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MIKLÓS VASSÁNYI
how Greenland was perceived Írom the papal court and Italy in general at the
close of the 15" century. As the text states, the Gardar church “is situated at
the end of the world, in Greenland” (“in fine mundi sita in terra Gronlandie"),
where people go almost starving “because of the lack of bread, wine and
oil” (“ob defectum panis, vini et olei”). For us, however, the chief point is
the statement that “since navigation has become extremely rare to that land
on account of the thorough congelation of the waters, it is believed that no
ship has made landfall there in the past eighty years” (“propter rarissimas
navigationes ad dictam terram, causantibus intentissimis aquarum
congelationibus, fieri solitas, navis aliqua ab octuaginta annis non creditur
applicuisse”).” This statement suggests 1410 as the year in which Greenland
navigation was believed to have ceased, and even if this dating derives from
“hearsay and rumour” on the part of the curia (as F. Gad suggests),"° it is in
concord with what can be extracted from the Old Icelandic Annals.
As regards later times, then, a number of Danish royal documents point to
the fact that throughout the 16" century, the Danish-Norwegian government
made repeated and strenuous efforts to identify the Greenland sailing routes,
and to sail them, chiefly for religious, economic, and political reasons.
The letter King Frederic II sent to lensmand (provincial governor) Christopher
Walkenborg in November 1579 is one of a series of texts substantiating this
claim. Here, the sovereign asks his regional representative to rig out two
ships for English navigator Jacob Alday who had just returned from a semi¬
successful journey on which “he approached Greenland and sighted it but
could not make landfall because of the ice” (“hand berether att haffue weritt
wnder landitt och siett thett, och dog for isz icke haffuer kund kommitt paa
landit”)."" The fact that this missive was sent to the provincial governor in
Bergen implies that this city was still regarded as a convenient springboard
for early modern cruising routes to Greenland. The letter further specifies
that Captain Alday has been royally commissioned to sail to Greenland early
Magdeburgensis Vicarius — are enumerated at the head of a letter of dedication published by
Valentin Ernst Löscher (Unschuldige Nachrichten von Alten und Neuen Theologischen Sachen,
Buechern, Uhrkunden, Controversien, Veraenderungen, Anmerckungen, Vorschlaegen, u. d. g.
... Auff das Jahr 1712, Leipzig, Johann Friedrich Braun, 740-742). His name also appears in
an inscription on a chalice in the treasury of the Halberstadt Cathedral: “frater mathias /
indignus episcopus gadensis / Anno domini 1501.” http://www.inschriften.net/halberstadt¬
dom/inschrift/nr/di075-0157.html#content, Knudsson’s later career is described in detail by
Gad, History of Greenland, 180-181.
° All citations from Louis Bobé (ed.): Diplomatarium Groenlandicum 1492-1814. Aktstykker
og breve til oplysning om Gronlands besejling, kolonisation og missionering, Kobenhavn,
C.A. Reitzels Forlag, 1936, 3.
“No written or verbal source for the facts stated in the letter is revealed, and no notes or
letters have come to light to account for the curia’s knowledge.We must assume an oral
source, based on hearsay and rumour.” (Gad, History of Greenland, 181.)
H Bobé (ed.), Diplomatarium Groenlandicum, 8-9, document N 10.
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