Greenland's occupiers 1.0

Never mind some land grabber and his plans to 'Occupy Greenland'. Instead, get some perspective beyond your daily drips of news in The Greenland Vikings: Land of the Midnight Sun from the Fall of Civilizations podcast.

Paul Cooper's narration transports listeners to the icy margins of medieval Europe, when Erik Thorvaldsson a.k.a. Eric the Red seeks out life after exile, first as a boy from his native Norway, and then from Iceland around 982 AD, and finds what he 'sells' fellow Norse settlers as 'Greenland'.

Cooper excels in weaving together archaeology, climate science and narrative storytelling. We learn how the Vikings built farms, raised livestock and monopolised the walrus ivory trade, sustaining contact with Europe for centuries.


Yet, this success is fragile: onset of the Little Ice Age, dwindling trade links after the Black Death, and hostile encounters with Greenland's indigenous Inuits chipping away at the survival of Viking colonists. The listener is immersed in the stark Greenlandic landscape both in space and time.

The episode reminds us that civilisations - even ones that seem resurgent - are not defeated in a single moment but eroded by economics, isolation and climate.