LETTER : Clearing Eric

YOUR cartoon "Notwithstanding" (2 July) does a grave injustice to Eric the Red, by suggesting that he gave Greenland its name in order to mislead potential immigrants, encouraging them to think the Arctic wastes were greener than they were.

Scientists on a US-Swiss-Danish project who bored through two kilometres of the Greenland ice-cap in 1979-81 to examine the climate of past centuries proved that the island was much warmer in AD986 - when Eric settled there after being exiled from Iceland - than it was 200 years later when the Icelandic sagas were written. It was these sagas that first made the accusation repeated by your cartoon. It's time to clear the old Viking's name.

Michael Duggan

London W12