The Mighty Micmac

Saga of Erik the Red:
"Leif put out to sea and was long voyaging, and he made landfall where he had never before expected to find land; there was self-sown wheat there, and vines; there were trees of the kind called Maple - and all of these they brought some tokens; some timbers so large that they were used for house-building.
Leif found men on a wreck and brought them home with him. In this he showed the greatest nobility and manliness, as in much else, when he brought the Christian faith to the land, and was ever since called Leif the Lucky."


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The Men on a Wreck:

The side winds were were so strong that Thorir ordered the sail to be taken down completely. With only a bare mast the knarr still traveled swiftly. The sea was rough, but the rains had stopped and the sky was growing lighter.

Thorir helped stow the sail and then he went under the tarpaulin in the center of the ship. There his wife Gurdrid tended to a sick man, Egil. A few days ago Egil was one of the strongest men on board, but now he lay on the deck boards shaking beneath a blanket. A glance at Gurdrid's eyes told him that she thought the Egil would soon die.

They had traveled long from Norway with a load of timber. They had stopped in Iceland and soon after that this storm had attacked them with its wolf-winds. Knarrs are wonderful ships but it takes skill to sail them, and luck to keep them on corse. Thorir was still confident: this storm may delay their journey, but nothing worse. Yes, Egil may die but death waits at the end of all men's journeys. Thorir left the cover of the tarpaulin and squinted into the sky. It was lighter now, but he had a sinking feeling that they had been blown much further south than hoped.

It took two days for them to reach land and find a good place to beach the knarr. Egil's brother, Ulf, was sick now as well. Some shelter was quickly built and the sick men were placed near a large fire. The crew had scouted the shoreline in both directions and had reported piles of sea shells and other signs of habitation. They easily found wood to repair the damaged spar and they saw that the rudder needed some work as well. Only a few hours later the first skraelings appeared. Thorir showed his colored wool cloth and iron axe heads to the natives and made them understand his intent to trade. The skraelings left with smiles and came back a few hours later. They seemed to have brought their entire village with them. They offered furs and ivory; Thorir got down to the business of trading.

It was getting dark when disaster struck. "My knife!" shouted a Norseman, "The screecher has stolen my knife!" The Norsemen swung his axe at the culprit who was motionless with surprise. The axe bit deep into the skraeling's chest and then a general melee broke out. Thorir's men gathered into a circle and swung at any native foolish enough to get near. The skraelings ran in all directions; men, women, and children all crying out loudly. The skraeling men remembered their bows and slings and pelted the cluster of Norsemen.

"To the ship!" Thorir commanded. A stone ball hurled by a native's slings struck Askel in the knee with a sickening noise, he fell and was unable to join with the group now moving steadily to the knarr. The Norsemen reached the beached craft and quickly scrambled aboard. A large number of skraelings swarmed the knarr but were easily beaten back.

The fighting stopped as the skraelings all backed away. Thorir had time to asses the situation. They were beached and surrounded by hostiles, night was falling, three men had been lost, but the rest were in good shape. Two of the three lost men were sick and may have died soon anyway, so Thorir figured the real loss was only Askel. The first order of business was to get the ship off the beach, but it would be a few hours before the tide favored them.

As night fell the men on the ship stood to all sides staring intently into the darkness, their ears straining to hear any movement above the noise of the water's edge. At last Thorir judged the tide full enough to unbeach the ship. With as little noise as possible the Vikings quickly dragged the knarr into free water. They then rowed further out to safety.

The next day they risked rowing close to shore again. There was no sign of the natives. There was also no sign of the three lost Vikings. They all felt the urge to strike back at the skrailings and rescue Egil, Ulf, and Askel. But all the men knew that would be foolhardy. They were alone in alien lands and the three lost comrades were most likely already dead. Grimly they turned and sailed North.

Thorir had decided not to risk landing again to finish the repairs and he ultimately suffered the consequences; his rudder failed him. His ship was stranded upon some rocks and death seemed inevitable. But then the sails of another Viking ship were seen! It was Leif Erikson, who demonstrated his newfound Christian charity and saved the men (and laid claim to all the cargo). Leif had just spent a year in the lands Thorir had just left, but Leif had not encountered the skraeling who killed three of Thorir's men. Together they safely finished their journey to Greenland.

But the sickness was in Thorir and he died. All of Thorir's men died of the sickness as well. Only Gurdrid, Thorir's wife, survived. Some of the Greenlanders died from the disease too, including Erik the Red, father of Leif the Lucky.
 
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Ulf woke with a start, shouting, his head in pain. He had been knocked unconscious almost as soon as the fighting had begun the night before. He tried to get to his feet but found he was held fast by cords made from strips of caribou hide. Askel was roaring and tying to fight some skraelings, but he was also tied. Askel did not let his injured knee dampen his rage or energy. He tried to head-butt a skraeling into the large village fire, but had no success. The villagers laughed and poked at him with long sticks.

Ulf turned away from the struggle and looked around slowly. He saw that he was in a skraeling village, surrounded by more people than should be able to fit in the strange huts nearby. His brother Egil was laying on the ground not far away, still alive, but his condition had worsened. Ulf himself was week with fever and he decided that this was not the time for fighting or for escape. A fresh round of laughter drew his attention back to Askel. The villagers had shoved the injured man onto the fire and used their sticks to hold him there. They laughed as Askel was burnt alive. A terrible light, then darkness came again.

The next time Ulf woke, he was being hauled to his feet and made to walk. There was no sign of Egil or of Askel's body. The skrailings forced Ulf to walk for half a day; a day filled with alien talk and fevered hallucinations. They stopped at a village much larger than the first. Hundreds of skrailings crowded around to see the strange man. They pawed at his clothes and pulled at his beard. Tools, weapons, even his boots, were passed around for everyone to examine in wonder.

At meal time the village men ate caribou meat. The smells twisted Ulf's empty stomach. A young woman gave Ulf a wooden bowl filled with a light brown paste and motioned him to eat. His hands were still bound so he had to thrust his face into the bowl like a dog. The paste was ground nuts mixed with water and Ulf lapped up every last bit. He smiled up at the woman who had fed him and was rewarded with a kick to the head from a skraeling man who had noticed.

Even more skraelings came to see the Viking in the following days. They traveled far for this rare entertainment. Ulf's fever had passed and he started thinking of escape. He tried to seem friendly and gained a little bit of trust. After a few more days some of the skraeling began to show Ulf some kindness.

But then the mood in the village turned sour again. People talked to each other in hushed tones and avoided Ulf's eye. Their fear of Ulf grew more intense each day and the kindness was once again replaced with harsh treatment. Then Ulf noticed some of the villagers showing symptoms of the sickness and then he understood.

One evening they placed the Viking in the center of a large circle and danced and sang around him through the night. But the songs did nothing to slow the spread of the disease through the tribe. Later an old man festooned with feathers and shells begged and pleaded with Ulf in his strange language, but still more Indians fell ill. Later Ulf was tied to a tree outside the village and many skraelings armed with bows threatened him. One skraeling could no longer control his anger and shot Ulf in the chest, others then let lose their arrows. They continued to shoot arrows even after the Vikings dead body slumped against the tree and bristled with dozens of shafts.

And still more Indians fell ill.
 
Yes, in OTL when returning from Vineland Leif Eirikson found men on a wrecked ship west of Greenland.
Yes, most of the crew from that ship latter died from some sickness, including Thorir the captain but sparing his wife Gurdrid.
Yes, the sickness latter killed some Greenlanders, including Eirik the Red.

The POD here is that Thorir's ship is blown further south than in OTL and the sickness is spread to Indians in Newfoundland.

Read the thread's title and you can rightly guess that I do not intend for this to be a Norse-North America TL. Instead I want to explore what happens if some Norse technology gets transplanted to North America.
 
It is a lovely concept. A sci-fi story seen from the future really.

The vikings had horses, stirrups, iron, and the most advanced ship tech on the planet. Each one of those technologies totally revolutionized warfare when it first appeared.

The tribe which adopds any one of them gains a 5000 years tech leap in a single generation.
 
It is a lovely concept. A sci-fi story seen from the future really.

The vikings had horses, stirrups, iron, and the most advanced ship tech on the planet. Each one of those technologies totally revolutionized warfare when it first appeared.

The tribe which adopds any one of them gains a 5000 years tech leap in a single generation.


Note that the limit on population density among the Iroquois (for instance) was game for CLOTHING. Introduction of sheep and cattle would allow larger population densities.


If it were just horses, or horses and a few minor things, there will be fewer changes. Horses aren't so terribly useful in the forest.
HOWEVER, the Plains Indian culture, as we know it, is actually post-European, as it is heavily dependent on horses. Many of the 'Plains' nations came out of the woodlands onto the prairie when horses arrived.

I've long imagined the idea (not much further developed than the title) of 'Plains Micmac'....

Couple of ethnographic notes:
1) the Skraelingar the Icelanders encountered in northern Nfld were almost certainly early Eskimo (Dorset culture, IIRC, not the Thule culture of the modern Innuit)
2) the Indians that inhabited the rest of Nfld were Beothuk. The Micmac (preferably these days "Mi'kmaq"), but I suspect you know that.

As I pointed out in one of the Greater Vinland threads, "micmac" could sound sort of like "grandson" to a Gaelic trained ear - and remember that about half of Iceland (genetically) is Irish. "mhic mac"= son's son.
 
Note that the limit on population density among the Iroquois (for instance) was game for CLOTHING. Introduction of sheep and cattle would allow larger population densities.

If it were just horses, or horses and a few minor things, there will be fewer changes. Horses aren't so terribly useful in the forest.
HOWEVER, the Plains Indian culture, as we know it, is actually post-European, as it is heavily dependent on horses. Many of the 'Plains' nations came out of the woodlands onto the prairie when horses arrived.

I've long imagined the idea (not much further developed than the title) of 'Plains Micmac'....

Couple of ethnographic notes:
1) the Skraelingar the Icelanders encountered in northern Nfld were almost certainly early Eskimo (Dorset culture, IIRC, not the Thule culture of the modern Innuit)
2) the Indians that inhabited the rest of Nfld were Beothuk. The Micmac (preferably these days "Mi'kmaq"), but I suspect you know that.

As I pointed out in one of the Greater Vinland threads, "micmac" could sound sort of like "grandson" to a Gaelic trained ear - and remember that about half of Iceland (genetically) is Irish. "mhic mac"= son's son.

Thanks for the info. I hesitated to attempt this time line because I actually know so little about the subject. Please nudge me the right way if I stray to far from a reasonable path.

I do hope to have horses later but I'll try to consistently call them ponies to help remind the reader that we will be talking about Icelandic horses (or ponies) and not large appaloosa horses that seem to pop into people's mind whenever you say "horse".

Weren't the Natives on Newfoundland Beothuks, and not Mik'maqs? (I think that's the modern spelling...)
Correct. The Beothuk suffer from Thorir's disease. The Micmac will be the ones left standing to hopefully take advantage of some Norse technology later on.
 
What disease that killed Thorir, Eirik and the others is not known. What is known is that it was deadly and contagious. In OTL Old World diseases often devastated entire tribes. In TTL the disease spreads throughout Newfoundland. The Beothunk suffer over 80% casualties. The few Micmac who lived in the southern areas of the island also suffer. Some flee to cousins across the water. Fortunately the Micmac in Nova Scotia had abandoned their summer villages by the coast and had moved to their winter villages further inland. The epidemic burns itself out before spreading too far. The Micmac suffer "only" 10 to 20% casualties. The Inuit to the north were virtually untouched.

Fights with Indians was the main reason the Norse settlements in Vineland failed OTL. In TTL Vinland has been cleared by the disease so the Norse have some time to get established - but not unlimited time. The population density in North America is not great enough to allow the disease to become endemic. The outbreak is a one-time deal. When the native population recovers from the epidemic it will assert itself again.
 
Fights with Indians was the main reason the Norse settlements in Vineland failed OTL.

That is true on an individual level. Another reason would be that Vinland was at the end of a very long supply chain, with population density dropping at every step.

Note that the limit on population density among the Iroquois (for instance) was game for CLOTHING. Introduction of sheep and cattle would allow larger population densities.

You can make pretty good clothing from some fish skins:) And introduction of ship tech is going to massively boost takings of seal, walrus etc.
 

yourworstnightmare

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Are you introducing western diseases in the new world early, i kind of like it, will certainly change the history of the Colonial Powers.
 
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