THE RUINS OF ERICSFIORD.
We were not long now in reaching our destination, which was the foot
of the extensive green slope on the north side of the fiord. Above
this slope, and from a quarter to half a mile from the bank, the
cliffs rise perpendicularly to an altitude of fifteen hundred feet.
To our right, as we approached, rose a lofty range of hills, which
separates the two branches of the fiord. Beyond these once flourished
the colonies of Brattahlid and Gardar. Behind and to the left of us
lies the island of Aukpeitsavik, which extends almost to Julianashaab.
Our first concern was to discover if the church which we knew to have
existed there was still standing. To our great satisfaction, its
walls were seen upon the green slope long before we reached the land,
although a cliff some thirty feet high, which formed its background,
prevented us from observing it clearly until we had come almost to
the shore.
Upon landing, there was a great scramble for the honor of first
entrance into the ruin. The scramble was over a tangled growth of
trailing junipers, crake-berry, whortle-berry, and willow bushes,
which grew in a rich grassy sod that exhibited many plants in bloom,
among which were conspicuous the dandelion, butter-cup, bluebell,
crow’s-foot, and cochlearia.
Leaving the party to their various occupations—the artists to their
several chosen tasks, the crew to get the boat ashore and cook the
dinner, the lovers to their jealousies, and the maids to their
coquetry, I set out with two friendly assistants to make a complete
survey of the ground.
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE OLD NORSE RUINS.]
The hill-side upon which stood the ancient town of Krakortok is much
broken, but there are many level patches, rich with vegetation, which
seem to have been once cultivated, and even now appear like arable
lands. Small streams course through them, giving a fine supply of
clear fresh water. Beside these streams the angelica grows to the
height of three feet. The stem of this plant furnishes the only
native production of the soil that the Esquimaux use for food, if we
except the cochlearia or scurvy grass, which is but little valued,
and is not nutritious. It is said that the old Northmen cultivated
barley here, and no one would doubt that such a thing were possible.
Even at the present time, if one might judge by the day of our visit
as typical of the season, barley might grow and ripen readily. Yet
Mr. Anthon informed me that such days were liable to be followed
by severe frosts, and that in any case the season is too short for
complete fruition. There is, therefore, no attempt made in any part
of Greenland, not even here in Ericsfiord, to raise any thing more
than the ordinary garden vegetables—namely, such of the crucifera as
lettuce, radishes, and cabbage—all of which flourish admirably as far
up as the Arctic Circle. The agricultural products of Greenland are
not, therefore, to be regarded as important in a commercial point
of view, though, with care, each inhabitant of Ericsfiord might be
well provided with every needful garden luxury. Potatoes would grow,
I believe, if they would only take the trouble to cultivate them
properly. To perfect any of the cereals would, however, be at present
a hopeless undertaking.
Yet the whole region about Krakortok bears evidence of former
cultivation. Garden patches were in the neighborhood of all the
buildings. The church and two other buildings were inclosed by a
wall, the outlines of which I had no difficulty in determining, and
which, judging from the mass of stones, must have been about five
feet high.
The church interested me most. Its walls are still quite perfect to
from ten to eighteen feet altitude, and even the form of the gable is
yet preserved. The door-ways, three in number, are not in the least
disturbed by time; the windows are mostly entire, except on the north
side, and the arched window in the eastern end is nearly perfect.
Beneath this window was the chancel, and the church was constructed
with singular exactness as to orientation. This could scarcely be by
accident, for the same accuracy is to be observed in all the other
sacred buildings that have been discovered in the neighborhood—the
walls standing within less than one degree of the meridian line, and
even this may have been an error of my instrument which I had not the
means of correcting, rather than an error of the Northmen. They were
evidently close observers of the movements of the heavenly bodies,
and must have known the north with great exactness, and they built
their church walls accordingly. These walls were four and a half feet
thick. The stones were flat, and no cement appears to have been used
other than blue clay.
In one angle of the church-yard there had been a building which I
supposed to have been the almonry; and in another part was the house
of the priest or bishop, the walls of which are still perfect to the
top of the door-way, and one of the windows.
[Illustration: GROUND-PLAN OF RUINS.]
Outside the church wall, but not far removed from it, there was a
building evidently of much pretension. It was divided into three
compartments, and was sixty-four by thirty-two feet. There was
another still farther to the westward, others to the east, and one
on the natural terrace above the church. Altogether the cluster of
buildings which composed the church estate—where dwelt the officers
who governed the country round about, and administered in this
distant place, at what was then thought to be “the farthest limit of
the habitable globe,” the ordinances of the pope at Rome—were nine in
number: a church, a tomb, an almonry, five dwellings, and one round
structure; the walls of which latter building had, like those of the
church-yard, completely fallen, but the outline of the foundation
was preserved. The walls had been four feet thick, and the diameter
of the building in the clear was forty-eight feet. It had but one
door-way, which opened towards the church.
To call this circular building a tower, in the sense of its
application to the famous round towers of Ireland, would be a great
stretch of the imagination. There is, however, a strange coincidence
in the circumstance of proximity to a church. Near all the church
edifices that have been discovered in Greenland a structure similar
to this one at Krakortok has been found. None of them are, however,
so large: its walls could not have been more than seven or eight
feet high. Its uses are unknown. Possibly it may have been a work of
military defense, perhaps a baptistery; there is nothing, however,
except its shape, to indicate that it was not a cow-house.
After completing my survey of this church estate, I visited other
parts of the fiord. The buildings have been very numerous hereabout,
but all except the church and bishop’s house are now levelled with
the earth, and so overgrown with willow, juniper, and birch that even
their outline is scarcely distinguishable.
What a wonderful change! what a sad wreck of humanity! Here people,
weary with war, had come to cultivate the arts of peace; here they
had built strong and comfortable dwellings; here they had reared
herds of cattle and flocks of sheep upon pastures of limitless
extent; here they had worshipped God according to the dictates of
their consciences; and now where are they? nothing left but this
“ruined trace.” A single inscription on a tomb-stone, carved in Runic
characters, is all the record that remains besides the crumbled
walls. This inscription reads:
“Vigdis, daughter of M***, rests here. May God
rejoice her soul.”
And may God rejoice the souls of all of those worthies of the olden
time!
I could not fail to experience a feeling of sadness as I stood beside
the tombs of a people now utterly extinct. It seemed as if voices
from the past were speaking to me from out the crumbling church,
from the almonry where the priest dispensed his alms, from the
holy-water stoup, from the tomb-stones bearing the sacred emblems
of our Christian faith; from everywhere, indeed, there was a silent
whispering that here a Christian people once dwelt in peace, and from
temples dedicated to Almighty God arose their anthems of praise above
the glittering crests of snow. That they should ever have come here
seems, however, more strange than that they should have perished as
they did.
* * * * *
Note.—The ruins of Krakortok, shown on page 67, were visited by
Captain Graah in 1828, as the cap-stone over the church door-way
(west end) will testify for many a day. This cap-stone is 12 feet 7
inches long by 2 feet 2 inches wide, and averages 8 inches thick. It
bears this inscription—G. M. G. M. & V. MDCCCXVIII—initial letters,
standing for Graah, Mathiesen, Gram, Motzfeldt, and Vahl, the
visiting party.—See _Graah’s Narrative_, p. 38.