Snæbjörn galti

Snæbjörn galti Hólmsteinsson (Modern Icelandic: [ˈstnaiːˌpjœ(r)tn̥ ˈkal̥tɪ ˈhoulmˌsteinsˌsɔːn]; Old Norse: Snæbjǫrn galti Hólmsteinsson [ˈsnɛːˌbjɔrn ˈɡɑlte ˈhoːlmˌstɛinsˌson]; c. 910 – c. 978) was an Icelandic Norse explorer who was the first person recorded to intentionally lead an expedition to Greenland, probably in 981 or 982 CE. His voyage followed the sighting of the Gunnbjorn Skerries just off the coast of Greenland by Gunnbjörn Ulfsson c. 900. The story was told in the Saga of Snæbjörn Galti, now lost. According to Landnámabók, Snæbjörn led an attempt to establish a settlement on the eastern coast of Greenland, doing so before Erik the Red. The attempt ended with failure: internal strife broke out among the settlers and Snæbjörn was killed, reportedly by Rolf Rødsander and his boon companion Styrbjorn. They fled toward eastern Greenland to the offshore Skerries, apparently the small islands beneath Mont Forel, which stands 3,300 meters (10,800 ft) high. These islets lie just offshore from modern-day Angmagssalik, one of the more habitable locations in East Greenland. Here they were locked in by bad weather, so they built a stone hut and waited out the winter until spring. The entire surviving group then sailed to Hålogaland in northern Norway, and eventually returned to Iceland, where Rødsander and Styrbjorn were killed themselves to avenge the killing of Snæbjörn and Thorodd.[1]

Erik the Red later became the known successful Norse settler of Greenland in the 980s, after spending three years exploring the west coast of Greenland during his exile from Iceland, as described in the Saga of Erik the Red.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ Rowlett, Ralph M. (1982). "1,000 Years of New World Archaeology". American Antiquity. 47 (3): 652–654. doi:10.2307/280241. ISSN 0002-7316. Snaebjorn and his foster father Thorodd had gotten into legal difficulties regarding marital problems between his cousin Hallgerd and her husband Hallbjorn. Along with Thorodd's wife and some retainers, they fled Iceland in a ship, thus involving Rolf Rødsander and his boon companion Styrbjorn, since Rødsander was the co-owner, with Snaebjorn, of the ship./ They fled toward eastern Greenland to the offshore Gunnbjorn Skerries, the presence of which had been reported earlier, by ca. 900, by one Gunnbjorn Ulffson, another westward predecessor of Erik the Red. The Snaebjorn-Rolf Rødsander party found the skerries on Greenland's generally inhospitable east coast, but were soon locked in by bad weather. While thus detained, Rolf and Styrbjorn dug into a "mound", and found some interesting "valuables", easily assumed by the Norsemen to be of human origin./Thorodd, angered at this activity, which he seems to have opposed, hit Styrbjorn with an axe (but apparently with the poll or flat side) and knocked the discoveries from his hand./The snow continued, so they constructed a stone hut and wintered over until the spring, when they could finally dig their way out of the snow. One day when Snaebjorn was working on the ship, Styrbjorn and Rødsander avenged their insult by killing Thorodd in the hut, and then the two-some slew Snaebjorn, but all the others were spared. After the entire surviving party sailed to Halogaland (in northern Norway), they returned eventually to Iceland, where Rødsander and Styrbjorn were slain to avenge the deaths of Snaebjorn and Thorodd.
  2. ^ The Saga of Erik the Red (translated into English, J. Sephton, 1880)
  3. ^ "Norðmenn draga í efa íslenzkt þjóðerni Eiríks rauða og Leifs heppna". Árvakur hf. 14 November 1998. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
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