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The Norse colonization of the Americas began as early as the 10th century AD, when Vikings explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeastern fringes of North America. The Norse colony in Greenland lasted for almost 500 years. Continental North American settlements were small and did not develop into permanent colonies. While voyages, for example to collect timber, are likely to have occurred for some time, there is no evidence of enduring Norse settlements on mainland North America.〔Irwin, Constance; Strange Footprints on the Land; Harper&Row, New York, 1980; ISBN 0-06-022772-9〕 ==Norse Greenland== (詳細はSagas of Icelanders, Norsemen from Iceland first settled Greenland in the 980s. There is no special reason to doubt the authority of the information that the sagas supply regarding the very beginning of the settlement, but they cannot be treated as primary evidence for the history of Norse Greenland because they embody the literary preoccupations of writers and audiences in medieval Iceland that are not always reliable.〔 Grove, Jonathan. 2009. ("The place of Greenland in medieval Icelandic saga narrative" ), in ''Norse Greenland: Selected Papers of the Hvalsey Conference 2008'', Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 2, 30–51〕 Erik the Red (Old Norse: Eiríkr rauði), having been banished from Iceland for manslaughter, allegedly explored the uninhabited southwestern coast of Greenland during the three years of his banishment.〔 〕〔 〕 He made plans to entice settlers to the area, even purposefully choosing the name Greenland to attract potential colonists, saying "that people would be more eager to go there because the land had a good name". The inner reaches of one long fjord, named ''Eiriksfjord'' after him, was where he eventually established his estate ''Brattahlid''. He issued tracts of land to his followers.〔Wernick, Robert; ''The Seafarers: The Vikings,'' (1979), 176 pages, Time-Life Books, Alexandria, Virginia: ISBN 0-8094-2709-5.〕 At its peak, the colony consisted of two settlements, the Eastern, at the southern tip of Greenland and the Western Settlement, partway up the west coast of Greenland (a smaller settlement near the Eastern Settlement is sometimes considered the Middle Settlement), with a combined population of 3,000–5,000; at least 400 farms have been identified by archaeologists.〔 Norse Greenland had a bishopric (at Garðar) and exported walrus ivory, furs, rope, sheep, whale or seal blubber, live animals such as polar bears, and cattle hides. In 1126, the population requested a Bishop (headquartered at Garðar), and in 1261, they accepted the overlordship of the Norwegian King although it continued to have its own law, and became almost completely independent after 1349, the time of the Black Death. In 1380, the Norwegian Kingdom entered into a personal union with the Kingdom of Denmark. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Norse colonization of the Americas」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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