Monday, September 3, 2012

Voyage of the Vikings



Lisa,
Photos in and near Prince Christian Sound, Greenland, a place I never knew existed until this trip. Some of the most beautiful and unspoiled scenery in the world, just beautiful. What is really interesting is that Greenland is getting more green again like when the Viking settled there with the glaciers receding, more and more of the Viking farms are being exposed as the ice recedes. Hard to believe the Vikings or Norse lived and farmed there nearly 500 years before anyone else, there was nearly 5,000 of them at one time in two Greenland settlements, the eastern and western settlements then the Eskimos moved in coming across from what is now Canada and at the same time sort of a mini-ice age was starting where Greenland was becoming to cold to farm anymore so the Norse had to move but what happened to them is a total mystery but in the cemeteries that are being excavated many Norse were found to have died from warfare probably with the Eskimos who they called Skaelings which translates as vile and loathsome creatures.
Dad













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