When did Norse Greenland exist?

Norse Greenland existed 985–15th century. On this map it is drawn 1072–1271, 1363–1384.

How large was Norse Greenland?

At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Norse Greenland covered about 26,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

North America · Indigenous North America

Norse Greenland

985–15th century

See it on the map → Wikipedia ↗

Existed: 985–15th century
Shown on the map: 1072–1271, 1363–1384 (2 periods)
Peak area: 26k km²
Region: North America

Overview

Norse Greenland was the westernmost outpost of the medieval Norse world and the launch point for the only confirmed pre-Columbian European presence in the Americas. It was founded around 985–986 CE by Erik the Red (Eiríkr Þorvaldsson), an Icelander exiled for manslaughter who explored the island and gave it the alluring name "Greenland" to attract settlers. Two main colonies took root on the southwestern coast: the larger Eastern Settlement (Eystribyggð, around modern Qaqortoq) and the smaller Western Settlement (Vestribyggð, near modern Nuuk), together supporting perhaps 2,000–5,000 people at their peak across scattered farmsteads.

History

From Greenland, Erik's son Leif Erikson sailed further west around 1000 CE and reached Vinland in North America — a landfall archaeologically confirmed at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, the only authenticated Norse site in the Americas. The Vinland sagas (the Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders) record short-lived attempts at settlement, abandoned amid conflict with Indigenous peoples (the Norse "Skrælings"). Greenland itself was a Christian society (Erik's wife Thjodhild built one of the first churches; a bishopric was established at Garðar in 1126) organized around cattle and sheep herding, walrus-ivory export (a key trade good for European markets), and hunting.

Decline and legacy

The colony came under the Norwegian crown in 1261. It declined through the 14th–15th centuries: the Western Settlement was abandoned by around 1350–1360, and the Eastern Settlement faded by the mid-15th century (the last documented event is a wedding at Hvalsey Church in 1408). Causes are debated and probably compounding — the cooling of the Little Ice Age, the collapse of the ivory trade (as African elephant ivory returned to Europe), soil erosion, isolation from Norway, and competition or conflict with the expanding Thule Inuit. The disappearance of the Norse Greenlanders remains one of the classic cases in the study of societal collapse.

Common questions

What was Norse Greenland?: Norse Greenland was the westernmost outpost of the medieval Norse world and the launch point for the only confirmed pre-Columbian European presence in the Americas. It was founded around 985–986 CE by Erik the Red (Eiríkr Þorvaldsson), an Icelander exiled for manslaughter who explored the island and gave it the alluring name "Greenland" to attract settlers.
When did Norse Greenland exist?: Norse Greenland existed 985–15th century. On this map it is drawn 1072–1271, 1363–1384.
How large was Norse Greenland?: At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Norse Greenland covered about 26,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Who ruled Norse Greenland?: From Greenland, Erik's son Leif Erikson sailed further west around 1000 CE and reached Vinland in North America — a landfall archaeologically confirmed at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, the only authenticated Norse site in the Americas. The Vinland sagas (the Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders) record short-lived attempts at settlement, abandoned amid conflict with Indigenous peoples (the Norse "Skrælings").
How did Norse Greenland end?: The colony came under the Norwegian crown in 1261. It declined through the 14th–15th centuries: the Western Settlement was abandoned by around 1350–1360, and the Eastern Settlement faded by the mid-15th century (the last documented event is a wedding at Hvalsey Church in 1408).

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory, and states that it was written from established reference works with targeted checks on current facts, rather than from a fresh multi-source research pass. It names the English Wikipedia article for each polity and its key figures as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, the US National Park Service and the World History Encyclopedia. The article this entry is anchored on:

Wikipedia — Norse colonization of North America en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_colonization_of_North_America

This entry was last updated 12 September 2026.

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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