The Origins of Greenland
Gone Medieval
History Hit
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With Greenland in the news, you may be wondering how and why Greenland became inhabited in the first place. Like all great stories, it is a medieval one! Matt Lewis retells the fascinating tale of Norse Greenland, from the arrival of Norse explorers over a thousand years ago to the mysterious disappearance of their settlements and the myths and legends surrounding the Viking presence in Greenland.
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Gone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis. Audio editor is Amy Haddow. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From long-lost Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places to tales of murder, |
| 0:07.7 | power, faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond. |
| 0:13.3 | Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr. Eleanor Jarniger, and some of the world's leading historians, |
| 0:18.0 | as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life only on |
| 0:22.3 | history hit. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries |
| 0:27.2 | with a brand new release every week exploring everything from the ancient world to World War II. |
| 0:33.6 | Just visit history hit.com forward slash subscribe. |
| 0:40.2 | Hello, I'm Matt Lewis. Welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit, the podcast that delves |
| 0:45.6 | into the greatest millennium in human history. We've got the most intriguing mysteries, |
| 0:51.5 | the gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research from the Vikings to |
| 0:56.5 | the printing press, from kings to popes to the crusades. We cross centuries and continents to delve |
| 1:02.9 | into rebellions, plots and murders, to find the stories big and small that tell us how we got here. |
| 1:10.0 | Find out who we really were with Gone Medieval. |
| 1:23.5 | Greenland is making the news at the moment |
| 1:25.8 | with discussions around who should own it and why it's currently part of the Kingdom of Denmark. |
| 1:31.5 | The answer to this question, like all the best answers, is medieval. |
| 1:35.6 | How Norse explorers first arrived at Greenland over a thousand years ago is quite a tale. |
| 1:41.3 | The course of their settlement during the rest of the medieval period is an |
| 1:44.3 | equally intriguing story that's given rise to myths, legends and lingering questions ever |
| 1:50.3 | since. If you've been wondering about the origins of the presence of Europeans in Greenland |
| 1:55.4 | and how they fared as they tried to settle one of the most inhospitable places on earth, |
| 2:00.7 | then gone medieval has got you covered. |
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