page_title: Herjolfsnes
section_title: Disappearance
hierarchical_section_title: Herjolfsnes / Disappearance
caption_attribution_description: English: Cropped and rotated from the original. Original description from the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection: Author: Bowen, Emanuel Date: 1747 Short Title: Old Greenland. Publisher: William Innys [et al.] London Type: Atlas Map Obj Height cm: 33 Obj Width cm: 23 Scale 1: 9,850,000 Note: Engraved map. Includes geographic notes and ornamental cartouche. Relief shown pictorially. Ancillary maps [here omitted]: A map of the islands of Ferro or Farro according to Jacobson Debes -- A draught of the Whirlpool, on the south east of Sumbo Rocks wth. the soundings -- An improved map of Iceland. Prime meridian: Teneriffe. Reference: P-Maps, p. 303 (1752 ed.); NMM p.356; M&amp;B p 166. Country: Greenland; Iceland [here omitted] Full Title: A map of old Greenland or Oster Bygd &amp; Wester Bygd, agreeable to Egede's late description of Greenland. By Eman. Bowen. (London: Printed for William Innys, Richard Ware, Aaron Ward, J. and P. Knapton, John Clarke, T. Longman and T. Shewell, Thomas Osborne, Henry Whitridge ... M.DCC.XLVII) List No: 3733.070 Page No: No. 71 Series No: 73 Publication Author: Bowen, Emanuel Pub Date: 1747 Pub Title: A complete system of geography. Being a description of all the countries, islands, cities, chief towns, harbours, lakes, and rivers, mountains, mines, &amp;c. of the known world ... In two volumes. The whole illustrated with seventy maps, by Emanuel Bowen, Geographer to His Majesty, being all new-drawn and ingraved according to the latest discoveries and surveys; making, of themselves, a complete atlas, for the sse of gentlemen, merchants, mariners, and others, who delight in history and geography ... Vol. 1. London: Printed for William Innys, Richard Ware, Aaron Ward, J. and P. Knapton, John Clarke, T. Longman and T. Shewell, Thomas Osborne, Henry Whitridge ... M.DCC.XLVII. Pub Reference: cf P614 (1752 edition of A Complete Atlas...); NMM p.356; M&amp;B p 166. Pub Note: "Preserving all that is useful in the Fourth and Last edition of the Complete Geographer, publish'd under the name of Herman Moll, &amp;c." Pub List No: 3733.000 Pub Type: Geography Book Pub Maps: 70 Pub Height cm: 43 Pub Width cm: 28 Image No: 3733070 Institution: Rumsey Collection
context_page_description: Herjolfsnes was a Norse settlement in Greenland, 50 km northwest of Cape Farewell. It was established by Herjolf Bardsson in the late 10th century and is believed to have lasted some 500 years. The fate of its inhabitants, along with all the other Norse Greenlanders, is unknown. The site is known today for having yielded remarkably well-preserved medieval garments, excavated by Danish archaeologist Paul Norland in 1921. Its name roughly translates as Herjolf's Point or Cape.
context_section_description: Having endured for nearly a half-millennium, the exact fate of the Norse settlers in Herjolfsnes and the entirety of Greenland remains unknown, although several factors were likely involved. The Greenlanders' pastoral way of life would have been severely challenged by the onset of the Little Ice Age, much more so than their counterparts in Europe. DNA analysis of human remains from Herjolfsnes and other settlements shows that marine-based protein (especially from seals) became an increasingly large part of their diet, compared to the pastoral diet of Erik the Red's time. Other theories include the possibility of conflict with Thule Inuit and predation by European pirates. There is no indication from archaeology or human remains that the Norse intermarried with the Thule or adopted their way of life, nor any record from Iceland or Norway that hints of an exodus out of Greenland.
  Historical records do suggest that ships from Europe arrived less frequently owing to the worsening sea conditions. The traditional Norse route to reach Greenland was to sail due west from Iceland’s Snæfellsnes peninsula until reaching eastern Greenland’s Ammassalik district, then sailing south along the coast to reach the settlements on the other side of Cape Farewell. However, by the mid-1300’s, Ivar Bardarson noted that the quantity of ice from the northeast was such that "no one sails this old route without putting their life in danger." The Norwegian Crown in Oslo and Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nidaros eventually abandoned the colony to its own devices, although some Popes were aware of the situation. By 1448, Pope Nicholas V lamented reports that Greenland ("a region situated at the uttermost end of the earth") had been without a resident Bishop for 30 years (although the last known one, Bishop Alf, actually died earlier, in 1378). These concerns were echoed in a letter dated circa 1500 by Pope Alexander VI, who believed that no communion had been performed in Greenland for a century, and that no ship had visited there in the past 80 years. However, even after the colony was forsaken by the Church and well into the 16th century, the empty title "Bishop of Gardar" continued to be held by a succession of at least 18 individuals, none of whom visited their nominal diocese and only one of whom (Bishop Mattias Knutsson) reportedly expressed any desire to do so.
  Although there is no first-hand account of Norse Greenlanders living after 1410, analysis of the clothing buried at Herjolfsnes suggests that there was a remnant population who continued to have some sort of contact with the outside world for at least a few more decades. One pathos-laden account comes from a sailor dubbed Jon The Greenlander, not from origin of birth, but because "...he had drifted to Greenland no fewer than three times...Once when he was sailing with some German merchants from Hamburg, they entered a deep still Greenland fjord...upon going ashore they saw boat-houses, fish-sheds and stone houses for the drying of fish such as are in Iceland...There they found a dead man lying face downwards. On his head was a well-sewn cap. The rest of his garments were partly of wadmal, partly of sealskin. Beside him lay a sheath-knife, much worn from frequent whetting..." Since Herjolfsnes was the only major sea-facing homestead in Norse Greenland, and thus most visible and accessible to visiting ships, many have speculated that Jon The Greenlander's landfall was at or near Herjolfsnes, and the corpse he discovered perhaps being that of the last Norse Greenlander, who perished alone with none to bury him.  This account comes from the early 16th century, but it is not clear when the incident actually happened.
  Early examination of human remains from the Herjolfsnes churchyard gave rise to a belief that its inhabitants had died out from inbreeding and overall degeneration from extreme cultural and geographic isolation. However, Helge Ingstad disputed this as a faulty assumption that was made after only a cursory analysis of a particularly bad sample of remains. Ingstad asserted that on
caption: A 1747 map of Greenland by English map engraver Emanuel Bowen, based on Hans Egede's descriptions, incorrectly placing Herjolfsnes halfway up on the east coast.
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