Nightbringer | The Arthurian Online Encyclopedia

Greenland

Greenlandic: Kalaalit Nunaat

Greenland is a large autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, located in the North Atlantic Ocean.

This giant island was conquered by Arthur, according to William Lambard in his Archaionomia (1568). Hakluyt, the travel writer of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is of the opinion that Grocland was Greenland. Greenland may be meant by Granland, the territory ruled by Amangons in Le chevalier as deus espées (Old French). In Meriadeuc, its king, Amangon, is one of Arthur’s subjects, and Der Pleier also names it as one of Arthur’s allies.

Greenland enters Arthurian romance in Wolfram’s Parzival: Wolfram says that warriors from Greenland joined in King Vridebrant of Scotland’s invasion of Zazamanc, which was repelled by Perceval’s father Gahmuret.

It was the home of the Grail maiden Garschiloye.


Sources
Parzival | Wolfram von Eschenbach, 1200–1210
Meriadeuc or Le Chevalier aux Deux Épées | c. 1225-1250
Tandareis and Flordibel | Der Pleier, 1240-1270