Wikilatief - Greenland (official name: Kalaallit Nunaat, Danish: Grønland), is an island in the northern Atlantic Ocean in northeastern Canada. It has an area of 2,166,086 km² and is the largest island in the world.
Iceland or "Iceland" (Icelandic: Ísland) is a Nordic country located in northwest Europe and north of the Atlantic Ocean, consisting of Icelandic islands and several surrounding small islands.
Iceland is located 300 kilometers east of Greenland and 1,000 kilometers from Norway.
Greenland, if translated literally means "green land."Iceland, meanwhile, translates literally to"land of ice."
Although Greenland means green land, in reality almost the entirety of Greenland is covered in ice and snow.
Meanwhile, although Iceland means icy land and sounds like land covered in white snow, in reality almost the whole of Iceland is covered by greenery. Here's a comparison of Greenland and Iceland photos taken from above.
Why is Iceland covered in vast green grass while Greenland is covered in ice?
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The cause is misunderstanding and revenge.
The history of Icelandic naming began when a Viking named Floki Vilgerdarson sailed somewhere in search of a new place to live with his hordes until he finally arrived in a region.
When he first arrived, he was very satisfied with the situation there because it was warm and filled with greenery.
But before long, extreme winters came suddenly to his surprise, especially many of his farm animals died because of winter.
Unable to, they finally decided to climb a nearby mountain there while waiting for spring to come back.
On the mountain, Floki sees so many fiords (a kind of bay formed from melting glaciers and made up of thick and heavy ice piles).
From there, Floki decided to name the area Iceland because he thought that the area of his discovery was filled with ice. Whereas the area was originally filled with green land.
Finally, the Vikings who occupied the region called it Iceland, and the name was used for generations to the present generation and has even become an official name recognized by the countries of the world.
In other words, Iceland's own name has already been attached even though the area is not actually filled with ice.
As for the history of the name, Greenland began when a person from Iceland named Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for 3 years because of a murder case with the locals.
Greenland itself is a large island located in the North Atlantic Ocean and is politically the domain of the Danish empire.
During his exile, Erik continued to roam the region near Iceland until he managed to find an island that was 70% filled with icy land and settled there during his exile from Iceland.
When Erik's exile was over and he was allowed to return to Iceland, Erik spread hoax news to the locals about the condition of the island he used to be on. He said that the island is very green, warm, and also beautiful.
In fact the island is very cold and filled with thick ice. Erik also called it Greenland in order to attract people to move there and build settlements with him.
Some Icelanders were intrigued by Erik's story and flocked to Greenland. Unfortunately, when they arrived, all Erik told me was a lie.
The green area that Erik told me turned out to be only a few percent. But it's also impossible for them to return to Iceland because their journey has gone far enough.
Related : The uniqueness and history of the Icelandic language
Eventually inevitably, they chose to accept Greenland and began to create new settlements there along with the locals who had settled in Greenland first. Now, the name Greenland has already been attached to the island.