Is it true that Greenland got its name because the island was once covered with greenery?

There is an opinion that the Vikings gave the island in the North Atlantic a completely logical name, because in their time Greenland was indeed “green”. We checked whether this opinion is justified. 

The word "Greenland" comes from the Old Norse Groenland, which literally translates as "green land". The discrepancy between the name of the island and its harsh northern climate causes misunderstanding. Nikolay Yasamanov in the book “Entertaining Climatology” explains, that “this island owes its name to the fact that at that time it presented itself to the Vikings in the form of a boundless green carpet.” In the book “100 Greatest Mysteries of History” the wording is much more streamlined: supposedly a thousand years ago Greenland was a “more hospitable land.” Author of an article on the website “World of Knowledge” indicates, that “the name of Greenland could well correspond to reality. The climate of the Northern Hemisphere in 800–1200 was much warmer than it is today.”

Founder of the first settlement on the island of Greenland counts Viking Erik Thorvaldsson, better known as Erik the Red. We know about this man and his travels thanks to one of the Icelandic sagas, compiled between the 13th and 15th centuries. From this source knownthat Erik the Red was born in Norway, then his father and his family were expelled to Iceland. Around 982, Eric himself was expelled from there for three years because of crimes committed, and he set off by sea to the west.

The saga reports that during the three years spent in Greenland, Eric the Red explored several areas of the island. On his travels, the Viking discovered an area free of ice and suitable for life and agriculture. Upon returning from exile, Erik the Red told the Icelanders about the land he had explored, which he called “green.” According to a medieval source, he used the name "Greenland" because "people would be more willing to go there if the land had a good name." 25 ships with settlers set off to colonize this territory together with Eric the Red.

At the same time, it would be wrong to assert that such a “marketing ploy” is entirely based on lies - Eric the Red, rather, unnecessarily embellished the reality. For example, on the official tourism portal of Greenland approvedthat in summer in the southern part of the island the temperature can reach +20 °C. In the report of the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs on cooperation with Greenland it saysthat the southern part of the island is “still the center of agriculture.” There are studies that Greenland was once truly “green”, but their authors also clarify that we are talking specifically about the southern coastal regions. Thus, in 2007, an international group of researchers analyzed DNA samples recovered from under the ice in this part of the island. Based on this discovery, scientists said that several hundred thousand years ago, Greenland's climate may well have been similar to modern Scandinavia. In 2019, American scientists researched sediments from the bottom of an ancient lake in the southwest of the country and concluded that around the time Eric the Red colonized Greenland, it was in this part of the island that the climate may actually have been warmer.

Although modern scientists suggest that the climate in southern Greenland was milder during Viking times, there is no evidence that this is how Greenland got its name. Despite all the shortcomings of the saga as a historical source, this is the only evidence of why Eric the Red decided to name the island that way. Whatever the climatic conditions were more than a thousand years ago, it was the Viking exiled from Iceland who gave this name. The version about the “marketing” etymology of the word “Greenland” has become entrenched in dictionaries, her adhere to and the Greenlanders themselves.

Mostly not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/greenland-called-green-land/
2. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/proof-on-ice-southern-greenland-green-earth-warmer/
3. https://visitgreenland.com/articles/10-facts-nellie-huang/
4. https://ria.ru/20190206/1550497099.html
5. https://www.etymonline.com/word/Greenland#etymonline_v_11952