Vikings in Iceland and Greenland - Exploring the Development of Viking Civilization

Iceland and Greenland are located at high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere and they face each other across the sea. Though Iceland is considered one of the five Nordic countries while Greenland belongs to North America, both of them were once colonies of Vikings and played important roles in Viking age. Viking civilization experienced from prosperity to decline during 8CE to 14CE on these two islands. It is very possible to find out the reasons for Viking’s ups and downs through studying the histories of Iceland and Greenland’s development.

Based on the foregoing purpose, this paper will present the histories of the beginnings and the endings of Viking civilization in both Iceland and Greenland. Then it will try to find out the reasons for the differences in final results through comparing and contrasting the ways by which Vikings lived their life. These ways are categories into four aspects: politics, economy, culture and diplomacy.

Vikings’ settling down in Iceland and Greenland were important reflection of Viking expansion and they caused Viking civilization to extend on these two islands. Vikings were people from Scandinavia. For many reasons, such as the authoritarian policies of Harald Fairhair (Paine, 2013), the geographical features that lacking of lands for agriculture but having abundant trees for shipbuilding, Vikings were forced to expand into the sea. The two locations’ providing Vikings with lands undoubtedly provided them more chances for surviving.

As Jared Diamond (2005) said, “when immigrants from overseas colonize a new homeland, the lifestyle that they establish usually incorporates features of the lifestyle that they had practiced in their land of origin”; since the time for Viking’s settling down on th...

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... conventions; and communicating with different cultures with an open mind are significant ways for the sustainable development of a civilization.

Works Cited

Diamond, Jared (2005). The Viking Prelude and Fugues. Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed (pp.188-220). New York: Penguine Group.

Diamond, Jared (2005). Norse Greenland’s Flowering. Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed (pp.221-257). New York: Penguine Group.

Diamond, Jared (2005). Norse Greenland’s End. Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed (pp.258-286). New York: Penguine Group.

Paine, Lincoln (2013). The Sea and Civilization - A Maritime History of the World. New York: Alfred a. Knopf.

Yu, Jingyi (2007). 冰岛的初署时代：早期社会文化探究. (The Early Iceland: Its society and Culture). Dissertation for Degree in 2007 of East China Normal University. Retrieved from CNKI database.