Towards the end of the thirteenth century A.D., Norse Greenlanders watched the erosion of their former free state with increasing alarm. Increasing demands for tithe payments and taxes to the Church and Norwegian kings turned crofters into poor tenants of their own lands. The most valuable trade item, walrus hides and tusks, had to be hunted increasingly farther north were a new threat to Norse survival appeared in the form of Inuit hunters migrating southward from the High Arctic. The "Raven", manned by Norsemen from Vesterbygd and led by Tore Eyvindsson, was sent out on a voyage of exploration to the far northern regions of Greenland. "Raven's Saga" is the story about this voyage and the first meetings between Norsemen and Inuit in the Far North.