The Saga’s Account of Sunrise and Sunset on Winter Solstice and Climate in “The Saga of the Greenlanders”

[The Length of Daylight on Winter Solstice]

Chapter 2

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The days and nights were much more equal in length than in Greenland or Iceland. In the depth of winter the sun was aloft by mid-morning [dagmálastaðir - was up at time for breakfast] and still visible at mid-afternoon [eyktarstaðir - still up at dinner time].

[Climate]

[...] The temperature never dropped below freezing, and the grass only withered very slightly.

Source: Keneva Kunz, trans., "[The Saga’s Account of Sunrise and Sunset on Winter Solstice and Climate in] The Saga of the Greenlanders" in The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection, preface by Jane Smiley, introduction by Robert Kellogg, (New York, London, Victoria (Australia), Toronto, Auckland: The Penguin Group, 2000), 636-652. Notes: Translations first published in "The Complete Sagas of Icelanders," volumes I-V (forty-nine tales), Leifur Eiriksson Publishing, Ltd., Iceland, 1997.

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