Introduction; Prologue: The Medieval Settlements in Greenland; 1. Land of Wealth and Violence: Early Representations of Greenland; 2. Greenland and Discourses of Possession; 3. Beyond the Horizon: Greenland in Eighteenth-Century Perspectives; 4. 1818: British Greenland; 5. Greenland's Fall and Restoration; 6. The Surpassing Adventures of Allan Gordon; 7. Arctic Adventure Tales: Science and Imperialism; 8. Vanished Settlers: A Return to New Beginnings; Conclusion.
A gripping account of one of the most contested questions in colonial history: what became of Greenland's vanished Viking settlers?
Robert W. Rix is Associate Professor and Director of Research at the University of Copenhagen. He is widely known for his prolific publication profile in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century studies. This includes areas such as politics, religion, language, nationalism, and print culture. Rix has also published on earlier periods, for example The Barbarian North in Medieval Imagination Ethnicity, Legend, and Literature (2014).
'The Vanished Settlers of Greenland embeds speculation about the
fate – or survival – of the Norse medieval Greenlandic colony in a
series of historical contexts, demonstrating the long and deep
roots of the European imaginative fascination with the Arctic and
its peoples. Moving adeptly between political and cultural history,
ethnography, literary criticism and post-colonial critique, Rix's
study is indispensable to understanding Greenland's colonial past –
and its changing present.' Carolyne Larrington, University of
Oxford
'This remarkable book is a detailed account of European
misconceptions, legends and dreams about Greenland as a sort of
Arctic Eldorado, where the supposed survival of a colony of
Scandinavian settlers cut off from civilisation for centuries
seemed to offer explorers the chance literally to 'meet the
ancestors'. But in the end, as Robert Rix's impressive scholarship
demonstrates, it is a story of empire, racism and greed.' Heather
O'Donoghue, University of Oxford
'In The Vanished Settlers of Greenland, Robert Rix guides us
expertly through the enduring and extensive cultural legacy of a
lost Norse colony, ably crossing unfamiliar scholarly terrain
whilst discovering links to canonical writers like Poe and Doyle
along the way. With a chronological scope stretching from the tenth
to the twentieth century, and discussion of a rich array of
historical and critical sources, this lucid and informative book is
not only an important contribution to knowledge in a variety of
fields but also a fascinating and compelling read in its own
right.' Cian Duffy, Lund University
'The Vanished Settlers of Greenland presents the captivating tale,
spanning several centuries, of how 'Greenland' became a conceptual
and an imaginative space, a blend of fact and fiction, a
construction of European and US-American imperial imagination.
Meticulously researched and laid out with expert clarity, it
reveals that at the core of all attempts to take possession of and
subject the real Greenland lies that most intransigent phantasm:
the master trope of the fabled lost Eastern Settlement. Rix's
magisterial study is a gripping read, a benchmark publication.'
Christoph Bode, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
'In The Vanished Settlers of Greenland, Robert Rix deftly moves
between a diverse range of sources – medieval Norse texts to
romantic-imperialist poetry, pseudo-scientific writing to dime
store novels – to tell the story of Greenland, not as it was, but
what it was imagined to be by outsiders. Brimming with illuminating
case studies, this timely and compelling study of a place
alternately seen as dangerous or a land of plenty ripe for
exploitation is crucial for understanding the long-standing
fascination that Greenland has held in Anglo-American and
Scandinavian culture.' Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir
'A masterful analysis of the mythography of 'Lost Greenland' and
its settler colonialism, Robert Rix's beautifully told account
unlocks the Arctic's oldest tragedy and the death of early
Christendom in the far north, exploring its pervasive and
consequential mythology.' Michael Bravo, University of
Cambridge
'… Robert Rix tells the gripping story of the missing pioneers,
placing their poignant history in the context of cultural discourse
and imperial politics. Ranging across fiction, poetry, navigation,
reception and tales of exploration, he expertly delves into one of
the most contested questions in the annals of colonization.' James
A. Cox, Midwest Book Review
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