How did the Vikings Discover Greenland?

Greenland is the largest island on earth not to be counted as a continent in its own right and like many islands in the North Atlantic it was discovered and colonised by Norsemen. After last week's video about how the Norse discovered Iceland, I thought this was the next logical step in a series about Norse expansion westward, culminating in settlements on the North American mainland a generation after the successful colonisation of Greenland which made it possible. In this video I will talk about the first (known at least) Europeans to see and set foot in Greenland, including the tales of famous Norsemen like Gunnbjörn Ulfsson, Snæbjörn Galti and Eiríkr hinn rauði (Eric the Red). Enjoy!

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Music Used:
Sneaky Snitch - Kevin MacLeod
Teller of Tales - Kevin MacLeod
Shores of Avalon - Kevin MacLeod
Lost Frontier - Kevin MacLeod
Clean Soul - Kevin MacLeod
Eastern Thought - Kevin MacLeod
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Alternate History - Holfix
Up and Away - Holfix

All images are from the Public Domain of Wikimedia Commons and Pixabay.

How did the Vikings Discover Iceland?

Irish/Gaelic Monks in Iceland, The Faroe Islands and the Scottish Isles:

How Vikings Names Work:

Viking Raids - History Visualised:

The Great Heathen Army - History Visualised:

Norse and Anglo-Saxon Paganism:

A Guide to Dark Age Irish Politics:

A Guide to Dark Age British Politics:

Who Were the Anglo-Saxons?

Old English:

Anglo-Saxon Shields:

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[Knowledgia]

When you want to learn something new and good, watch History With Hilbert! (and Knowledgia) haha

[TheJazzax]

Hilbert I used one of your videos in a historical presentation I did during finals week, thank you!

[Fingkregh]

Dit kanaal maakt me erg blij, het is fijn om veel begrijpelijke informatie te verkrijgen middels dit soort filmpjes. Je bent een zegen voor de mensheid en ik durf er redelijke geldbedragen op in te zetten dat je ons koningshuis trots maakt.

[xelakarzlan]

Your work rate is insane. Daily watch for me now. Keep it up

[NorthworthySagasStories]

Another very cool video History With Hilbert, enjoyed this and looking forward to the next video.

[frisianmouve]

" I swear there's no ice, why else would I call it Greenland?" Erik the red

[braedengriffiths]

History With Hilbert If you're continuing this series on the Viking exploration and plan on doing an americas part; I could potentially be of help to you with any info as to settlements, manuscripts, etc. Reason being is because I live in Newfoundland and Labrador, the last places where the Vikings explored and where the first European settlements in North America were (and still here to this day) located. Anyways keep up the good work mate! Awesome content you're putting out there!

[Halli]

A slight "correction": It was not really land shortage that drove Eirik the Red to Greenland, he was, in fact, the "Neighbor from Hell" wherever he went. He killed someone in Norway and was outlawed - so he fled to Iceland. Once in Iceland, he ended up killing a neighbor again, and was outlawed once again - and fled to Greenland. The proverbial "bad neighbor".

[Phrenotopia]

It still baffles me that the Norse did not persist in North America somehow, since the land was so much better than Iceland and Greenland and had lots of wood.

[freyjasvansdottir]

You can see tops of mountains in Greenland from the top of mount Bolafjall in the Westfjords of Iceland on clear days.

[Guitaristmalakian]

1 like from France ! Continue your videos dude, it's really interesting ! ;')

[rincewindrocks]

hah! i literally signed up for your patreon because i love your videos just prior to seeing this. best of luck sir!

[ОлегОленев-яо]

I recommend you do a video on Snorri Sturluson

[mattabesta]

Eiríkur "hinn" Rauði is a retronym(I hope I'm using that right) it never appears in the sagas and the word hinn is not much used for Norse nicknames even though it's essentially sort of not really the equivelent of "the". Jackson Crawford has a nice video on the definitive article in Norse. In general, your pronunciation is phenomenal for Old Norse.

Turns out I did not use it right. What I mean is that the original is Eiríkur rauði which in english gets translated to Eirik The Red and then translating it back you'd thing a "the" word would be there but nope there isn't because of course it's not that easy.

[jesssiegman]

You could talk for hours and hours about Vikings, and I will never lose interest.

[ibbi]

1:25 I am not sure this is true. Yes the Norse were indigenous to south-western Greenland, but I was pretty sure the Saqqaq culture and perhaps the Dorset culture had lived in the same areas the Norse settled and then gone extinct/extinct from the area/left the area before the Norse arrived.

[Dagsschiller]

Where is the second part of this video?

[nietzscheanmiddleman]

Floki had a vision, then built a boat and sailed out of Kategatt. Floki is awesome.

[benstiller]

Do a video about the Icelandic commonwealth

[MrSafa]

6:30 can you guys down here explain to me how they 'just sailed from place to place'? Dis he have a ship with a crew ot was he on a raft. How would he navigate? Etc. Thanks in advance