1. Southwest GreenlandQassiarsuk August 2011

2. My “taxi” across the fjord from Narsarsuaq to Qassiarsuk

3. View of the fjord from the Frederiksen sheep farm (my home for two nights)

4. Otto Frederiksen Credited as the first sheep breeder in Greenland, Otto settled Qassiarsuk in 1924. His descendants still run the sheep farm where I stayed for two nights.

5. Frederiksen Sheep Farm

6. Qassiarsuk – Population 40

8. General store

11. Ruins of Brattahlið – Norse settlement of Erik the Red Erik the Red, a Viking outlawed from Iceland, settled Greenland in circa 982.

12. Ruins of church, built c. 1300

14. Reconstruction of Ϸjóðhildur’s Church

15. Ϸjóðhildur, the wife of Erik the Red, eagerly converted to Christianity when their son Leif Eriksson returned in 1000 on orders of the Norwegian king to convert Greenland. Erik the Red refused to convert and continued to follow the Norse gods. Ϸjóðhildur retaliated by refusing Erik the marriage bed. Ϸjóðhildur’s chapel was the first church built in Greenland. This reconstruction was built as part of the 1000-year anniversary of Brattahlið. Victor peeks inside

16. Reconstruction of a Viking longhouse, part of the 1000-year anniversary celebration.

17. Victor “plays” the hearth cooking pot

18. Viking longhouse

19. View of Qassiarsuk from Brattahlið

21. View of reconstructions from ruins of a milking cot

22. Grassy foundations of Erik the Red’s longhouse (archaeologists think…)

25. A Norse stable – notice the entrance on the left

26. View of medieval Norse church ruins from hill (and yes, that is a sleeping man, circa modern era)

27. Grassy horseshoe foundations of Ϸjóðhildur’s Church

29. Statue of Leif Eriksson

33. Day Hike to Tasiusaq & Nunataaq

39. Sheep farm Tasiusaq

40. Tasiusaq Fjord

43. Red dots mark the way…until you lose the next one; a good map and compass critical!

45. In sight of the Greenland Ice Cap

46. Unloading supplies at Nunataaq sheep farm

56. Grass harvesting for winter feed at Frederiksen sheep farm

57. Ruleek and HenrikFrederiksen as I always saw them - hard at work