Why is iceland called iceland, and greenland called greenland if neither one fits their name?

Question

This may be a stupid question, but I've always been curious. I know Greenland is Icy and Iceland is Green, any answers?

Answer 1

When Erik the Red was forced out of Iceland to what is now Greenland, he proclaimed the land "Greenland" so that people would believe it was a productive place that could be sustainable and people would come and invest their money in it. He hated Icelanders after he was forced out and basically tricked people into coming to Greenland. Read "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" by Jared Diamond. We read it in my Environmental Science class in college and it is very informative and very interesting too regarding this and other mysteries around the world.

Answer 2

The Viking who discovered Iceland didn't want a lot of people, so he named it Iceland to discourage too many people from settling there. The same one also discovered Greenland, so he named it Greenland to get people to go there instead of Iceland. The names should probably be switched, but who wants to change 1000 years of history

Answer 3

The name Greenland comes from those Scandinavian settlers. In the Norse sagas, it is said that Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for murder. He, along with his extended family and slaves, set out in ships to find the land that was rumored to be to the northwest. After settling there, he named the land Grønland ("Greenland") in order to attract more people to settle there. Greenland was also called Gruntland ("Ground-land") on early maps. Whether Green is an erroneous transcription of Grunt ("Ground"), which refers to shallow bays, or vice versa, is not known.
i am not very sure of iceland... but i feel that the first settlers in iceland(Norse or irish ) felt iceland icier than their homeland

Answer 4

Ancient Vikings named Iceland to deceive their enemies into thinking it was a barren wasteland and named Greenland so the enemy would travel to the wrong place. I lived in Iceland for a year.

Answer 5

I can't remember who did it...I think it was the vikings really. The name was used as a diversion. If the enemy found Greenland and saw it, the theory is that they would think Iceland was far worse and would never want to try to attack because it would be useless

Answer 6

Iceland was nice and they wanted to keep people away from it by calling it Iceland. Greenland sucks and is cold so they clled it greendland to make people think it is a nice place

Answer 7

If I remember correctly, it's because whomever discovered these lands first ( I think it was the vikings) wanted the good land for themselves....so they fooled everyone by calling the snowy shitty one Greenland....then moving in to the nicer of the two...Iceland.

Answer 8

The Vikings wanted to trick people into going to the Icy place and staying away from there land, Iceland. They wanted to keep the best land for themselves.

Answer 9

Erik the Red named Greenland to attract settlers.

Iceland, well, 10 percent of it (the southeast portion) is covered by glaciers. So, naturally, if the first settlers arrived in the southeast, the first impression they get is... ice.

Answer 10

Actually they did ... Greenland was much warmer when the Vikings first settled there (during a previous period of global warming). There was also a period during the mid to late middle ages when a minor ice age like cooling period griped much of the nothern hemisphere leading to some places being much more iced over for a period than we see today.