Hvalsey

Hvalsey was a Norse farm beside a fjord in southern Greenland's Eastern Settlement. Its stone church stood near a substantial farm complex, where a hall and animal shelters served the household. The church's walls were among the most striking traces of Norse Greenland. In 1408 Þorsteinn Ólafsson and Sigríður Björnsdóttir, visitors from Iceland, were married in the church before a gathering of witnesses. Two priests later certified the marriage at Garðar. Their letter is among the last surviving written records of the Greenland Norse, preserving a glimpse of the community's religious and social life in the fifteenth century.