Brattahlið

July 30, 2025

The morning was spent with a presentation by Ellen Frederikssen, the motive force behind the Greenlandic Sheep Wool Project. She is trying to revitalize the use of sheep's wool in Greenland, where tons of wool are burned every year because there is no market for it. Lindblad Expeditions has been helping with the project, which is very much in its infancy.

"The Greenlandic Sheep Wool Project is the very first project in the Arctic sponsored by the Artisan Fund aboard the National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions fleet. Working with local educator and artisan, Ellen Frederiksen, whose husband is a descendent of Greenland’s first sheep farmer, this initiative provided critical equipment to help the people of Qassiarsuk process wool, train artisans, and create blankets, mittens, yarn and more to sell to both visitors and locals."

We then visited her farm, which also happens to contain the UNESCO Heritage Site "Brattahlid"--the farm that belonged to Eric the Red.

Most of the community of Qassiarsuk, pop. 66, counting the outlying farms of Ellen's 6 kids.

There's a coffee shop and a general store, plus various farm buildings.

Apparently, Qassiarsuk has the most extensive road system in South Greenland!

They like a bit of elbow room....

Hostel and Wool Workshop

The view of the ship from the Zodiac

Erik the Red!

Around the year of 982, Erik was exiled from Iceland for three years, during which time he explored Greenland, eventually culminating in his founding of the first successful European settlement on the island. Erik would later die there around 1003 CE during a winter epidemic.

Monument to Ellen's father, Otto Frederikssen, the first to farm sheep on Greenland since the Vikings.

The Frederikssen homestead.

The church, from 1936, also serves as a school until the kids are old enough to send to Qaqortok.

Raven!

There are some actual foundations visible from the original settlement, but they proved extremely hard to photograph, so we'll move along to the reconstructed buildings.

Reconstruction of chapel as it would have been in Eric the Red's time--the first Christian church on the North American continent, built for his newly-converted wife, Thjodhild.

Notice the horizontal turf construction

...as opposed to the herringbone construction on the longhouse.

To the great disappointment of several knitters on board, the Wool Workshop is far from being a going concern. We were hoping to buy some handspun Greenlandic yarn, but there wasn't any. There were a few demonstration skeins and a few items as examples, but nothing for sale. There are 3 bedrooms that could accommodate 6 students to learn how to process wool into yarn. They have 2 drum carders and a couple of spinning wheels. Ellen hopes to be able to sell some yarn NEXT summer.