Evilprodigy
Donor
This will be another take on my first TL, Iron and Longships, A Vinland TL, it will be both similar and different to the first TL. That being said please enjoy my work and comment if you want to see more.
The beginning of this section is in the year 1000 Anno Domini with the origin story of Leifsbuðir (Or Leifsbudir using modern letters). The story is known as the Vinland sagas to those modern Norsemen who live in what became Vinland. The Vinland Sagas are a tale of historical importance that were only written down after the events happened, so what is discussed here may not be entirely accurate from a historical context as history is written by the victors. The first section of what is traditionally known as the Vinland Sagas is also called the Saga of the Greenlanders as it describes the discovery and colonization of Greenland by Erik the Red, however for the purposes of this book that Saga has been skipped and can be read in my book, A history of the Birth, Collapse, and Rebirth of Greenland. The Vinland Sagas themselves have been altered several times by historical revisionists to give a more accurate telling of the past, it is those revised versions of the Vinland Sagas that will be used in this book.
-Author’s note in, A history of early Vinland, 4th Edition, by Professor Jónatan Ármannsson of the University of Miklagard
Book I, Vinland Sagas, approximately 1000 AD – approximate 1001 AD
It is said that Leif Eriksson first learned of the land that would become Vinland from a fisherman, whose name has been lost to the annals of history, that was blown off course westwards and sighted land that is now believed to be the coast of Markland due to a description of large amounts of trees along the coastline. Leif Eriksson departed with 4 ships and 160 men along with the fisherman as their guide. Their first landing was a rocky area that Leif eventually named Helluland. The men were getting a bit demoralized by their failure to find the lands the fisherman had described on their first try. However after a few more weeks at sea they sighted a forested land that they disembarked on to gain supplies, of which they were running out. While they were on the land searching for food Leif decided to name the place Markland, due to the woods along the coastline. By the time his men returned it was almost nightfall and 3 of them had lost their lives in a skirmish with what we now know were the native Innu or Dorset people, it is unknown which tribal group it was. Apparently the men had won the skirmish and taken 5 natives as prisoners to replace the 3 lost Norsemen as rowers. They also returned with the bodies of their dead, which were burned.
It is at this point that the word Skraeling as a word to describe the natives of Vinland enters the vocabulary of the Norse. Skraeling in Old Norse means foreigner or barbarian; it is believed that this name was given to them due to initially hostile interaction between the Old Norse and Native populations. The men of Leif’s company camp on the coast for the night with armed guards, though there is no incident that night. The men get back on their boats and sail southwards, charting the coastline along the way so they can return safely. They spend a bit more time then they originally intended to though and end up having to spend the winter at the tip of a peninsula in the south when one of their ships collides with some rocks and breaks the Keel, making it unable to be repaired. The land they disembark in is named by Leif Eriksson as Vinland, as he had been planning how to colonize the region and decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and make the name appealing to future settlers, Vinland roughly translates to grapeland/wineland or pastureland in Old Norse. He chose this name also due to wild berries he observed in the region.
While they winter they name the settlement they construct out of the broken ship and felled trees Leifsbuðir, or Leif’s booth, with booth referring to what passed for a house to them. Leifsbuðir survived off of hunting the plentiful game in the region and picking wild berries. Apparently it was a good idea that they had those 5 Skraeling from Markland with them, they had been forced to cooperate with the Norsemen for their own survival and showed them what was safe to eat and several hunting and tracking methods unknown to the Norse. The two groups communicated through use of hand signals and a rudimentary understanding of Old Norse by the Skraeling. Leifsbuðir had been attacked by another native group, now known by modern historians as the Beothuk, around 3 times throughout the winter and each time was met with defeat at the hands of the Norse due to superior Iron weaponry and armour. A raid against the local tribal group led my Leif Eriksson made it clear that the tribe was suffering from an outbreak of Smallpox and was forced to raid nearby people to sustain itself due to its loss of available manpower. Leif supposedly took pity on them and killed all of the sick and burned the bodies, taking the rest of the tribe to Leifsbuðir to work with the Norse for mutual survival. It may seem like killing the sick and burning the bodies isn’t exactly pity but Leif understood that if the people kept on tending to the sick they would never survive, he also knew that Smallpox could still spread by a dead body and that burning it was the best treatment. By the time winter was over the Skraeling had become fluent in Old Norse but had mixed in some of their own native words for things that the Norsemen had not known about. Leif Erikson leaves Leifsbuðir once the ice melts with 3 ships and 110 men, leaving behind 47 Norsemen and an unknown number of Skraeling, though it is known that he brought with him 2 Skraeling back to Greenland and that several of the Skraeling left in Leifsbuðir were women. It is also known that the 2 Skraeling he brought with him were from different tribes, one an Innu or Dorset from Markland and one Beothuk from Vinland.
The beginning of this section is in the year 1000 Anno Domini with the origin story of Leifsbuðir (Or Leifsbudir using modern letters). The story is known as the Vinland sagas to those modern Norsemen who live in what became Vinland. The Vinland Sagas are a tale of historical importance that were only written down after the events happened, so what is discussed here may not be entirely accurate from a historical context as history is written by the victors. The first section of what is traditionally known as the Vinland Sagas is also called the Saga of the Greenlanders as it describes the discovery and colonization of Greenland by Erik the Red, however for the purposes of this book that Saga has been skipped and can be read in my book, A history of the Birth, Collapse, and Rebirth of Greenland. The Vinland Sagas themselves have been altered several times by historical revisionists to give a more accurate telling of the past, it is those revised versions of the Vinland Sagas that will be used in this book.
-Author’s note in, A history of early Vinland, 4th Edition, by Professor Jónatan Ármannsson of the University of Miklagard
Book I, Vinland Sagas, approximately 1000 AD – approximate 1001 AD
It is said that Leif Eriksson first learned of the land that would become Vinland from a fisherman, whose name has been lost to the annals of history, that was blown off course westwards and sighted land that is now believed to be the coast of Markland due to a description of large amounts of trees along the coastline. Leif Eriksson departed with 4 ships and 160 men along with the fisherman as their guide. Their first landing was a rocky area that Leif eventually named Helluland. The men were getting a bit demoralized by their failure to find the lands the fisherman had described on their first try. However after a few more weeks at sea they sighted a forested land that they disembarked on to gain supplies, of which they were running out. While they were on the land searching for food Leif decided to name the place Markland, due to the woods along the coastline. By the time his men returned it was almost nightfall and 3 of them had lost their lives in a skirmish with what we now know were the native Innu or Dorset people, it is unknown which tribal group it was. Apparently the men had won the skirmish and taken 5 natives as prisoners to replace the 3 lost Norsemen as rowers. They also returned with the bodies of their dead, which were burned.
It is at this point that the word Skraeling as a word to describe the natives of Vinland enters the vocabulary of the Norse. Skraeling in Old Norse means foreigner or barbarian; it is believed that this name was given to them due to initially hostile interaction between the Old Norse and Native populations. The men of Leif’s company camp on the coast for the night with armed guards, though there is no incident that night. The men get back on their boats and sail southwards, charting the coastline along the way so they can return safely. They spend a bit more time then they originally intended to though and end up having to spend the winter at the tip of a peninsula in the south when one of their ships collides with some rocks and breaks the Keel, making it unable to be repaired. The land they disembark in is named by Leif Eriksson as Vinland, as he had been planning how to colonize the region and decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and make the name appealing to future settlers, Vinland roughly translates to grapeland/wineland or pastureland in Old Norse. He chose this name also due to wild berries he observed in the region.
While they winter they name the settlement they construct out of the broken ship and felled trees Leifsbuðir, or Leif’s booth, with booth referring to what passed for a house to them. Leifsbuðir survived off of hunting the plentiful game in the region and picking wild berries. Apparently it was a good idea that they had those 5 Skraeling from Markland with them, they had been forced to cooperate with the Norsemen for their own survival and showed them what was safe to eat and several hunting and tracking methods unknown to the Norse. The two groups communicated through use of hand signals and a rudimentary understanding of Old Norse by the Skraeling. Leifsbuðir had been attacked by another native group, now known by modern historians as the Beothuk, around 3 times throughout the winter and each time was met with defeat at the hands of the Norse due to superior Iron weaponry and armour. A raid against the local tribal group led my Leif Eriksson made it clear that the tribe was suffering from an outbreak of Smallpox and was forced to raid nearby people to sustain itself due to its loss of available manpower. Leif supposedly took pity on them and killed all of the sick and burned the bodies, taking the rest of the tribe to Leifsbuðir to work with the Norse for mutual survival. It may seem like killing the sick and burning the bodies isn’t exactly pity but Leif understood that if the people kept on tending to the sick they would never survive, he also knew that Smallpox could still spread by a dead body and that burning it was the best treatment. By the time winter was over the Skraeling had become fluent in Old Norse but had mixed in some of their own native words for things that the Norsemen had not known about. Leif Erikson leaves Leifsbuðir once the ice melts with 3 ships and 110 men, leaving behind 47 Norsemen and an unknown number of Skraeling, though it is known that he brought with him 2 Skraeling back to Greenland and that several of the Skraeling left in Leifsbuðir were women. It is also known that the 2 Skraeling he brought with him were from different tribes, one an Innu or Dorset from Markland and one Beothuk from Vinland.
