VIKINGS IN THE NEW WORLD: OVERVIEW

Vikings in Greenland

In 982 AD, Eric the Red was outlawed from Iceland for three years at the Thorsness Thing. He decided to spend his exile exploring the country to the west that had been sighted some 50 years earlier by a storm driven ship. Eric spent three years exploring the country where he and his men marked sites for their future farms, also noting that the land was rich in wild life, fish and birds.

When he returned to Iceland, he called the country Greenland (by way of good advertising). When he sailed again to Greenland in 986 AD, Eric was accompanied by 25 ships, only 14 of which arrived safely. They landed in an area called the Eastern Settlement which eventually contained 190 farms, 12 parish churches, a cathedral and a monastery. The Greenlanders established a constitution on the Icelandic model and codified their law. To pay for items they could not produce themselves, the Greenlanders exported furs, hides, rope, cable oil, woolens and sea ivory. In return they imported corn, iron, timber, garments and assorted luxuries.

Within 10 years, the settlers had pushed north as far as modern Godthab and formed the Western Settlement. Eventually, their population numbered about 3000. The people lived presumably by raising cattle and sheep and by hunting and fishing. They also continued exploring. Cairns built by Greenlanders have been discovered as far north as Irving Island at 79 degrees north.

It was around Ericsfjord in the Eastern Settlement that the best land lay. Here at a farm they called Brattahild, Eric and his family settled. Near there Eric's wife, Thjodhild built the first Christian church in Greenland, a turf walled structure that has recently been excavated. Archeological evidence supports the sagas and other written material regarding Greenland. Farm steads, churches and grave goods have been excavated and studied.

A climactic change in the 1400's caused temperatures to drop and eventually, the settlements in Greenland ceased to exist. Whether overrun by Eskimo, or simply abandoned we do not know, but before 1500, the settlement was gone.

Vikings in North America

Two medieval Icelandic sagas tell the story of the Viking exploration and attempted settlement of North America from Greenland. The Graenlendinga Saga from early in the saga age was written uncritically and has all the failings and merits implied by this. Erik's Saga is a later product, more sophisticated with its material arranged in much more tidy and logical form, but also with late additions and corrections that detract from its accuracy. Both of the authors (unknown) were primarily interested in the people involved in the action. They saw the explorations as tests of character, maturing some of the characters and bringing out fatal flaws in others.

Evidence unmistakeably points to Viking exploration and settlement in the new world, but the saga geography and sailing directions are vague enough so that Vinland has been located by various people from Hudson Bay to Virginia.

Outside of the sagas, there are several contemporary sources that refer to Vinland:

Adam of Bremen

A description of the history and geography of Scandinavia is contained in his History of the Archbishops of Hamberg (1075). Adam relates information he received from the Danish king Sven Ulfssen, who was called Estrithson in English sources.

" King Sven related that there was another island in that ocean which had been discovered by many and was called Vinland because vines grow wild there and yield excellent wine, and moreover, self-sown grain grows there in abundance. "

Ari Thorgilsson

Ari's vernacular History of the Icelandic people, Islendingabok, contains a second reference. It is worth noting that one of the bishops connected with commissioning Ari's history was Bishop Thorlak Runolfsson, whose mother was a granddaughter of Thorfin Karlsefni mentioned in the Groenlendinga Saga. In his reference, Ari takes for granted that Vinland itself needed no elaboration. Speaking of Greenland, Ari says,

" They found there human habitations, both in the Eastern and Western parts of the country and fragments of skin boats and stone implements; from which it can be concluded that the people who had been there before were of the same kind as those who inhabit Vinland and whom the Greenlanders call Skraelings."

Icelandic Annals

The Anals for the year 1121 record that Bishop Eric of Greenland set out in search of Vinland.

The other non saga evidence is archaeological. Working from a 16th century Icelandic map showing part of North America, Dr Helge Ingstad and his archaeologist wife Anne Stine Ingstad discovered the remains of a small 11th century Norse community at L'anse Aux Meadows on the northern peninsula of Newfoundland.

The long houses excavated at the site resemble those of the eastern settlement in Greenland. In addition to long houses, a building believed to be related to ship repair and a smithy with a hearth for a forge, a stone anvil and hundreds of slag and iron fragments were found.

Artifacts discovered at the site confirm the Norse origin. Radio carbon analysis of samples from the site yielded dates from about 700 AD to 1000 AD. Note that it is reasonable to assume that charcoal samples from the site would have been from driftwood of trees that had died many years before the wood was burned. Dates of turf samples used in building the walls of the long houses yields 1020 +/- 100 years which is consistent with the saga dates.

Non-Norse artifacts from the site date later and suggest that natives used the houses as temporary shelters after they were abandoned by the original settlers.

The relatively few objects and small dump area indicates that the occupation period was fairly short, 20 to 30 years at the most. There is no evidence of destruction due to an attack causing the people to leave.

With this rather long introduction, lets look at the saga story taken from the Groenlendinga Saga.

The land mass of North America was first sighted by Bjarni Herjolfsson when he and his crew were blown off course for Greenland in a fog and made a land sighting of a country well wooded with low hills. They did not land, but sailed along the coast for two more days before sailing North East for three days and sighting an island, high and mountainous and topped with a glacier where again Bjarni refused to land.

After sailing a further four days before a storm, they came to Greenland and Bjarni stayed there with his father.

Some time later, Bjarni sailed to Norway and served as a retainer to Earl Erik Hakonarson (ruled Norway 1000 to 1014). Bjarni told the Earl about his voyage and the lands he had seen. Earl Erik was a supporter of the Danish King Cnut who was the uncle of Svein Ulfssen, Adam of Bremen's source of information about Vinland.

Erik the Red's son Leif went to see Bjarni, bought his ship and engaged a crew to go and explore the lands that Bjarni had sighted.

The first land they came to was covered by glacier in the interior with a rocky shore which Leif named Helluland (meaning Slab-land), probably Baffin Island. The second land was flat and wooded with white sandy beaches which Leif named Markland (forest land) probably northern Labrador. From there they again sailed on until they came into a sound between and island and a headland jutting out to the North. Here, when the tide went out, their ships were left dry with the sea almost out of sight. When the tide returned, they rowed up a river to a lake where they established quarters for the winter.

The Saga notes here that there were plentiful salmon in the river and on the shortest day of the year, the sun was already up at 9:00 AM and did not set until after 3:00 PM. For a discussion on the location of Vinland based on this and other evidence, see the note on The Location of Vinland .

When Leif returned to Greenland the next spring, he carried a full cargo of timber and a tow boat filled with grapes.

The next expedition was led by Leif's brother Thorvald. His group wintered at the site Leif had built and explored along the coast during the first year. The next summer, Thorvald sailed east and then north where they discovered native people whom the Vikings attacked, killing most of them but one boat escaped. In a native attack that followed, Thorvald was hit by an arrow and died shortly after. He was buried in Christian style with a cross at his head and feet on a headland that was afterwards called Krossarness. Thorvald's men returned to Leif's winter quarters where they spent another winter gathering grapes and vines as cargo and returned to Greenland the following spring.

A third voyage to Vinland was led by Thorfin Karlsefni, who married Gudrid, the sister in law of Leif. Karlsefni asked Leif for the used of his houses in Vinland. They landed and set up housekeeping, putting the livestock they brought along out to pasture. The group immediately cut timber for a cargo for their ship and made use of the natural resources of the country for their living.

The first summer, Natives whom the Norse called Skraelings (translated wretches or savages) came to the settlement and wanted to trade furs for weapons. Karlsefni would not allow weapons to be traded, but the group discovered that the natives would trade large amounts of fur for milk from their livestock. After the natives left, Karlsefni added a wooden palisade around the houses. That same summer, Karlsefni's wife Gudrid gave birth to a son they named Snorri.

Early the following winter, the natives returned to trade again and trouble started when one of Karlsefni's men killed a native for trying to steal weapons. A battle followed and the natives fled. Whether they had intended to stay longer is not stated, but when that winter ended, the group returned to Greenland with much valuable produce.

The last voyage mentioned in the saga was led by Freydis, Erik the Red's daughter and her husband. This voyage ended in treachery and murder by Freydis and the survivors returned to Greenland.

Karlsefni meanwhile returned to Norway and then later bought land in Iceland and settled there. The saga ends with a listing of the Icelandic descendents of Karlsefni and Gudrid. Their son Snorri had a son called Thorgier who was the father of Yngvild, the mother of Bishop Brand (bishop of Holar from 1163 to 1201). Snorri also had a daughter called Hallfrid who was the wife of Ranold, the father of Bishop Thorlak (bishop of Skalholt 1118 to 1133). Bishop Thorlak was one of two bishops for whom Ari the Learned wrote Islendingabok.

The saga concludes with the statement that the stories in the saga were from tales told by Karlsefni.

While Vinland may have been lost, the Greenlanders continued to visit Labrador (Markland) for timber. The Icelandic annals for 1347 relate that a ship that had been to Markland was driven off course and found refuge in Iceland.

With the exploration and attempted settlement of Vinland the Viking movement to the west sputtered to an end. Their numbers were too small, the obstacles too great and the distances too long to allow a permanent settlement to prosper. Iceland remained the westernmost permanent Viking settlement, but the memory of the attempt remains in the Icelandic literature and in the soil of the new world.

References

Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. Rev. Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.

Magnusson, Magnus; Vikings! E P Dutton, 1980.

Magnusson, M and Paulsson, H; The Vinland Sagas. Penguin, 1965.

Adam of Bremen; Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum.