Archaeology confirms that Norse settlement in southern Greenland began around the late tenth century, with the Eastern Settlement becoming the larger and more important of the two major areas of Norse occupation.

The first generation would have faced enormous practical problems.

They needed pasture.

They needed reliable freshwater.

They needed places sheltered enough for farms.

They needed fuel and building materials.

They needed ways to preserve food and survive winter.

The settlers brought a farming tradition suited to the North Atlantic, not to the Arctic in any simple sense.