Could you survive on the Vikings’ furthest frontier? Here’s the dark reality of Norse life on the edge

It was late in the 10th century, just before the turn of the milenium, that Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for his violence. Seeking a new home, he led his followers west to one of the most unforgiving environments in the Norse world: Greenland.

A harsh new Norse home

For the Norse, Greenland was the furthest edge of the habitable world. Life there was not measured in the frequency of plunder or military glory, but in whether communities could last through freezing winters, scarce resources and constant uncertainty.

Speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast, historian Eleanor Barraclough explained how the Norse arrived there in the first place, and what daily life was really like on this harsh frontier.

“After being outlawed from Iceland, Erik the Red goes west and he explores the west coast of Greenland,” explains Barraclough. “Erik spends those three years as an outlaw going up and down all the fjords on this west coast, and he names it Greenland because people are more likely to want to settle there if it’s got a good name.”

Greenland’s name may have been clever marketing, but the reality was anything but green. The island’s east coast was locked in ice, uninhabitable to all but nomadic hunters. As Erik soon learned, only the west coast, with fjords and small strips of grassland, offered a fragile foothold.

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“The east coast is not habitable. It’s very, very icy. The west coast is a different matter … you can just about farm there. You’re very much on the edge of habitable land, but you are still at that edge, not beyond it.”

Here, Norse settlers established two main farming regions: the Eastern Settlement, where Erik lived, and the Western Settlement further north.

“At the Eastern settlement is a couple of thousand people and a good number of farmsteads,” Barraclough explains. “And then the Western settlement is smaller. There are maybe 80 farmsteads at its height.”

Farming at the edge of possibility

Early settlers to this west coast of Greenland tried to transplant familiar Scandinavian farming practices. They brought cows, sheep, goats and horses in their ships, and attempted to grow crops such as barley. Archaeologists have found grinding stones that suggest early efforts to cultivate cereals.

But Greenland’s climate made arable farming almost impossible.

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“They do try and grow crops initially, but it’s not really feasible,” says Barraclough. “It’s just too far north, it’s too remote. The winters are too long and cold and dark for that. For the most part, the Norse Greenlanders don’t see bread on their table.”

Instead, livestock provided the basis of survival. During short summers, grass from fjord valleys was cut and stored as hay to feed animals through the winter. Cows supplied milk, sheep and goats provided wool and dairy products, while meat and hides were used sparingly. Families relied on butter, cheese and preserved dairy to survive the dark months – always hoping their fodder stores would last until spring.

Vikings hunting the Arctic

As time went on, farming alone could not sustain the settlements. Hunting and fishing became increasingly important.

Seal meat and fat provided vital calories during the winter, with animals caught on sea ice or during migration. Reindeer offered venison and hides, while walrus supplied not only meat but also ivory tusks – a commodity so valuable it was exported to markets as far away as England.

This delicate balance was constantly under threat. A failed fodder harvest or poor hunting season could tip households into famine. And crucially, unlike in Iceland or Norway, Greenlanders had no close neighbours to turn to for help.

Life on the farmstead

Daily life revolved around farmsteads built from stone, turf and timber. These were extended communities of families, workers and thralls: enslaved men and women who remain largely invisible in written sources but were central to Norse society.

“The thralls, they are so often invisible, but there are a lot of them, and they’re usually doing the nastiest, coldest, dirtiest, most dangerous jobs in any farmstead,” Barraclough says.

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Thralls tended animals in freezing conditions, hauled fodder, cut turf and accompanied dangerous hunts. Their labour, though rarely acknowledged, underpinned the survival of the entire settlement.

To live as a Viking Age thrall in Norse Greenland was to have one of the toughest lives across the entire Norse world.

Winter: the ultimate Norse enemy

Summer in the fjords could be deceptively pleasant, with green fields and grazing livestock. But winter was the true test of life in Greenland.

“Where you find most North Greenland farms, you will find green grassy fields. But the problem is the winters are very cold, very long, very dark and very icy … longer, darker, colder even than in Iceland,” says Barraclough.

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Unlike Iceland, where communities could trade or travel during hard times with the not-so-distant Norway, a Norse heartland, Greenland’s isolation made mistakes deadly. Firewood was scarce, hay ran short, and livestock could starve in barns.

Families endured months of darkness, surviving on dried seal meat, dairy products and whatever stores had been put aside.

Survival on the edge of the world

Ultimately, Erik the Red’s ‘Greenland’ was more an act of branding than of accurate description. For the Norse who followed him, survival here demanded a constant balancing act between fragile farmland, risky hunting and the uncertain rewards of trade.

For centuries they endured, maintaining links to Europe through ivory and occasional voyages, even as their settlements clung to the limits of habitable land.

But theirs was far from the Viking world of raids and conquest. It was a world of ceaseless struggle against climate and geography – where winters were the harshest enemies, thralls bore the toughest burdens and mere survival was the greatest reward.

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This article is based on an interview with Eleanor Barraclough, speaking to James Osborne on the HistoryExtra podcast. Listen to the full conversation.