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One of the animals found here is the polar bear, which is on the coat of arms of the Danish royal family in Greenland. The history of Greenland is a history of life under extreme Arctic conditions: currently, an ice sheet covers about eighty percent of the island, restricting human activity largely to the coasts.
By 1000, practically all climatically feasible areas of Greenland were populated. The Norse settled in three separate locations in south-western Greenland: the larger Eastern Settlement, the smaller Western Settlement, and the still smaller Middle Settlement (often considered part of the Eastern one).
978: Snæbjörn galti Hólmsteinsson becomes the first Norseman to intentionally navigate to Greenland. 982: The Norwegian-Icelandic viking known as Eric the Red is banished from Iceland. He sails off and sights the island. He decides to name it Greenland to make the island appear more attractive. 986: Norse Settlement of Greenland begins.
Erik Thorvaldsson [a] (c. 950 – c. 1003), known as Erik the Red, was a Norse explorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first European settlement in Greenland.
The first European settlement in Greenland was established by Norse colonists from Iceland around the year 1000. There were two main Norse settlements on Greenland, but both were on the southwestern coast of the island, far away from the area that later became Erik the Red's Land.
Greenland [e] is an autonomous territory [f] in the Kingdom of Denmark. [15] [16] It is the largest of three constituent parts of the kingdom, the other two being metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands; the citizens of all territories are full citizens of Denmark. Greenland is one of the Overseas Countries and Territories of the European ...
The dependencies of Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, however, remained part of the reorganised Kingdom of Denmark. Unlike Iceland , which was recognised as a sovereign monarchy united with Denmark under the same monarch in 1918, Greenland has remained a Danish dependency, currently under the reigning monarch Frederik X of Denmark .
c. 1350: The Norse Western Settlement in Greenland was abandoned. 1354: King Magnus of Sweden and Norway authorised Paul Knutson to lead an expedition to Greenland which may never have taken place. c.1450–1480s: [2] The Norse Eastern Settlement in Greenland was abandoned during the opening stages of the Little Ice Age [broken anchor].