section_path: Etymology
section_name: Etymology
paragraph_text: Etymology
  
  The early Norse settlers named the island Greenland. In the Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland with his father, Thorvald, who had committed manslaughter. With his extended family and his thralls (slaves or serfs), he set out in ships to explore an icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding a habitable area and settling there, he named it Grœnland (translated as "Greenland"), supposedly in the hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers. The Saga of Erik the Red states: "In the summer, Erik left to settle in the country he had found, which he called Greenland, as he said people would be attracted there if it had a favourable name."
  
  The name of the territory in the Greenlandic language is Kalaallit Nunaat, ' land of the Kalaallit '. The Kalaallit are the Greenlandic Inuit who inhabit the territory's western region. The Greenlandic Inuit term Nunaat does not include waters and ice.
  
  The early Norse settlers named the island Greenland. In the Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland with his father, Thorvald, who had committed manslaughter. With his extended family and his thralls (slaves or serfs), he set out in ships to explore an icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding a habitable area and settling there, he named it Grœnland (translated as "Greenland"), supposedly in the hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers. The Saga of Erik the Red states: "In the summer, Erik left to settle in the country he had found, which he called Greenland, as he said people would be attracted there if it had a favourable name."
  
  The name of the territory in the Greenlandic language is Kalaallit Nunaat, ' land of the Kalaallit '. The Kalaallit are the Greenlandic Inuit who inhabit the territory's western region. The Greenlandic Inuit term Nunaat does not include waters and ice.