Greenland: Qassiarsuk – Erik the Red Settlement

Qassiarsuk is a tiny settlement deep in the fjords of southern Greenland. More interestingly, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site (believe it or not) for it was the homestead of Erik the Red. Erik the Red was the Norseman who founded Europe’s first settlement in Greenland around 985 AD. Erik Thorvaldsson, better known as Erik the Red for his fiery red hair and temper, was born in 950 AD in Norway. He was exiled to Iceland for manslaughter, where he was accused of another manslaughter. To avoid persecution, he set sail west and eventually reached land that he called “Greenland”. While it was anything by green, he used the name as a marketing ploy to later recruit fellow settlers to come to Greenland in search of endless green pastures and free land. Qassiarsuk was his first settlement and the first Christian church. By 1000, there were over 4,000 Norwegian farmers living in Southern Greenland. What you get to see today are reconstructed Norse longhouse, the church, some ruins and house foundations, a reconstructed Inuit peat house, and a couple statues of Erik the Red.