In grade school, I was told that naming modern-day Greenland “Greenland” was a deliberate decision made with the intent of luring people into moving there. Marketing, basically. Don’t know how true that was, and I don’t remember any mention of Vikings.
partially true, Greenland is marketing but Iceland isn’t reverse marketing.
The early Norse settlers named the island Greenland. In the Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland with his father, Thorvald, who had committed manslaughter. With his extended family and his thralls (slaves or serfs), he set out in ships to explore an icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding a habitable area and settling there, he named it Grœnland (translated as “Greenland”), supposedly in the hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers.[27][28][29] The Saga of Erik the Red states: “In the summer, Erik left to settle in the country he had found, which he called Greenland, as he said people would be attracted there if it had a favourable name.” [30]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland
The island’s present name came from Flóki Vilgerðarson, who was the first Norseman to intentionally travel to Iceland. According to the Sagas of Icelanders, Flóki coined the name after he climbed a mountain, despondent after a harsh winter in present-day Vatnsfjörður, and saw an ice cap.[26] The notion that Iceland’s settlers chose that name to discourage competing settlement is most likely a myth.[26]
Are you telling me that something I learned in grade school wasn’t 100% accurate? My world is shattered!
Sarcasm aside, thanks for the info
to be fair that’s pretty much always how it’s told; as the names being switched on purpose, and that’s how i knew it as well. it’s easy to see how people can make the assumption about Iceland once they learn about Greenland’s naming.
anyway my purpose was to say “it is true!” and cite the article but I realized it didn’t say anything about Iceland so I checked and that’s also how I learned that they were separate instances.
Komedi.
Massa komedi.
!historymemes@lemmy.world would love this too!
Classic grift
