Greenland

Sources from old books

1682. Cosmography and geography in two parts by Richard Blome

GROENLANDT, that is, GREENLAND, hath been long known to those of Iseland and Norway. Account is made that one Torwald, and his Son Errick of Norway, passed into Iseland about the year 800; and that from Iseland, Errick and his Son Lieffe, passed a little after into Groenlandt where they established some Colonies of Norwegians: And the same History saith, that Lieffe had some Combats with the Ancient Sekreglingres and Native In∣habitants of the Country, and that those of Norway held but a small part in the East Coast of Groenlandt, the Sekreglingres keeping the rest with∣in the Country; and that what the Norwegians possessed and knew in Groenlandt, was not the hundreth part; but that there were divers People, go∣verned by several Lords, of which the Norwegians had no knowledge.

They say, that in several parts of Groenlandt there are Lands which bear as good Wheat as any Ground in the World; and Chestnuts so large, that their Kernels are as big as Apples; that the Mountains yield Marble of all sorts of colours; that the Grass for Pastures is good, and feeds quantities of great and small Cattle; that there are Horses, Stags, Wolves, Foxes, Black and White Bears, Beavers, Martles, &c. That the Sea is full of great Fishes, as Sea-Wolves, Dogs, and Calves, but above all of Whales; that the white Bears live more on the Sea than on the Land; and that as the Black ones feed only on Flesh, the White ones do on Fish, and are especially greedy of little Whales, which causes a great Antipathy between them and Whales, who pursue them where∣ever they can scent them: That their Fish Marhval carrieth a Tooth or Horn so strong and long, that it fights against and pierces the Whale, as the Rhino∣ceros does the Elephant: and they assure us, that the Horn is of the same greatness, form, and matter, and hath the same properties as those which we here esteem in the Ʋnicorns.

The Norwegians and Danes, who sometime since have passed into Groenlandt, say, that the Language of its Inhabitants is so different from that of Norway or Denmark, that there is little appearance they could descend either from the one or the other; and that if formerly there have been any Colonies of Norwe∣gians, they are quite extinct. In 1636 the Danes which went thither to Trade, demanded by signs, if beyond that ridge of Mountains there were any Men; the Savages made them to understand, they were innumerable, higher,* 1.19 and stronger than they; and that they used great Bows and Arrows, and would not have any Commerce, nor suffer the sight of Strangers. The Habits of those with whom the Danes traded (some of which they brought into Denmark) were of Skins of Wild Beasts, their Shirts of the Entrails of Fish, and their Wastcoats of the Skins of Birds with their Feathers.

These same Relations make mention of an Old and New Groenlandt; this descending towards the South, the other mounting towards the North; but that some years since the North Seas have been so loaden with Ice, that the first ones not being melted before Winter, and the other having continued from time to time, to add to them, and lie in heaps one upon the other, the Sun in the end hath not had power to break them, and in succession of time this way hath been stopt up, and the communication of Iseland with Old Groenlandt lost.