Herjolfsfjord was the
Norse name of a
fjord
In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...
in
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
where one of their major homesteads was located. The fjord is approximately 50 km northwest of
Cape Farewell and is now called Narssap Sarqa.
Norse period
The name Herjolfsfjord was in honour of
Herjolf Bardsson, one of the founding chieftains of the Norse colony in
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
established circa 985 AD, as recounted in the
Greenlanders Saga and The
Landnámabók
(, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE.
is divided into five parts and ov ...
. Herjolf's homestead,
Herjolfsnes, was located on the western shoreline of the fjord's end, facing the open ocean. The other chieftains favoured the heads of fjords, inland and away from the ocean, where farming conditions were better, which suggests that Herjolf was more interested in establishing a port-of-call than farming.
[Farley Mowat, ''Westviking'' (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1965), pg. 84-5] Herjolfsfjord was the southern- and easternmost extent of major Norse homesteading in Greenland. Archeologists have identified 8 other smaller Norse sites on the fjord, about half on each side.
Modern period
The modern Greenlandic name of the fjord is Narssap Sarqa, with the northwest fork called Amitsuarssuk. It features one community,
Narsarmijit
Narsarmijit, formerly Narsaq Kujalleq and Frederiksdal (Anglicised: Frederiksthal), is a settlement in southern Greenland. It is located in the Kujalleq municipality near Cape Thorvaldsen. Its population was 62 in 2024. There has been a slow but ...
(sometimes appearing on maps as Narsaq Kujalleq and formerly Frederiksdal), located on the eastern shoreline about 3 km across the fjord from the ruins of the old Herjolfsnes homestead. The Herjolfsnes site later became known by Inuit Greenlanders as
Ikigait
Ikigait ( Danish: ''Herjulfsnæs'') is a former community in Greenland about 3 km west of Narsarmijit. It was the site of Herjólfr Bárðarson's farm Herjolfsnes ("Herjolf's Point"), one of the easternmost of the Norse settlements during thei ...
, but is now uninhabited.
Details
The fjord is approximately 16 km long, about two-thirds of which extends north from the ocean end (59.986577, -44.692687) up to a fork, then turning northwest further inland for approximately 5 km, to the fjord's head (60.125168, -44.754610).
References
External links
A satellite view of HerjolfsfjordA tourist's photo of the ocean end of Herjolfsfjord/Narssap Sarqa, looking eastward from Herjolfsnes/IkigaitA tourist's photo of the head of Herjolfsfjord/Narssap Sarqa, looking southeast. This northern-third of the fjord is known as Amitsuarssuk to modern GreenlandersSailing instructions for the navigation of Herjolfsfjord/Narssap Sarqa
The Book of Settlement (English)
{{coord, 60.037, -44.699, type:waterbody_region:GL_dim:20000, display=inline,title
Fjords of Greenland