I heayrd a much different story.
Eric the Red was forced to leave Iceland, apparently after killing a few people. He found Greenland and established the first colony there about 982, naming it Greenland to make it sound more attractive. His son, Lief Ericson, brought Christianity to Greenland and explored the coast of North America.
The Greenland colony was abandoned, largely because the Inuit natives were even better warriors than the Vikings, and made the intruders quite unwelcome. It was later resettled by Norwegians and Danes.
Greenland is mostly ice, while Iceland is mostly green, and much warmer. It's all in the language chosen by the listing real estate agent.
Jon Glass wrote:
On Dec 3, 2004, at 12:41 PM, Herb Chong wrote:
1) the weather was a lot warmer back then, almost like it is today, soYou know, I remember learning as a young lad, that Greenland, when it was named, was first sighted at the one time of year when it is actually green (those few, rare days in the summer?) and that it was such a sight to the poor-sea-faring eyes of the discoverers, and looked so pleasant, that they named it green land, because that was how it looked. However, only later did they discover the truth. Wasn't the settlement there eventually abandoned because it was so uninhabitable?
Greenland and Vinland really were a lot greener, on the coasts anyway. then
came the Little Ice Age.
