Was greenland really named so because of its previously green environment?

Question

I am listening to Michael Savage and he played a sound byte of a geology professor/author, who claimed greenland was given the name of greenland because of the environment that used to be present. Is that true? I learned in my schooling that it was called so because the vikings wanted to fool their pursuers by calling the icy, cold region greenland and the actual greenland iceland. What do you "scholars" say?

Answer 1

It is called Greenland because, when the Vikings discovered the island, it was just that....green. It happened while the earth was in a warmer period and the ice had melted from the edges of the southern portion of the island.

The Vikings settled there from quite some time. There are ruins of their houses and traces of their pasutres still visible today.

Answer 2

Erik the Red landed on Greenland in the 900s when the earth was in what is known as the "Medieval Warm Period." Icecaps and glaciers were further north, growing seasons were longer, and all of Europe was entering a period of prosperity and steady population growth. So, yes, Greenland was greener then. The name was chosen to entice other Northmen (Norse) to emigrate.

Leif Eriksson probably staged his trips and colonizing ventures to the Americas from Greenland. When the earth started cooling around 1200-1300, ice blocked the clear passage.

Answer 3

Greenland is called so because a viking outcast named leif the lucky was cast out there. He made his way back, to iceland, naming the new country greenland to entice his viking fellows to go this there in that crappy cold place with him.

Answer 4

Partially true. Greenland was a bit greener then but the name was really to entice people to make the voyage. Most who did wound up feeling a bit ripped off. Iceland was so named to discourage people from going there and disturbing/raiding those who had settled there.

Answer 5

I'm far from scholarly, but I was taught in school that the reason it was called Greenland was to entice people to emigrate there in the Victorian era, so as to reduce the overpopulation of the cities at the time. Similar to why Iceland is so-called, perhaps, seeing as it does not live up to its name.

Answer 6

I do not know why it was called Greenland, but yes I have read that at one time it and Antartaca were not covered in ice but were green fertile lands. However, they suspect that this was about 10,000 to 13,000 years ago.

Answer 7

greenland's not green. iceland is green. the vikings screwed up

Answer 8

no it hasnt been green. Greenland is ice and Iceland is green

Answer 9

I heard the same thing you did, but it probably really was green at one time. Remember the land used to be one massive supercontinent named pangea. When it was together just about everthing was green. When it broke apart and certain parts of it went to the artic and antartic poles thing really changed.

Answer 10

interesting question, great 1st answer.