ABSTRACT
The central element in any ethnic identity is a common language. The Norse Greenlanders had an ethnic identity which they preserved throughout their 425-year history, and which is a necessary background for understanding political organisation and political changes. The splitting up of Brattahlid farm visualises deep political changes. Resources from Brattahlid which could be mobilised for political functions were further reduced because the sea level rose during the Norse centuries, and land was submerged. There are no indications that the Greenland community had collective, political obligations to the Norwegian crown before 1261. But in neighbouring Denmark there was an idea that Greenland and other northern islands were subordinated to "the Norwegians", and in England that it was subordinated to the Norwegian king. The secular culture on Greenland shows close parallels to aristocratic culture in Norway and Iceland and was related to an international court culture.
