How does one avoid having the walrus population/populations from becoming depleted?
Either you make the population big enough that it could replenish what the Jan Mayeners killed, or you accept it will become depleted. It only needs to last a century or two, as by about 1400, better quality African ivory is hitting the European market.
I don't think Jan Mayen would support large amounts of agriculture, but it could support some sheep aswell as some plants. The plants grown on Jan Mayen would not be a large amount of the Jan Mayenite diet though.
There's seaweed too. That was a significant part of the Inuit and early-modern Greenlanders' diet, and could have been on Jan Mayen too. Some breeds of sheep can be fed exclusively on seaweed, and this happens today in the feral sheep population on North Ronaldsay in the Orkneys.
Perhaps the Norse could develop a technology resembling the Kudlik or recieve knowledge of it thru trade? If the Norse had this technology then they would be less dependent on tree-products.
That's a good idea. I'm not sure I see there being significant contact between the Norse Jan Mayeners and the Inuit, so I think an independent invention of a similar technology makes more sense. Tallow — rendered beef or mutton fat — was well-known as a fuel, and was used to make candles for those who couldn't afford wax candles. The oil lamp was also well-known. This requires putting them together and experimenting with walrus, whale or seal blubber. Discovering how to do that would make a population a lot more sustainable.
Could you imagine something that would lead to a permanent settlement?
One option is to make Jan Mayen a wintering ground for walruses, rather than a summer breeding ground. That would necessitate the Jan Mayeners being there during the winter. This is actually quite plausible, as the long Greenlandic coasts where the walruses can beach themselves are what the walruses want for a summer breeding ground, while the deeper waters around Jan Mayen are what they want in the winter. It's probably light enough for a few hours for the Jan Mayeners to see to hunt out on the pack ice around the island.
Perhaps that means that boats would have to be dragged onto land, as to protect them against the environment?
Without a harbour, they'd have to. You can't leave them anchored unattended in an Arctic storm. If their boats are damaged, they can only repair them with whatever wood they've imported; if that runs out, they're stranded until another boat comes their way. Once the walrus ivory trade collapses in c1400, I can't see many other boats coming their way without a good reason, as it's not on the way to anywhere. A larger population might be able to survive a few centuries without means of escape from the island, but I don't think the Jan Mayen population could ever be big enough: they would have been constantly at risk of extinction through disease or natural disaster killing off a dozen people. That suggests we need some other commodity for them to trade after walruses stop being viable. With the trade comes people to replenish the population if disaster strikes.
I do have one idea for that commodity: narwhal tusks. Narwhal did not live in the waters near any mediæval European settlement in OTL (except possibly some Same populations on the north coast of the Kola Pennisula who I assume had little access to European trade), but they do live in the waters around Jan Mayen. Walrus ivory was expensive, but narwhal tusks fetched a king's ransom. They were believed to be unicorn horns with magical properties, and there are reports of individual tusks being worth more than a castle. The Inuit were able to catch narwhal, using harpoons from boats or spears in waterholes in the pack ice. If the Jan Mayeners learnt to do this too, that's a significant source of income, and enough to keep the world trading with them after the walrus ivory market has gone.
"Det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlige klær."
True. Is that a saying in Norwegian too? It is in British English.
Last edited: