A brave new world

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
 
Ok, this is a revamp of a previous TL, but there´s going to be a few... scratch that, a lot of changes. More focus on Europe and rest of the world and a different outcome.
 
Chapter 3. Gunnar´s plague

The saga of Eirik the red does finally mention some Skraelings after his return from Iceland.
“Gunnar shouted to the skraelings from across the river. They did not come until he lowered his spear. They approached slowly, sniffed him like dogs, touched his wool and skin and then smiled. They could not speak any words but when Gunnar gave them his cape they handed him the fish they had caught this day.
The morning after at the same spot more skraelings came to watch Gunnar fish. When he smiled and waved they came towards him. This time there were women and children as well.”
Gunnar then proceeds to trade with the Skraelings, selling them wool products and milk but never weapons. As time passes he becomes so rich that Eirik starts to complain about him. But Eirik´s wife insists they start trading with the Skraeling´s as well. Finally Eirik agrees.
“But when Eirik and his men arrived with the milk to the village no one was there. Where ever they went the Skraelings lay on the ground dead. Eirik saw one living girl in the village and took her with him. He named her Þorgunni. No other Skraeling was found living so Eirik burnt down the village with the people”
This was maybe the first encounter of Nyheim’s inhabitants with European diseases. What language the Greenland tribe spoke and what culture it possessed is still not known today.


Chapter 4. Leif the lucky

The year is 1000 and Icelanders are discussing a grave situation. Norway has been taken over by a hostile christian king and he is holding many Icelanders hostage, threatening to kill them if Icelanders don´t take up the true faith. At the same time, christianity has been growing in Iceland, nearly half the population has been baptized while the other half keeps worshipping Frey and Thor. This might be the last Althingi, nothing seems to be able to prevent a civil war.
Some ideas have been floating around suggesting some Icelander´s should be allowed to worship in secret while professing christian faith. Other thinks the christians would never agree to any compromise. Then suddenly a young blondhaired and unknown man steps up and demands audience before the Althingi. As the saga of Eirik the red tells:
"These feuds are folly. There is plenty of land where I have been. In the west a much bigger and much richer land can be found. Follow me and you may worship whoever you please as long as you are willing to work hard and reap your rewards with me" Leif spoke.
Then Gunnthor the old spoke:
"In the west there is nothing but ice, I´ve seen it myself and so have all others."
"No, the lands in the west are more vaste and more rich than you can imagine. Why fight over a land so small and so difficult when a much easier one can be taken for free?" Asked Leif.
And many men, young and old decided to follow Leif to the west for he had well spoken and promised many beautiful things."
Leif was different from his father. He was more charismatic for sure and didn´t kill anyone by accident or in a fit of anger. He baptized at the court of Ólaf Tryggvason after giving him a skin of a polarbear, then went on a viking raid in England. He was a man of past and present, quite willing to deal and compromise with anyone except his father.
He seems to have been more succesful in any case. According to the saga, 50 ships followed him to Nyheim, although that number is questionable.
 
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Chapter 5. Foundation of Vinland

It was Tyrkir the christian slave of Leif that named Vinland. Apparently he came from a place where grapes grew and recognized them.
Eirik was angry at his son for settling far away and independently from him. Perhaps it was jealousy, his son was popular and liked by people unlike him, perhaps the reason was more complicated. Ironically Eirik kept his pagan faith all his life while Leifur had become christian and built a church. It was Vinland that would turn into a bastion of paganism instead of Greenland.
One of the main differences between Leifur and his father is very apparent when Vinland and Greenland are analyzed. Greenland had a pseudoking. First Eirik and then his son Thorvald (Leif´s brother). Leif´s colony on the other hand founded a thing (Þing) after two winters. Maybe it was necessary since the colony was bigger. Maybe Leif´s personality had nothing to do with it.
Vinland´s saga written in the 13th century at an Icelandic monastery claims that Leif could have easily ruled like his father but preferred not. Leif and his wife Thorgerdur were very popular with both the settlers and the native tribes that lived close by. Leif had already been to Vinland with Tyrkir before settling and he had developed a relationship with the chieftains there. He managed to avoid direct confrontation and encourage trade.
But he didn´t manage to save his church. He was deeply saddened when his church was burnt down and his friend Tyrkir murdered. After his death christianity was outlawed in Vinland.

[3]Vinland is OTL New Brunswick

Chapter 6. Meanwhile in Iberia

In 986 the Caliph Al Hakam II of Cordoba died leaving his 20 year old son Hisham II Al Hakam the great in power. Hisham managed with the aid of his loyal general Al-Mansur to unite the Iberian peninsula.
Hisham II Al Hakam continued his father‘s effort of gathering libraries and cultivating sciences. His interest though lied mostly in consolidating his power. While allowing christians to worship as they pleased he squeezed their kings hard. At the end of his life in 1021 power had been more centralized, muslims had increased, the library had become the largest in the known world and Cordoba was thought to equal Byzantium.
The caliphate was not only the richest and most learned kingdom in Europe but it was probably the most stable as well. In 1021 Abd Ar Rahman IV took over and continued to rule in a similar vein. He had less interest than his father and grandfather in both politics and sciences. This meant no catastrophe for the kingdom. In fact it was very succesful in dispelling norman invasions and quelling christian revolts but Abd Ar Rahman is definitely considered mediocre especially since after his day generals managed to grab power by using puppet caliphs to rule. However, for a long time there‘d remain a gap between the caliphate and other european powers.

Chapter 7. King Knut

While the vinlanders were sorting out relationships with natives through two wars following the death of Leif (according to Vinland´s saga) a king was in the making in Europe.
“Knut was exceptionally tall and strong, and the handsomest of men, all except for his nose, that was thin, high-set, and rather hooked. He had a fair complexion none-the-less, and a fine, thick head of hair. His eyes were better than those of other men, both the handsomer and the keener of their sight. “
Hardly anything is know of the founder of the Anglodanish empire except that his mother was daughter of a polish king and that his father was Swen Forkbeard the pagan invader of England. In the year 1013 Knut arrived with his father at Humber. King Athelred soon fled and his government collapsed. Swen‘s death a year later made Knut and his brother respectively kings of England and Denmark.
For political reasons Knut soon converted to christianity and married Emma the widow of Athelred. He had been at war ever since he was a young boy but he was not blind to power relations outside of the battlefield. His position was weak, those who had got him into power were danish soldiers eager to return home, polish soldiers borrowed from his grandfather and Wends. All had to be paid of through taxes (called Danegeld) and then they left the country and Knut with just his own loyal soldiers.
Knut made a few changes in England, mostly following in the steps of other kings by creating earldoms but was mostly occupied by keeping his father‘s kingdom together and having church relations good. The church wrote well of him, since he was a very generous contributor and his wars were succesful.
After his brother‘s death he managed to defend Denmark from king Olaf‘s invasion from Norway. Eventually he‘ d regain Norway, although it‘d slip out of the kingdom‘s hands after his death again. Before being defeated at Stiklastadir by Knut Olaf managed through pagan persecution to push many norwegians to settle in Vinland, Greenland and Markland. Whether king Knut was aware of those areas is doubtable, he probably was much to busy to think about them.
 
Chapter 8. The rise and fall of Gang Jo

The Goryeo dynasty had been getting increasingly more and more and unstable. They had ruled the korean peninsula for mere hundred years and already they had been reduced to the status of puppets in the hands of cunning generals.
Gang Jo had been ordered by the emperor to clean up all conspirators after the scholar Kim Chi Yang burnt the royal palace down. Instead Gang Jo overthrew the emperor and installed Hyeonjong, a grandson of a previous emperor.
Emperor Shanzong of the Liao dynasty saw a golden oppurtunity present itself and invaded Korea with a 400,000 soldier army. Neither Gang Jo nor Hyeonjong managed to escape the capital and were executed by an order from Shanzong.
That was not the end of the Khitan invasion nor Korean resistance. Wars would continue on the peninsula for a while tiring the Khitans which the Song dynasty in the south would take advantage of.

Chapter 9. Vinland and Greenland

It was Eirik Thorvaldsson, the grandson of Eirik the red who founded the first permanent church in Nyheim. It was built in the village Borg in Greenland sometime after 1030 probably and was a wooden structure in norwegian style.
Greenland didn‘t have the access to land that Vinland had and so was rapidly losing out in population expansion. However it managed to become a succesful kaupstad (trading port) by selling dried fish and importing various goods from Norway to Nyheim.
At the same time Vinland‘s population kept growing. It is believed that half the population of Iceland at that time moved to Vinland in the eleventh century. Vinland was very much like Iceland, it had no government to speak of but the inhabitants met once a year on a thing (þing) to discuss laws and arrange marriages. The lawspeakers and godis held power through the votes of free men but those powers were very limited. On the other hand, Eirik and his descendants held full power over Greenland, calling themselves Jarls from the middle of the 11th century, collecting taxes, church tithes and tolls.
As time passed Greenland and Vinland grew further from each other.
 
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Chapter 10 The quiet demographic revolution of Nyheim

The 11th century is often underestimated in it´s importance to human history, falling into the shadow of the stormy 12th century of Mongol invasions, the 13th and 14th centuries of discoveries and the 17th and 18th centuries of industrial revolution.
The 11th century saw huge and dramatical changes, especially in Nyheim which changed the lives of millions. In the north native tribes came into contact with the first european settlers which brought some diseases, some new crops and some new animals. (Horses, sheep and chicken in particular).
Less is known about the contact natives had with Polynesian settlers in southern Nyheim. In fact nearly nothing, scientists at the university of Cordoba have established that traces remain of polynesian genes in the genomes of native tribes in the south Nyheim. But they are mostly on the matrilineal side indicating that the settlement may perhaps have been short lived and succumbed to nearby tribes in wars. Or maybe in stead of a settlement it was a shipwreck in which only a few women survived.
That is doubtable, in any case, the Polynesians that landed probably somewhere between 990-1060 brought with them pigs and chicken to the Andez, changing the lives in South Nyheim just as much as the Vinlandic contact was changing the north.

Chapter 11. Harold harefoot and Knut II of England

After Knut´s death in 1035 his kingdom was split between his sons Hartha-Knut and Harold harefoot. Harold got England and Knut got Denmark but didn´t seem to happy with it. 1040 Harold was killed by his brother in a second danish invasion of England. And after killing his brother and marrying Emma Godwynsdaughter Knut returned to celebrate Yule in Denmark.
He continued his father´s policy of supporting church building but failed in getting Norway back. After the defeat of Magnus Olafsson Norway was left in the hands of local chieftains bickering over the title of king while Harold maybe sensibly settled on strengthening his hold over Denmark and England.
In 1054 his son Knut Haroldsson took over the kingdom. This time the kingdom went unsplit since there was only one male heir. Knut married Margareth daughter of the Norman duke on the other side of the gulf and his reign passed mostly uneventfully though occasional rebellions occurred in the more and more neglected Denmark.
 
Chapter 11. William I of France

William became king of France in 1066. After repeated wars with the Capetians he finally manages to occupy Paris and after the capitulation of the Capetians he becomes Rex Francorum. His marriage with Mathilda Capet further cements his position. This is the start of the normandian dynasty from whom most French kings are descended.

Chapter 12. Restoration in Al Andalus

Abdullah Al Mansur became the caliph of Al Andalus in 1071 after a long period of civil war. The Andalusian 30 year war is now mostly famous the last great resurgence of christianity in Iberia. In fact it was a war between generals of the caliphate vs. Christian nobles and descendants of former kings. The generals wanted the seat of the caliph while the nobles wanted their independent kingdoms back. But these were not muslims vs. Christians. On both sides there were Jews, muslims and christians and the object was nearly always power.
Abdullah Al Mansur ruled until 1083 when his son Al Hakam V took the caliph seat. Among Al Hakam´s accomplishments was the rebuilding of the navy, once again becoming the most powerful in the mediteranean. His invasion of Mallorca, Minorca were succesful as well as Sardinia. Some have theorized that shipbuilders descended from vikings in Iberia affected the shipbuilding, others claim that viking innovation in shipbuilding didn´t reach Al Andalus until the 13th century when the Caliph´s increasingly started turning their eyes towards the atlantic ocean.
 
Yeah, I know it´s pretty dry. I´m not aiming high yet, in terms of literary merit.

My intention is to use various pods that I have researched a bit in the past to create a very alternate world. The idea is basically to have many changes all around the world.
 
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