A Danish Chronicle, which M. Peyrere had consulted, refers the discovery
of Greenland to a much earlier date than that which has been given upon
the authority of Torfæus; and the earlier date of 770 is more likely to
be true, if, as M. Peyrere mentions, there is a bull of Pope Gregory IV,
in 835, relative to the propagation of the Christian faith in the North
of Europe, in which Iceland and Greenland are particularly mentioned.
The Danish Chronicle, to which Peyrere appeals, states, that the Kings
of Denmark, having been converted to Christianity during the empire of
Louis le Debonaire, Greenland had become an object of general attention
at this period.
The Danish Chronicle relates, that the first settlers in Greenland were
succeeded by a numerous posterity, who penetrated farther into the
country, and discovered, among the rocky heights and icy mountains, some
fertile spots, which were more auspicious to pasturage and cultivation.
They followed the division of Greenland which Eric had established, and
called the two settlements in the East and the West, Osterbygdt and
Westerbygdt.
In the Eastern district the Greenlanders erected a town, to which they
gave the name of Garde, where, according to Peyrere, who refers to the
Chronicle, the Norwegians established a sort of emporium for the deposit
and sale of their merchandize. The town of Garde became also the
residence of their bishops; and the church of St. Nicholas, the patron
of sailors, which was built in the same town, became the cathedral
church of the Greenlanders.
As the temporal jurisdiction in Greenland was subject to the kings of
Norway, so the spiritual power of the bishops was subordinate to that
of the archbishops of Drontheim; and the bishops of Greenland are said
frequently to have passed over to Norway, in order to consult their
ecclesiastical superior.
The Danish Chronicle, which was one of the early documents upon which
Peyrere founded his narrative, relates, that an insurrection broke out
in Greenland, in 1256, when the inhabitants refused any longer to submit
to the tributary exactions of Magnus, King of Norway. On this occasion,
Eric, King of Denmark, at the request of Magnus, who had married his
niece, equipped a naval armament in order to quell the rebels, and
restore the authority of his nephew. The Greenland insurgents no sooner
beheld the flag of the Danish fleet approaching their coast than they
were struck with a panic, and sued for peace.
This peace was ratified in the year 1261. Angrim Jonas, who records the
above-mentioned transaction, gives the names of the three principal
inhabitants of Greenland, who signed the treaty in Norway.
“Declarantes,” says Angrim, as quoted by Peyrere, “_suis factum
auspiciis ut Groenlandi perpetuum tributum Norveguo denuo jurassent_.”
Under their auspices the Greenlanders had been again brought to swear to
pay a perpetual tribute to the Norwegian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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