Skjoldungen () is a large uninhabited island in the

King Frederick VI Coast King Frederick VI Coast () is a major geographic division of Greenland. It comprises the coastal area of Southeastern Greenland in Sermersooq and Kujalleq municipalities fronting the Irminger Sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by King ...

, southeastern

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 ...

. Administratively it is part of the

Sermersooq Sermersooq () is a municipality in Greenland, formed on 1 January 2009 from five previous, smaller municipalities. Its administrative seat is the city of Nuuk (formerly called Godthåb), the capital of Greenland, and it is the most populous ...

municipality. The weather of the island is characterized by

tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. It is classified as ET according to the Köppen climate classification. It is a climate which at least one month has an average temperature high enough ...

. The island was named by

Wilhelm August Graah Wilhelm August Graah (1793–1863) was a Danish naval officer and Arctic explorer. Graah had mapped areas of West Greenland when he, in 1828–30, was sent by King Frederick VI of Denmark on an expedition to the unmapped eastern coast with ...

(1793–1863) after ''Skjoldungen'' or ''Skioldungen'', a honorific title for the successors (

Scylding The Scyldings ( OE Scyldingas) or Skjǫldungs ( ON Skjǫldungar), both meaning "descendants of Scyld/Skjǫldr", were, according to legends, a clan or dynasty of Danish kings, that in its time conquered and ruled Denmark and Sweden together with ...

s) of legendary

King Skjold King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by fi ...

to the ancient

Danish throne The monarchy of Denmark is a constitutional institution and a historic office of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Kingdom includes Denmark proper and the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The Kingdom of Denmark was alrea ...

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

Geography

Skjoldungen is a coastal island in the southeastern shores of Greenland. It is located between two fjords, the Southern Skjoldungen Fjord (), to the southwest, and the Northern Skjoldungen Fjord () to the northeast between Skjoldungen and one of the arms of the

Thorland Thorland () is a peninsula in the King Frederick VI Coast, southeastern Greenland. It is a part of the Sermersooq municipality. History One of the coastal islands, Igdluluarssuk (Sattiaatteq) at the entrance of the fjord on its southern side, h ...

Peninsula. The Morke Sound () is a wide

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

that joins both fjords in the NW, separating the island from the mainland. The island stretches in a NE/SW direction. Its highest point is Azimuthbjerg, a 1,738 m high

ultra-prominent peak An ultra-prominent peak, or ultra for short, is a mountain summit with a topographic prominence of or more; it is also called a P1500. The prominence of a peak is the minimum height of climb to the summit on any route from a higher peak, or fro ...

at the NW end of the island. Skjoldungen's maximum width is . Skjoldungen Island has a rugged terrain, which includes the Skjoldmøen, Bjarje and Hjalte

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s and the Gedebukken, Pandebrasken, Skuren and Sfinksen

nunatak A nunatak (from Inuit language, Inuit ) is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They often form natural pyramidal peaks. Isolated nunataks are also cal ...

s. The southern part divides into two peninsulas jutting southeastwards, the Roar Peninsula () and the Helge Peninsula (). Skjoldungen's southernmost headland is Cape Niels Juel, a narrow cape of reddish-brown rock at the end of the Helge Peninsula. long Anarnitsoq island lies just to the west of the cape.

History

Since the eastern coast of Greenland was inhabited by

Paleo-Eskimo The Paleo-Eskimo meaning ''"old Eskimos"'', also known as, pre-Thule people, Thule or pre-Inuit, were the peoples who inhabited the Arctic region from Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Chukotka (e.g., Chertov Ovrag) in present-day Russia across North Am ...

people around 4,000 years ago, the Skjoldungen Fjords were likely inhabited or visited by nomadic hunters. At the Qoornoq site, located on a small headland by the shore of the Southern Skjoldungen Fjord, there are archaeological remains of later historical periods. These include

Thule culture The Thule ( , ) or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Inuit. They developed in coastal Alaska by 1000 AD and expanded eastward across northern Canada, reaching Greenland by the 13th century. In the process, they replaced people of the ...

graves indicating that

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

lived on the island after the 13th century. There are remains of relatively recent abandoned Inuit dwellings inside the fjord on Skjoldungen's western shore. These date back to 1938 when one hundred and fifty

from

Ammassalik Ammassalik Island () is an island in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland, with an area of .

were convinced by the Danish authorities to settle in this large island. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasting, weather forecasts and to study the weather and clima ...

was built and run by the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

on Skjoldungen, as well as another one on Cape Adelaer further south down the coast at . The inhabitants of the Inuit settlement were relocated in 1965 following a nationwide program to concentrate the population of Greenland in a few larger towns. Another reason was that fishing and hunting were not enough to keep the population even close to a state of self-sufficiency. Currently the island is a popular destination with tourists on

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

s to Greenland owing to its impressive landscapes.

Bibliography

Mette Felbo, ''Grønlandske sommertelte'', Grønland, Årg. 41, nr. 1 (1993), p. 19-29
*Hans Christian Gulløv, ''Thulekulturen i Sydøstgrønland - set fra Skjoldungen'', Forskning i Grønland, 1994, nr. 1/2, pp. 21–31

on the 1992 ethnographic/archaeological expedition 'Projekt Skjoldungen'; background to the fieldwork
Jette Lewinsky, ''Mosses of the Skjoldungen Area, Southeast Greenland,'' Lindbergia Vol. 1, No. 1/2 (1971), pp. 83-90
*Spencer Apollonio, ''Lands That Hold One Spellbound: A Story of East Greenland'', 2008
Hans Christian Gulløv, ''Archaeological Commentary on the Isotopic Study of the Greenland Thule Culture'', Journal of the North Atlantic, Special Volume 3 (2012): 65–76

References

External links

Skjoldungen picturesGeochemical Constraints on the Origin of the Late Archean Skjoldungen Alkaline Igneous Province, SE Greenland
{cbignore, bot=medic
New insights on the north-eastern part of the Ketilidian orogen in South-East Greenland
Former populated places in Greenland Sermersooq Uninhabited islands of Greenland World War II sites in Greenland

Geography

History

See also

Bibliography

References

External links