentrated in the southern part of Greenland, where the climate is warmer and there are large grasslands. Each year, the government of Greenland spends nearly 2 million dollars to import feed for sheep farms.
The industry of this country is mainly processing agricultural products, or seafood. Fish and shrimp processing accounts for 90% of total exports and is an important source of income for Greenland.
In the picture is a worker from the city of Royal Greenland working at a frozen cod packing factory. Frozen fish will be exported to China and Poland for processing.
Over the years, the climate of Greenland has changed in a worrying way, the weather is so hot that the grass cannot grow. Many farms have to reduce the number of livestock because the amount of grass is not enough.
Tourism also suffered a decrease in revenue due to negative weather effects, extreme climate that the number of visitors to Greenland is not stable. Tourist prices here are also very expensive, most tourists traveling between cities have to use planes and ships because there are no roads between regions.
The life of many people here is still difficult, the unemployment rate is quite high. Pictured is a morning at the home of two farmers on the island. These two people, like most people on the island, work only one season, work irregularly and live on subsidies from the Danish government.
People in the cities of Greenland often do not have their own houses but live in large apartment buildings. Despite the difficulties, the people here are very gentle, healthy and love nature.
Residents of Greenland have always been able to see the wonderful beauty of nature. The picture above was taken in the late afternoon, when the summer light melts the ice, forming a fanciful river…
