What name did Norse settlers give Greenland, meaning “green land”?

Norse settlers called the island Greenland, a name traditionally associated with the phrase “green land.”

According to medieval Icelandic accounts, Erik the Red named Greenland after exploring its southwestern coast. The name may have been intended to attract settlers, since parts of the coast had comparatively mild conditions during the medieval warm period. Norse communities later developed farms in two main regions, the Eastern Settlement and the Western Settlement.

Greenland was not uniformly green, and most of its interior is covered by an enormous ice sheet. The Norse settlements depended on farming, hunting and trade, and they eventually disappeared during the fifteenth century. Greenland should not be confused with Vinland, the name associated with Norse exploration in North America, or Markland, another North American region mentioned in the sagas.