Erik the Red

I'm beginning to wonder whether Eirik the Red was one person. He wasn't someone you would want to marry your daughter. He was banned from both Iceland and Norway - I think Norway came first. He built a longhouse in Iceland - I saw a replica of it, and it was a pretty small longhouse. He supposedly hid out on an island off Stykkisholmur (or so I was told during the boat ride). And then he comes to Greenland and builds another longhouse (somewhat bigger, but still on the small side), a replica of which I saw today, as well as the original Viking ruins. His wife was Irish, and he built her a church, which also has ruins and a replica. This was before the Icelanders became Christian (I think), so he was probably pagan, which is why the original church is a fair distance from the rest of the ruins.

Today I was taken directly across the fjord to Qassiarsuk. Everything seemed to be fenced off from the road I was walking along. It didn't take long to find out why, as a torrent of sheep came towards me. Fortunately I was at the school, which had several buildings and at the time I was slightly away from the running of the sheep!

After all this excitement, temporary fences were removed and I was allowed to saunter on and view the ruins and the replicas. The ruins were obviously from somewhat later on, when another church had been built quite close to the house, and the house had been expanded and cow byres, sheep folds and stables had been added to a very prosperous farm. The ruins of Lief’s farm is seven kms away, on the other side of the hills, so I didn't go there. Later I finally located the person with the key to the longhouse and actually saw inside it. However, it had been closed for the year, so nothing was set up.

There are also Inuit ruins - middens that have been dated to 1500 - 1000BC and some stone ruins dated to around 1500 and a stone igloo from the 1700s (I've put the stone igloo first).

AThere was still ice around from overnight when I went across to Qassiarsuk, and when I got back there was still a crust of ice in the boat harbour.