Evilprodigy
Donor
It is the year 1000 Anno Domini.
Our story is focused not in Europe, or in China, or in the Middle East, but in the life of a man by the name of Leif Eriksson. Leif Eriksson at this time was in Greenland, bringing Christianity to the people there. A local merchant had told Leif Eriksson that he had seen land to the west when he was blown off course at sea. Leif Eriksson, being the explorer that he was, organized an expedition of 3 boats and 110 men. He sailed and rowed to the west and landed in a flat rocky place he named Helluland, he then traveled south and landed in a forested area he named Markland. He then traveled to the south for two days and made landfall once winter started to roll around at a place he named Vinland after the pasture land in the area but also for berries he observed in the region. Vinland he figured would be a good name as he would follow in his father’s footsteps of naming things to make people want to go there and calling the place grapeland/wineland or pastureland is a good place to start since Greenland is taken. He and his men left their ships and founded a settlement they called Leifsbudir, at the tip of a peninsula that seemed to be near a local bay to the west. While making landfall one of the three ships was damaged and it could not be repaired so they used it to help build the settlement.
During the winter months in Leifsbudir the Norsmen hunted for food and used what supplies they had. During their time here they came across a local tribal person, while initially hostile to the foreigner the man was cold and starving so they took pity on him and brought him into their community, giving him food and water and a place to stay to survive winter. After several weeks of being completely immersed in the language the Norsemen spoke and working quite hard in his own right to understand his saviours, the native eventually learned the language of the people he was with. The man was of the local tribal group that the Norsemen called Skraeling, which means foreigner or barbarian. He was given a new name once he was accepted amongst the Norse, they named him Jakob Thorirsson, with his last name being the first name of the man who found him. The Norse eventually convinced Jakob to convert to Christianity as he became more and more assimilated in the winter months. When spring came the two remaining ships were supplied with provisions they could get and the two boats and 70 men (with 40 left at Leifsbudir) as well as Jakob. They sailed back to Greenland and brought with them pelts from their hunting kills and antlers from moose that were killed to feed the men.
1001
When the two ships of Leif Eriksson’s exploration return to Greenland Leif Eriksson lands at Eystribyggð and goes to Brattahlíð, which is his family’s estate in Greenland. Once there he tells his father Erik the Red about his discovery of Vinland and introduces him to Jakob Thorirsson, who still has an extremely thick accent and proves to be difficult to understand for Erik the Red, who’s knowledge of language is more aristocratic than that of Leif Eriksson’s crew that taught Jakob Thorirsson the Norse language. Never the less they get communication to work properly and Jakob tells the Paramount Chieftain about his homeland in Vinland. Erik the Red gets to be extremely interested in this location as a way to enhance his prestige in the views of the nobility of Norway and the new King Sweyn I Forkbeard, who is also the king of Denmark.
Leif Eriksson and Jakob Thorirsson get supplies in Eystribyggð and word of the discovery of Vinland expands throughout the colony and by the time they are leaving it seems that Leif’s son Thorgils Leifsson is organizing another expedition back to Vinland to expand the colony as the potential for local lumber trade into Greenland to ship building and burning for fires would be good for the Greenland colony. Leif and Jakob leave Eystribyggð in late spring of 1001 and sail all the way Roskilde, stopping in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Niðarós along the way. When they arrive in Roskilde the King does not believe them that there is more land to the west of Greenland and sends them out. Not even the darker skinned Jakob Thorirsson convinces him who just believes he is some sort of Mediterranean slave. Enraged Leif Eriksson prowls the docks of Roskilde and spreads word of a great land to the west, far to the west past Greenland and collects money as well as men (end even some women) to accompany him back to Vinland. The money gained from this allows Leif to purchase some new ships and supplies for these people. He repeats the process in Trondheim and Reykjavík and finds similar results and by the time he returns to Eystribyggð he has a colonization fleet of 67 ships and 1,800 men along with a few hundred women and cattle. At first Erik the Red is extremely happy as he thinks that he has the support of the monarchy in the colonization of Vinland. However Leif breaks the news to his father about what happened in Roskilde and his father falls into depression and dies the next year.
With this TL I plan to include a map of Vinland with each update to show the progression of the colony, this first map is going to be hard to see given that there is only one settlement and it is only 3 pixels large.
Despite my 2 year membership here I have never made a TL before, please be nice. Also if I got anything wrong please let me know and take into account I have no specific POD for the sake of ambiguity and so I can tell a better story.
Our story is focused not in Europe, or in China, or in the Middle East, but in the life of a man by the name of Leif Eriksson. Leif Eriksson at this time was in Greenland, bringing Christianity to the people there. A local merchant had told Leif Eriksson that he had seen land to the west when he was blown off course at sea. Leif Eriksson, being the explorer that he was, organized an expedition of 3 boats and 110 men. He sailed and rowed to the west and landed in a flat rocky place he named Helluland, he then traveled south and landed in a forested area he named Markland. He then traveled to the south for two days and made landfall once winter started to roll around at a place he named Vinland after the pasture land in the area but also for berries he observed in the region. Vinland he figured would be a good name as he would follow in his father’s footsteps of naming things to make people want to go there and calling the place grapeland/wineland or pastureland is a good place to start since Greenland is taken. He and his men left their ships and founded a settlement they called Leifsbudir, at the tip of a peninsula that seemed to be near a local bay to the west. While making landfall one of the three ships was damaged and it could not be repaired so they used it to help build the settlement.
During the winter months in Leifsbudir the Norsmen hunted for food and used what supplies they had. During their time here they came across a local tribal person, while initially hostile to the foreigner the man was cold and starving so they took pity on him and brought him into their community, giving him food and water and a place to stay to survive winter. After several weeks of being completely immersed in the language the Norsemen spoke and working quite hard in his own right to understand his saviours, the native eventually learned the language of the people he was with. The man was of the local tribal group that the Norsemen called Skraeling, which means foreigner or barbarian. He was given a new name once he was accepted amongst the Norse, they named him Jakob Thorirsson, with his last name being the first name of the man who found him. The Norse eventually convinced Jakob to convert to Christianity as he became more and more assimilated in the winter months. When spring came the two remaining ships were supplied with provisions they could get and the two boats and 70 men (with 40 left at Leifsbudir) as well as Jakob. They sailed back to Greenland and brought with them pelts from their hunting kills and antlers from moose that were killed to feed the men.
1001
When the two ships of Leif Eriksson’s exploration return to Greenland Leif Eriksson lands at Eystribyggð and goes to Brattahlíð, which is his family’s estate in Greenland. Once there he tells his father Erik the Red about his discovery of Vinland and introduces him to Jakob Thorirsson, who still has an extremely thick accent and proves to be difficult to understand for Erik the Red, who’s knowledge of language is more aristocratic than that of Leif Eriksson’s crew that taught Jakob Thorirsson the Norse language. Never the less they get communication to work properly and Jakob tells the Paramount Chieftain about his homeland in Vinland. Erik the Red gets to be extremely interested in this location as a way to enhance his prestige in the views of the nobility of Norway and the new King Sweyn I Forkbeard, who is also the king of Denmark.
Leif Eriksson and Jakob Thorirsson get supplies in Eystribyggð and word of the discovery of Vinland expands throughout the colony and by the time they are leaving it seems that Leif’s son Thorgils Leifsson is organizing another expedition back to Vinland to expand the colony as the potential for local lumber trade into Greenland to ship building and burning for fires would be good for the Greenland colony. Leif and Jakob leave Eystribyggð in late spring of 1001 and sail all the way Roskilde, stopping in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Niðarós along the way. When they arrive in Roskilde the King does not believe them that there is more land to the west of Greenland and sends them out. Not even the darker skinned Jakob Thorirsson convinces him who just believes he is some sort of Mediterranean slave. Enraged Leif Eriksson prowls the docks of Roskilde and spreads word of a great land to the west, far to the west past Greenland and collects money as well as men (end even some women) to accompany him back to Vinland. The money gained from this allows Leif to purchase some new ships and supplies for these people. He repeats the process in Trondheim and Reykjavík and finds similar results and by the time he returns to Eystribyggð he has a colonization fleet of 67 ships and 1,800 men along with a few hundred women and cattle. At first Erik the Red is extremely happy as he thinks that he has the support of the monarchy in the colonization of Vinland. However Leif breaks the news to his father about what happened in Roskilde and his father falls into depression and dies the next year.
With this TL I plan to include a map of Vinland with each update to show the progression of the colony, this first map is going to be hard to see given that there is only one settlement and it is only 3 pixels large.
Despite my 2 year membership here I have never made a TL before, please be nice. Also if I got anything wrong please let me know and take into account I have no specific POD for the sake of ambiguity and so I can tell a better story.
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