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OCR
SECOND CONTACT: PATTERNS OF “SECOND ENCOUNTERS”... information may be culled from several historical documents, with two independent authoritative source groups standing out: first, the Old Icelandic Annals (Islandske annaler), especially the Lögmanns-annall;° second, curial writings, especially the papal breve issued by Alexander VI, in 1492, on the occasion of vesting a Martin Knudsson (“Mathias Gadensis”) with the Greenland bishopric of Gardar in the area of present-day Nuuk. It has been known for centuries that the Icelandic Annals kept records of the maritime trade between Iceland, Norway, Greenland and even, occasionally, Markland (that is, the Labrador coastline) and Vinland (Newfoundland). As historical evidence, the ten annals we know are surprisingly exact in terms of dating. In this regard, they are doubly oriented insofar as they rely on both political and ecclesiastic history for frames of chronological reference. As far as Greenland is concerned, the kind of information that most frequently recurs in them concerns the nomination, departure, return, death, etc. of the actual Gardar bishop but we can also find some facts and figures related to trade and shipping here. To believe the Annales regii (conserved in Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen), regular exchange of goods and people between Iceland and Greenland continued until 1315; the Skälholts-Annaler (Ârni Magnüsson Institute, Reykjavik) state 1353, the fragmentary Aunalbrudstykke fra Skälholt 1369 (A. Magnüsson Institute), while the Lögmanns-annall (À. Magnüsson Institute) indicates 1406 or 1410 as a terminus ante guem. This time period of continued contact with Greenland constituted later, in the time ofthe Kalmar Union and Norway’s ensuing union with the Kingdom of Denmark, the legal basis grounding the Danish-Norwegian crown’s claim to Greenland - a claim that has never been seriously questioned. Since most Icelandic yearbooks were not kept after the turn of the 1415" centuries or stopped long before that (the one great exception being the Gottskalks Annaler, which carried on until 1578),’ the insight we have gained so far is still inadequate and further evidence is necessary to confirm that Denmark lost all communication with Greenland in the early 15" century. At this point, we may want to turn to the often-cited papal deed of donation published by Louis Bobé as the first document of the Diplomatarium Groenlandicum. In this Latin breve, dated 1492, Pope Alexander VI appoints Martin Knudsson (Mathias Gadensis OSB) to the Gardar episcopal see in Greenland.® The introduction of the letter provides interesting insight into 6 Gustav Storm (ed.): Islandske Annaler indtil 1578, Christiania, Grondahl & Sons, 1888. ” The annals were no longer kept after the following respective dates: Oddveria Annall: 1427; Flatobogens Annaler: 1394; Légmanns-anndll: 1430; Skalholts-Annaler: 1356; Annales regii: 1341; Annales vetustissimi: 1314; Henrik Hoyers Annaler: 1310; Annales Reseniani: 1295. Knudsson never left Germany for Greenland and it appears that ultimately, he converted to Lutheranism (“dessen Vorfahr aber Mathias Gadensis selbst Evangelisch geworden war,” Caspar Abels Stiffts- Stadt- und Landchronick Des jetzigen Fuerstenthums Halberstadt, Bernburg, Ch. G. Coerner, 1754, 460). His Catholic titles — episcopus Gadensis, Archiepiscopi * 211 +
