Gunnbjörn Ulfsson
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by Carl Rasmussen
Gunnbjörn Ulfsson (fl. c. 10th century), also called Gunnbjörn Ulf-Krakuson, was a Norse explorer, originally from Norway and later a settler of Iceland. He is credited with being the first European to sight Greenland when he was blown off course during a voyage from Norway to Iceland. Several modern place names in Greenland commemorate him, most notably Gunnbjørn Fjeld, the island’s highest mountain.[1]
Sources
The only reference to Gunnbjörn is found in the Book of Settlement of Iceland (Landnámabók). It records that his sons lived in Iceland’s Westfjords and notes that the Gunnbjörnssker were named after him. Blown off course while sailing from Norway, Gunnbjörn and his crew sighted islands west of Iceland (later called Gunnbjörn's skerries). They reported the discovery but did not land. An exact date for this event is not preserved in the sagas; sources suggest dates ranging from about 876 to 932. The first recorded visits to the skerries were made by Snæbjörn Galti around 978, and soon after by Erik the Red, who explored Greenland and later established a settlement there.[2][3]
Waldemar Lehn (1911–2005), professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba and an expert on atmospheric refraction and mirages, argued that the skerries Gunnbjörn reported may have been a superior mirage of Greenland’s coast rather than actual islands.[4] Such phenomena were known to the Norse, who called them hillingar.[5] If this interpretation is correct, Gunnbjörn’s voyage would represent the first recorded European sighting of geologic North America.
References
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10. Chicago. 1955. p. 858.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "Greenland's Lost Islands". The History of Nothing. September 22, 2013. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
- ^ "Gunnbjörn Ulf-Krakuson & Greenland". University of Victoria, Medieval Mapping Project. 31 January 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
- ^ Lehn, Waldemar (Jul 2000). "Skerrylike mirages and the discovery of Greenland". Applied Optics. 39 (21): 3612–9. Bibcode:2000ApOpt..39.3612L. doi:10.1364/ao.39.003612. PMID 18349932.
- ^ Seaver, Kirsten A. (2014-11-30). The Last Vikings: The Epic Story of the Great Norse Voyagers. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 16–17. ISBN 9781784530570.