Introduction

Above, the Black Death’s spread across the Caucasus, Asia Minor, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe has been closely followed, as closely as the sources and relevant historical studies allow. At the end of this history of its gigantic pandemic spread, the question must be asked: did some countries and regions escape from the horrors of the Black Death completely or largely? Assertions by Hoeniger, Vasold and Mengel to the effect that Bohemia (‘Czeckia’), Poland, and areas in Germany remained unaffected by the Black Death have been invalidated above, in the case of Mengel on unusually serious and unpleasant grounds.

The answer is affirmative: three countries or regions did, in fact, escape the Black Death. The reasons are evident and the same in all three cases: they were situated on the very outskirts of contemporary Europe with tiny populations and generally very little contact abroad. This has been pointed out also in the first edition of this book.

Greenland

Nordic historians and archaeologists have taken a strong interest in what happened to Greenland’s Norse population and why it disappeared. This research was first thoroughly and comprehensively summarized in a fine paper in English by J. Berglund, the Danish archaeologist, and a few years later excellently enlarged upon by English and American scholars. It is also succinctly summarized in English by Vahtola, the Finnish scholar: ‘In the late Middle Ages the entire Norse population [in Greenland] disappeared. There is no evidence that epidemics of plague or any other disease caused the desertion.’ The main explanation of the desertion is ecological: ‘Recent investigations have demonstrated convincingly that the fertility of the soil was ultimately destroyed by climatically caused erosion and overgrazing of pastures and meadows. In the face of incipient starvation many of the people may have moved to Iceland.’

Iceland

From 1262, Iceland was part of the Kingdom of Norway and administered by Norwegian officials as a Norwegian county. In Icelandic annals, it is flatly stated that the Black Death did not reach the island. This has been confirmed by modern scholarship. The reason was that no ship came to Iceland from Norway in 1349 (only Norwegians could legally trade on Iceland).