| 释义 |
Skraeling Scandinavian Hist.|ˈskreɪlɪŋ|
Also † Schrelling, Skrelling, Skrælling, etc.; Skræling.
[ad. ON. Skræling(j)ar pl., the Norse name for the inhabitants of Greenland at the time of the Norse settlement.]
A member of a savage people encountered by the early Norse settlers on Greenland, of uncertain origin but often considered to be of Eskimo descent. Also applied similarly to the inhabitants of Vinland (sometimes identified with the NE. coast of N. America). Usu. pl.
1767tr. Crantz's Hist. Greenland I. iii. i. 132 The Greenlanders call themselves..Innuit... The Icelanders, who many hundred years ago discovered..this country and the neighbouring coasts of America, called them in form Skrællings, because they are little of stature. 1797Encycl. Brit. VIII. 129/2 This nation, called Schrellings, at length prevailed against the Iceland settlers who inhabited the western district [of Greenland]. 1875Ibid. I. 706/2 They had some intercourse..with a people who came in leathern boats, and were called Skrælings, from their dwarfish size... The Skrælings were of course Esquimaux... The hostilities of the Skrælings was no doubt the principal cause of the abandonment of the colony [of Vinland]. 1891Kipling in Contemp. Rev. July 21 He..said:—‘When they heard our bulls bellow the Skrælings ran away!’ 1921G. M. Gathorne-Hardy Norse Discoverers of Amer. ii. iv. 172 In so far..as the descriptions of the Skrælings of Wineland are realistic, and differ materially from anything which can have been derived from Eskimo sources, these descriptions form probably the most convincing proof of the historical accuracy of these stories. 1979N. Davies Voyagers to New World 227 When spring came the skraelings once more appeared. |