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31-598: Because of its location, this area was one of the first parts of Greenland settled by the Norse and one of the last settled by the Inuit . The town was founded in 1770 as Nennortalik. In 1797, a permanent trading depot was set up in Nanortalik by traders from Julianehåb . Due to poor harbour facilities, the town was moved three kilometers northward in 1830, where it remains today. Of the old town, only some scattered ruins remain. Nanortalik

62-602: A large-scale expansion in all directions, giving rise to the Viking Age . In English-language scholarship since the 19th century, Norse seafaring traders, settlers and warriors have commonly been referred to as Vikings . Historians of Anglo-Saxon England distinguish between Norse Vikings (Norsemen) from Norway, who mainly invaded and occupied the islands north and north-west of Britain, as well as Ireland and western Britain, and Danish Vikings, who principally invaded and occupied eastern Britain. Modern descendants of Norsemen include

93-486: A maximum of about half a meter. The valley also has some 300 other plant species, and many lichens . The wildlife of the Nanortalik Island is rather sparse due to native hunters. As a result, ravens , seagulls and snow buntings are some of the very few abundant larger bird species, and no mammal larger than a mouse is likely to be seen. However, the surrounding areas count numerous species. In addition to seals,

124-564: A number of recognized subspecies (such as glauca , stipulifera , acutifolia , callicarpaea ) and varieties (such as acutifolia , glauca , stipulata , villosa ), but there are only small morphological differences to tell them apart. Furthermore, S. glauca is known to form hybrids with other willows, resulting in intermediates that are visually difficult to distinguish from one another. Some varieties and subspecies have very specific or limited distribution, though. The hybrid S. arctophila × S. glauca subsp. callicarpaea , for instance,

155-708: A year. Small-scale fishing , crab fishing, seal and seabird hunting and tourism provide most local revenue. Decades ago, a graphite mine operated some 20 km from the town, but it was abandoned in 1925. While Greenland is almost completely without trees, the Qinngua Valley some 40 km from Nanortalik town has the only forest in Greenland (at 60°17′38″N 44°29′45″W  /  60.29389°N 44.49583°W  / 60.29389; -44.49583 ). Here, willow ( Salix glauca ) and birch ( Betula pubescens ) grow up to several meters. Most other places, trees grow to

186-411: Is also nearby. Torssukatak Fjord, with the huge Thumbnail sea cliffs, and Pamiagdluk Island, are also within reach by chartered boat. Nanortalik has a tundra climate ( Köppen climate classification ET ) with heavy oceanic and polar influences, which creates moderately high precipitation rates, and low temperature differences between seasons respectively. Winters in Nanortalik are very mild compared to

217-624: Is located on a small island (also named Nanortalik) on the shores of the Labrador Sea , roughly 100 km north of Cape Farewell , the southern tip of Greenland. The headland nearby is known as Cape Egede . The surrounding district extends from the island of Qeqertarsuaq near Alluitsup Paa down to Cape Farewell and the 60 km long Lindenow Fjord on the east coast. The district covers a total of 15,000 sq. kilometers (5,800 sq. miles). Nearby settlements are Narsarmijit , Alluitsup Paa (Sydprøven), Tasiusaq , Aappilattoq , Ammassivik as well as

248-472: Is not found in Canada, and is common in eastern parts of Greenland , but absent from the west, whereas S. glauca subsp. glauca is not found on Greenland at all. As with other willows, S. glauca is an important food source for a variety of animals, particularly wintering ungulates , providing them with a rich source of calcium and phosphorus. It is considered moderately important as moose browse , and during

279-494: Is the third-largest town in the Kujalleq municipality. The population has decreased over the last several years. Most towns and settlements in southern Greenland have had negative growth over the last two decades, with many settlements rapidly depopulating. Nanortalik Heliport operates year-round as a helicopter hub of Air Greenland , linking Nanortalik with all regional settlements and Narsarsuaq Airport , and hence indirectly with

310-556: Is usually a shrub growing up to 1.2 m (3.9 ft) tall, but in appropriate habitat it becomes a tree up to 6 m (20 ft) tall. The smooth gray bark becomes furrowed with age. The species is dioecious , with male and female reproductive parts occurring on separate individuals. This species has secondary sexual dimorphism , with male and female individuals different in function or morphology in aspects other than their reproductive structures. For example, female plants are more sensitive to drought conditions. The seed stays on

341-618: The Danes , Icelanders , Faroe Islanders , Norwegians , and Swedes , who are now generally referred to as " Scandinavians " rather than Norsemen. The word Norseman first appears in English during the early 19th century: the earliest attestation given in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is from Walter Scott 's 1817 Harold the Dauntless . The word was coined using

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372-695: The Faroe Islands . Salix glauca Salix pseudolapponum Salix glauca is a species of flowering plant in the willow family known by the common names gray willow , grayleaf willow , white willow , and glaucous willow . It is native to North America, where it occurs throughout much of Alaska , northern and western Canada, and the contiguous United States south through the Rocky Mountains to northern New Mexico . It can also be found in Greenland , northwestern Europe, and Siberia. This willow

403-626: The Varangian Guard . Modern Scandinavian languages have a common word for Norsemen: the word nordbo ( Swedish : nordborna , Danish : nordboerne , Norwegian : nordboerne , or nordbuane in the definite plural ) is used for both ancient and modern people living in the Nordic countries and speaking one of the North Germanic languages . The British conception of the Vikings' origins

434-493: The Danish–German border. The southernmost living Vikings lived no further north than Newcastle upon Tyne , and travelled to Britain more from the east than from the north. The Norse Scandinavians established polities and settlements in what are now Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales), Ireland, Iceland, Russia, Belarus, France, Sicily , Belgium, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, Greenland , Canada, and

465-651: The Germans, Lochlanach (Norse) by the Gaels and Dene (Danes) by the Anglo-Saxons. The Gaelic terms Finn-Gall (Norwegian Viking or Norwegian), Dubh-Gall (Danish Viking or Danish) and Gall Goidel (foreign Gaelic) were used for the people of Norse descent in Ireland and Scotland, who assimilated into the Gaelic culture. Dubliners called them Ostmen, or East-people, and

496-526: The Norsemen, for a long time in bonds of captivity to the heathens". In modern scholarship, Vikings is a common term for attacking Norsemen, especially in connection with raids and monastic plundering by Norsemen in the British Isles , but it was not used in this sense at the time. In Old Norse and Old English, the word simply meant 'pirate'. The Norse were also known as Ascomanni , ashmen , by

527-742: The Northmen who visited the Eastern Slavic lands originated. Archaeologists and historians of today believe that these Scandinavian settlements in the East Slavic lands formed the names of the countries of Russia and Belarus . The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them Varangians ( Old Norse : Væringjar , meaning "sworn men"), and the Scandinavian bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors were known as

558-462: The adjective norse , which was borrowed into English from Dutch during the 16th century with the sense 'Norwegian', and which by Scott's time had acquired the sense "of or relating to Scandinavia or its language, esp[ecially] in ancient or medieval times". As with modern use of the word viking , therefore, the word norseman has no particular basis in medieval usage. The term Norseman does echo terms meaning 'Northman', applied to Norse-speakers by

589-548: The allusion to polar bears in its name, they are rare sights in Nanortalik, but occasionally come drifting in on sea ice from East Greenland from January to June. Seals are common in surrounding fjords. Most common is the ringed seal , followed by the hooded seal and harp seal . From August until October minke whales are common near the opening of the Tasermiut Fjord. Occasionally, humpback whales and orcas are spotted. With 1,185 inhabitants as of 2020, Nanortalik

620-518: The area's inhabitants. Between 2004 and 2013, the Nalunaq goldmine was active in Kirkespir Valley (Kirkespirdalen; 60°21′34″N 44°49′54″W  /  60.35944°N 44.83167°W  / 60.35944; -44.83167 ), 30 km north Nanortalik. There were plans to build a road between Nanortalik and the mine so workers could live in the town. But the decision and planning took too long, so

651-597: The company built simple apartments for the workers at the mine. It was less attractive for Greenlanders to live at such a place, so most workers were from other countries. During the spring, many Greenlanders hunt hooded seals among the outer islands, where the pack ice drifts up from the east coast on its way north. The age-old culture of the Inuit lives on in this annual hunting tradition. Nanortalik has little productive trade. There are no factories and no large-scale fishing activities as sea ice prevents fishing for several months

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682-701: The following settlements with no more than 20 inhabitants each: Saputit , Nalasut , Nuugaarsuk , Akuliaruseq , Qallimiut , Qorlortorsuaq , Alluitsoq , and the weather station Ikerasassuaq . Nanortalik Island is located near the mouth of the 70 km long Tasermiut Fjord . The island measures about 10 km across and features two minor mountains: Quaqqarsuasik ( Danish : Storfjeldet , lit.   'Big Mountain'; 559m) and Quassik ( Danish : Ravnefjeldet , lit.   'Raven Mountain'; 308m). There are high mountain peaks and vertical walls in nearby Tasermiut Fjord. Ketil Mountain (1500m) and Ulamertorsuaq are commonly climbed. Ravnefjeldet

713-558: The name Oxmanstown (an area in central Dublin; the name is still current) comes from one of their settlements; they were also known as Lochlannaigh , or Lake-people. The Slavs , the Arabs and the Byzantines knew them as the Rus' or Rhōs ( Ῥῶς ), probably derived from various uses of rōþs- , i.e. "related to rowing", or from the area of Roslagen in east-central Sweden, where most of

744-840: The northern part of its range, this plant codominates with other species of willow on floodplains and in shrubby riparian and tundra habitat. It may also grow scattered throughout coniferous forests and woodlands, dominated often by spruces . In the southern part of its range, it grows in alpine and subalpine climates . Like many other willows, it colonizes freshly cleared habitat, such as floodplains recently scoured by water and forests recently burned. The taxonomy of S. glauca has been described as "confusing". With considerable geographic variation across its wide circumboreal-polar range, S. glauca may be considered "a very widespread and polymorphic species or species group", with currently no consensus whether it should be subdivided into races, subspecies or varieties. Formally and informally, there are

775-725: The pack ice also brings polar bears from the east coast – hence the name Nanortalik. Every year a number of bears are sighted in the area, but they are rarely a threat to people. During the spring and late summer, there are many whales in the waters around the town; minke whales are most common. Bird life includes raven , ptarmigan , glaucous gull , Iceland gull , snow bunting , guillemot , eider , king eider , gyrfalcon , white-tailed eagle , redpoll , red-necked phalarope , various sandpipers , red-breasted merganser , red-throated diver , great northern diver , cormorant , long-tailed duck , puffin , northern wheatear , little auk , various ducks , and more rarely, snowy owls . Despite

806-795: The peoples they encountered during the Middle Ages. The Old Frankish word Nortmann ("Northman") was Latinised as Normannus and was widely used in Latin texts. The Latin word Normannus then entered Old French as Normands . From this word came the name of the Normans and of Normandy , which was settled by Norsemen in the tenth century. The same word entered Hispanic languages and local varieties of Latin with forms beginning not only in n- , but in l- , such as lordomanni (apparently reflecting nasal dissimilation in local Romance languages). This form may in turn have been borrowed into Arabic:

837-427: The plant until fall, when it is dispersed . The seed is coated in downy fibers that help it disperse on the wind and on water. Unlike the seeds of many other willows, these do not germinate immediately on contact with the substrate, but overwinter under the snow and sprout in the spring. This provides cold stratification to the seeds, and allows them a few weeks more to develop than in summer-dispersing willows. In

868-657: The prominent early Arabic source al-Mas‘ūdī identified the 844 raiders on Seville not only as Rūs but also al-lawdh’āna . The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , written in Old English , distinguishes between the pagan Norwegian Norsemen ( Norðmenn ) of Dublin and the Christian Danes ( Dene ) of the Danelaw . In 942, it records the victory of King Edmund I over the Norse kings of York: "The Danes were previously subjected by force under

899-605: The rest of Greenland and with Europe. Norsemen The Norsemen (or Norse people ) were a North Germanic linguistic group of the Early Middle Ages , during which they spoke the Old Norse language . The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the predecessor of the modern Germanic languages of Scandinavia . During the late eighth century, Scandinavians embarked on

930-402: The rest of Greenland, with average January temperature being -4 °C. However, the summers are rather cold for this latitude, with an average July temperature 8 °C (in contrast with Helsinki , which is also in a similar latitude, but experiences warmer summers of around 17 °C) Crab fishing , hunting for hooded seals , and fishing from small boats are the main sources of income for

961-553: Was inaccurate. Those who plundered Britain lived in what is today Denmark, Scania , the western coast of Sweden and Norway (up to almost the 70th parallel ) and along the Swedish Baltic coast up to around the 60th latitude and Lake Mälaren . They also came from the island of Gotland , Sweden. The border between the Norsemen and more southerly Germanic tribes, the Danevirke , today is located about 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of

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