[Sca-cooks] Greenland/Iceland

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

Stefan wrote:

> Maps of the northern areas are often distorted, but I thought Greenland
>
> was north of Iceland. Or does this have more to do with the ocean currents
> than the absolute latitude?

Sail in any direction from Iceland, from straight north to south-west, and
you will hit Greenland. The southernmost part of Greenland, where most of
the settlements there were, stretches much farther south than Iceland. The
capitals, Reykjavík and Nuuk, are at about the same latitude but Nuuk is
usually much colder because of the cold currents that come down the Baffin
Bay and Davis Strait. Iceland, on the other hand, benefits from the Gulf
Stream.

In the far north, Greenland's easternmost tip actually stretches further
east than Iceland's eastern shore, so you could say that Greenland is south
of Iceland, west of Iceland, north of Iceland and even (slightly) east of
Iceland.
>
> Oh! Interesting. Do we know whether these women came to Iceland
voluntarily
> or not? Was Iceland a stopping off point from raids into the British
Isles?
> Or perhaps these women came from the British Isles to Iceland by way of
> the Shetlands and Faroes? and the other islands between the two?
>
> Now, there is a storyline for all those SCAers that like complicated,
> unlikely persona stories. :-) Only this one might have some basis.
>
Here, we have to look to the Sagas. They frequently mention that
Scandinavian Vikings on their way to Iceland raided the shores of the
British Isles and took slaves, men and especially women. Or they went to
slave markets and bought Celtic slaves to take to their new home - maybe
they had no luck persuading the girls back home to undertake a perilous
journey to foreign shores.

On the other hand, the Sagas also often mention that some of the settlers
did not come straight from Scandinavia, but had lived in the British Isles,
the Orkneys, Shetland or other places for some time, maybe even a generation
or more. And many of the Norsemen who settled there for some time may have
married local women and brought them with them to Iceland. As I've said
earlier, I find it rather remarkable that all this does not seem to have had
much (lasting) effect on food and cooking in Iceland - but then again, the
resources were so few and the limitations so severe.

> Again, what happened to the ships? or at least the ship building
>
> skills? Was Iceland not doing much fishing at this time, such that
> seamanship and shipbuilding would be kept up? Or was it being done
> much more on a small-scale coastal only arrangement?

The trees that grew in Iceland were too small or unsuitable for
ship-building (not much good for building houses either), so wood to build
ships had to be imported from Norway - very expensive and not really viable.
Icelanders used small boats for coastal fishing and they were built out of
driftwood. We didn't really own any ships again until the mid 19th century
or even later.

Nanna