ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how reliable Icelandic sagas are as sources of the early history of Greenland. Practically all sources which are relevant to the initial Norse settlement of Greenland were written by Icelanders. The oral information had been transmitted from a person who had been part of Eirik Raudi's initial settlement group, to Thorkell Gellison and then to Ari who put it in writing. As long as the oral tradition on the initial settlement remained in Greenland, it should be seen as reliable, since there would be many persons who could confirm or correct what was being said. The initial settlement in Greenland is given its most extensive description in the two so called "Vinland sagas". The Vinland sagas date the first settlement in Greenland to ad 985, which corresponds to the results of the archaeological excavations. The judicial ties between the central and peripheral settlements in Greenland were activated at the Gardar Thing.
