Salon: History teachers often point out the humor in Greenlands name. That northerly land, after all, is anything but green. According to the Icelandic Sagas, Eric the Redexiled from Iceland for the crime of murderstumbled upon Greenlands glacial shores in the late 10th century. Though Coldland or Snowyland would have been more apt, he dubbed the place Grnland in the hopes of luring settlers to the remote outpost with the promise of bountiful forests and fields.
Eric the Reds false advertising,...