Chapter 1. Discovery of Nyheim
Our story begins like so many other stories with an inconsequential murder. It probably happened 960 or earlier.
Erik the red, a redhaired (hence the name) and foul tempered settler of a distant atlantic island, killed a man for a borrowed shovel. The details are unclear but from the Icelandic sagas we know that Erik already had killed a man in Norway and then fled to Iceland, and that after a few years in Iceland he killed another settler in an argument about a borrowed shovel.
Now Erik, may have or may have not been a psychopath, but he was clearly smart and charming. And this would not be the first or the last time a charming, smart psychopath would change the history of the world.
It all seems coincidental thinking of it. What if Erik had kept his cool and actually returned the shovel, or possibly paid for it. Would Nyheim then have been discovered later by Europeans or not at all?
It might not be worth wondering. After all what do we gain from wallowing in the might have been´s of the past.
All we know for sure is that Erik had hardly anywhere to go and then his friend Snæbjörn Galti comes to his house and tells him a wondrous tale. How he had been lost at sea but ended up in a land greener than both Norway and Iceland, suitable for any farming and with no inhabitants that he could see.
Erik might have doubted Snæbjörn´s word. But his choices were few. And so began the viking settlement of Greenland. [1]
[1] First POD is Snæbjörn Galti accidentally finding New foundland instead of Greenland. Ocean currents could easily take you there as well as to Greenland and he got lost in a storm anyway OTL.
Chapter 2. Greenland
Three years passed and no news were heard of Eirik. He was presumed dead and most were glad. Of course the Saga of Eirik the red doesn´t give us that point of view. But actually the saga as written in the 13th century in an Icelandic monastery, doesn´t tell us much about what Eirík was doing. It tells us that fishing was good, that Eirik built a house in Greenland, [2] that two of Eiríks carls went on a hunting trip and saw redskinned men but apart from that there is nothing.
Of course it is hardly plausible that Eirík would over these three years not come into touch with the native population. Even though instead of settling in the bigger Markland or the richer Vinland he ended up settling in the small island of Greenland with a low population, not running into other people can hardly be true.
Eirík probably enjoyed being king and ruling over his small settlement without the opposition he had encountered in Norway and Iceland. But for some reason he deemed it necessary to return to Iceland and invite more settlers. Did he run into trouble with natives?
That is possible but we must also consider that his settlement had few people and it was Eirík‘s responsibility to marry his sons, daughters as well as his servants sons and daughters. For these reasons alone he might have returned to Iceland. And maybe there were other reasons, a grand vision of a bigger society perhaps.
In any case, somewhere between 964 and 968 A.D. Eirík returned with skins and timber in Ísafjörður. (The northern most outpost of Icelandic settlement). He garnered much attention and was later invited to speak at Althingi. (Coincidentially the place where vikings not only wrote law and condemned criminals, but also arranged marriages and sold cattle). It had been merely 4 years since he killed a man over a shovel, but everyone wanted to hear about this new island in the west.
“Greenland?”
“Yes, it is truly green, beautiful and prosperous. Why struggle here when much greener fields are just few weeks away”
Many were tempted but very few came in the first attempt. Perhaps Eirik’s reputation ruined it for him. In any case 4 more ships came and settled Greenland, adding according to the saga 4 more houses, a few dozens sheep and a few working hands.
[2]OTL Ile d´anticosti
Our story begins like so many other stories with an inconsequential murder. It probably happened 960 or earlier.
Erik the red, a redhaired (hence the name) and foul tempered settler of a distant atlantic island, killed a man for a borrowed shovel. The details are unclear but from the Icelandic sagas we know that Erik already had killed a man in Norway and then fled to Iceland, and that after a few years in Iceland he killed another settler in an argument about a borrowed shovel.
Now Erik, may have or may have not been a psychopath, but he was clearly smart and charming. And this would not be the first or the last time a charming, smart psychopath would change the history of the world.
It all seems coincidental thinking of it. What if Erik had kept his cool and actually returned the shovel, or possibly paid for it. Would Nyheim then have been discovered later by Europeans or not at all?
It might not be worth wondering. After all what do we gain from wallowing in the might have been´s of the past.
All we know for sure is that Erik had hardly anywhere to go and then his friend Snæbjörn Galti comes to his house and tells him a wondrous tale. How he had been lost at sea but ended up in a land greener than both Norway and Iceland, suitable for any farming and with no inhabitants that he could see.
Erik might have doubted Snæbjörn´s word. But his choices were few. And so began the viking settlement of Greenland. [1]
[1] First POD is Snæbjörn Galti accidentally finding New foundland instead of Greenland. Ocean currents could easily take you there as well as to Greenland and he got lost in a storm anyway OTL.
Chapter 2. Greenland
Three years passed and no news were heard of Eirik. He was presumed dead and most were glad. Of course the Saga of Eirik the red doesn´t give us that point of view. But actually the saga as written in the 13th century in an Icelandic monastery, doesn´t tell us much about what Eirík was doing. It tells us that fishing was good, that Eirik built a house in Greenland, [2] that two of Eiríks carls went on a hunting trip and saw redskinned men but apart from that there is nothing.
Of course it is hardly plausible that Eirík would over these three years not come into touch with the native population. Even though instead of settling in the bigger Markland or the richer Vinland he ended up settling in the small island of Greenland with a low population, not running into other people can hardly be true.
Eirík probably enjoyed being king and ruling over his small settlement without the opposition he had encountered in Norway and Iceland. But for some reason he deemed it necessary to return to Iceland and invite more settlers. Did he run into trouble with natives?
That is possible but we must also consider that his settlement had few people and it was Eirík‘s responsibility to marry his sons, daughters as well as his servants sons and daughters. For these reasons alone he might have returned to Iceland. And maybe there were other reasons, a grand vision of a bigger society perhaps.
In any case, somewhere between 964 and 968 A.D. Eirík returned with skins and timber in Ísafjörður. (The northern most outpost of Icelandic settlement). He garnered much attention and was later invited to speak at Althingi. (Coincidentially the place where vikings not only wrote law and condemned criminals, but also arranged marriages and sold cattle). It had been merely 4 years since he killed a man over a shovel, but everyone wanted to hear about this new island in the west.
“Greenland?”
“Yes, it is truly green, beautiful and prosperous. Why struggle here when much greener fields are just few weeks away”
Many were tempted but very few came in the first attempt. Perhaps Eirik’s reputation ruined it for him. In any case 4 more ships came and settled Greenland, adding according to the saga 4 more houses, a few dozens sheep and a few working hands.
[2]OTL Ile d´anticosti