#hvalsey

[mostly-history]

Hvalsey Church (Hvalsey, Greenland).

[ingebjorg9]

Hvalsey, Qaqortoq, Greenland, site of the best-preserved Norse ruins in Greenland.  The last written record of the Greenlandic Norse describes a wedding at Hvalsey Church in 1408, between Þorsteinn Ólafsson and Sigríður Björnsdóttir.  The couple later sailed to Norway, then to Sigríður’s family farm in northern Iceland.

[thesilicontribesman]

‘Turnstone’ Poem, March 2017.

[mostly-history]

Hvalsey Church (Hvalsey, Greenland).

Hvalsey Church

Arch window in the east gable

The church from the south

Banquet hall

The farmstead buildings

Nearby stables

The horse pen

Hvalsey Church was probably built sometime in the 14th century, on the site of a graveyard.  Because the graves were not removed, the church's foundations have sunk over the centuries.

The Norse settlement of Hvalsey (modern-day Qaqortoq) was established on a narrow strip of land at the head of a fjord.  The church is around 16m long and 8m wide, and the walls are 1.5m thick, and it would have held around 30 – 35 people.

Granite fieldstones, some of them weighing 4 – 5 tonnes (or more), were used to build the church.  Mortar was also used, either between the stones, or as plaster on the exterior walls.  Because the mortar was made from crushed shells, the church would have been white when it was built.  It probably had a wooded roof covered with turf.  The windows are wider inside (common in early British churches, but not in Icelandic churches), and all have lintels, except for one in the eastern gable, which has an arch.  A dyke marking the cemetery's limits surrounds the church.

The church was located within a farmstead, with several adjacent buildings, as can be seen above.  The farmstead included a large building, about 1,300 square metres in size, with eleven rooms – living quarters, an 8x5m banqueting hall, and livestock pens.  Other livestock pens were located away from the farmstead, as well as a horse enclosure for visitors, a storage building further up the hill, and a warehouse at the edge of the water.

[mostly-history]

Then, in the 13th century, after three centuries, their world changed profoundly.  First, the climate cooled because of the volcanic eruption in Indonesia.  Sea ice increased, and so did ocean storms—ice cores from that period contain more salt from oceanic winds that blew over the ice sheet.  Second, the market for walrus ivory collapsed, partly because Portugal and other countries started to open trade routes into sub-Saharan Africa, which brought elephant ivory to the European market.  'The fashion for ivory began to wane,' says Dugmore, 'and there was also the competition with elephant ivory, which was much better quality.'  And finally, the Black Death devastated Europe.  There is no evidence that the plague ever reached Greenland, but half the population of Norway—which was Greenland’s lifeline to the civilized world—perished. The Norse probably could have survived any one of those calamities separately.  After all, they remained in Greenland for at least a century after the climate changed, so the onset of colder conditions alone wasn't enough to undo them.  Moreover, they were still building new churches—like the one at Hvalsey—in the 14th century.  But all three blows must have left them reeling.  With nothing to exchange for European goods—and with fewer Europeans left—their way of life would have been impossible to maintain.  The Greenland Vikings were essentially victims of globalization and a pandemic. 'If you consider the world today, many communities will face exposure to climate change,' says Dugmore.  'They’ll also face issues of globalization. The really difficult bit is when you have exposure to both.'

Why Did Greenland’s Vikings Vanish?

[oletorrissen-blog]

#Hvalsey #church #ruin. #hvalsøy #Grønland #Thorkell #Farserk #påtur #påseiltur #Romar #nrksommer #oceansailing #norse #norsesettlement #bsseil #kongelignorskseilforening #havseilerklubben #havseiler #langtur (ved Qaqortoq)

[oessa]

60.828935,-45.78184

[fuckyeahvikingsandcelts]

Hvalsey Church ruins in Greenland