Erik the Red name the land mass Greenland to trick settlers from Iceland (which was not named yet) into coming to live with him. They survived a while, but had to leave because of an ice age. Yes, this was all in the Viking Era. Great story BTW!

Is that really way it is called Iceland? Learned some new! Norway your an ass.

... lovl. (Laughing out very loud)

The real story:

When the viking that first discovered Iceland came to the island, it was green, warm and beautiful. So he decided to live there. Then the winter came. Winters in Iceland are pretty bad so all of the viking's animals died. The viking walked up a mountain and looked over the land which was covered in ice, and he named it Iceland to warn other people about the country.

Greenland:

Eiríkur Rauði was an Icelandic viking who discovered Greenland. Greenland isn't all covered in ice and the part of Greenland that Eiríkur first sailed to was green and beautiful. He named it Greenland because of that.

(I'm Icelandic and these are the stories that we learn in schools. But the thing about that Iceland had been asked about this a lot was correct. I'm getting really annoyed that everyone is asking me (and every other Icelandic person is) about this. But I want people to know the real story :)

Actually, while they were using a marketing scheme with Greenland, with Iceland, the vikings came to the eastern coast and actually thought the ice never melted (thanks to the glacier) so they named it that because they thought it was a place no one could live...later on they found they found the green fields and forests, but the name had already stuck.