Brattahlíð

• 1. Introduction

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  Brattahlíð is an old Norse name meaning "the steep slope," and it belonged to Erik the Red. He built this estate in southwestern Greenland, in the Eastern Settlement, a Viking colony he founded toward the end of the 10th century. Today the village of Qassiarsuk stands on the same ground.

  A family could not have picked an odder place to put down roots. Greenland offered ice, fog, and a long sea voyage from anywhere else. So what made this spot worth settling? What did the colonists build here, and who lies buried in the earth? And what finally emptied a settlement that had once held a parliament?

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• 2. Sheltered Farmland

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  The head of the Tunulliarfik Fjord lies about 96 km from the open ocean, and that distance shaped life at Brattahlíð. Storms off the sea do not reach it. The estate also sits at the inner end of Eriksfjord, which screens it from the cold fog and arctic water of the outer coast. For that reason it still has some of the best farmland in Greenland.

  One farm building nearby measured 53 m by 14 m. Its stone walls were about 1.5 m thick, and an outer bank of turf added more insulation. Inside, the floor was laid with flagstones. Flat stones divided the stalls, and in one case the divider was the shoulder-blade of a whale. Some of these buildings were still standing in 1953, when the Bluie West One airfield was operating at Narsarsuaq. Today they survive mostly as depressions in the ground.

  Across the fjord, Narsarsuaq has the more extensive facilities. Brattahlíð itself offers a youth hostel and a small store. Among the buildings of the old estate, the smallest would prove to be the most surprising.

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• 3. Thjodhild's Chapel

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  In 1961 the community began building a school, and the diggers uncovered a human skull. It was sent to the National Museum of Denmark, and that prompted a proper excavation. The dig revealed a u-shaped building with wooden walls, wrapped on the outside in an insulating shell of turf. The west end had no turf, which left the mound in its u-shape. Inside, the space measured roughly 2 m by 3.5 m, more chapel than church.

  This is Þjóðhildarkirkja, known as Thjodhild's church. It is the oldest of three church buildings traced at Brattahlíð, and it was likely the first church in the Americas.

  Foundation stones set at a distance around the building suggest a small turf wall. Between the building and that wall, archaeologists found graves. The early churchyard held the remains of 144 individuals. There were no grave goods, and no marker bearing identifying runes was found, so none of them can be named from the ground alone.

  For the millennial celebration of Leif Erikson's voyage to Vinland in 2000, a replica of the church was built at a distance from the real site. A replica Norse longhouse went up alongside it. The later churches at Brattahlíð were built of stone.

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• 4. Stone Churches

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  A stone church once stood closer to the main longhouse, built in the 13th century on top of an even older stone church. Both came after the entire Norse community had converted to Christianity. It is possible that Thorkell, son of Leif Erikson, raised the first of them. He may have wanted to replace his grandmother's small wooden and turf chapel.

  Archaeologists found melted fragments of bell metal at the site. The foundation stones of this church and of nearby buildings remained visible into the 20th century. So did the remnants of what may have been a forge. The church measured 12.5 m by 4.5 m and had two entrances. A hearth evidently burned in the middle of the floor. Fire apparently destroyed the building.

  The churchyard still holds tombstones. One has a cross cut into it. Another is engraved in runes with the words "Ingibjørg's Grave." Stones now mark the outline of the church, though they were probably placed there in more recent years. Visitors can also see the surrounding graveyard.

  Believers were not the only people who gathered on this estate.

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• 5. The First Greenlandic Þing

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  Iceland's Althing was the model for the Þing that met at Brattahlíð, the first parliament in Greenland. The Greenlanders borrowed the idea of a general assembly from their Icelandic cousins.

  In the early 20th century, scholars weighed written sources against archaeological evidence. They identified two potential Þing sites, one at Brattahlíð and one at Garðar. The settlement was sparse, with people scattered over a wide area. It is therefore reasonable that participants would have used an assembly as a chance to socialize or to trade.

  The community that met here would eventually vanish, and the reason is still debated.

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• 6. A Vanished Colony

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  Erik the Red's family kept Brattahlíð until about the mid-15th century. The Norse settlements as a whole disappeared toward the end of the 15th. The exact causes remain unverified, but they probably came from a combination of pressures.

  The cooling temperatures of the Little Ice Age made farming harder. Soil erosion added to the strain. Norway abandoned the colonies after the Black Plague and its own political turmoil. Europeans also found more convenient ways to obtain furs, and the Hanseatic League eclipsed the colonies as a mercantile power. Meanwhile the Inuit were moving southward, and the Norse faced competition from them.

  In 2017 the estate and other archaeological sites in southwestern Greenland were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The listing is titled Kujataa Greenland: Norse and Inuit Farming at the Edge of the Ice Cap. Its name places the Inuit beside the Norse as farmers of the same land.

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