Norse Discoveries in Greenland, Iceland, And Newfoundland

 

A Viking ship at sea under oars. (The Century Magazine. 1905)

Legend has it that the Vikings established colonies in North America, but there was no hard evidence until 1960. That year, archaeologists uncovered a Norse settlement on the Northern tip of Newfoundland at L’Anse Aux Meadows.

Archaeologists say L’Anse Aux Meadows wasn’t the Vinland settlement founded by Leif Eriksson around 1,000 AD. Instead, L’Anse was more likely a stopping-off point for travelers and traders headed from Greenland to the North American continent.

L’Anse Aux Meadows comprised three Norse longhouses, several workshops, an iron forge, and an iron smelter. It would have housed around 75 inhabitants. Archeologists think it was a temporary settlement used for just a few years. They point out that no garbage dumps or burial sites were discovered there as evidence to support this.

The Norse settlers in Greenland and Newfoundland weren’t the typical blood and guts type Vikings you usually think of. They were livestock farmers who raised sheep and goats because the land was not suited for growing grain.

Archeological evidence suggests they didn’t sail the classic Norse longboats used by Viking raiders. They voyaged there in the Knarr. The Knarr was a seaworthy vessel used by the Vikings on longer voyages. It had a wider hull and was smaller than the Viking longboat. As a result, it could carry more cargo and required a smaller crew.

In 982, Erik the Red was banned from Iceland for three years because of some murders he committed. While looking for a new place to live, he discovered Greenland, named after the trees and grass he found along the coast. When his banishment ended in 985, Erik the Red returned to Iceland and recruited colonists to settle in Greenland. Twenty-five boats, loaded with five hundred men, women, children, and supplies, ventured there to establish a new life in Greenland. They established two settlements, one at Brattahild and the other at Nuuk. They were known as the East and West Settlements.

According to the Greenland Sagas, the North American coast’s first sighting was made in 986 by Bjarni Herjolfsson. He was blown off course and spotted a heavily forested coastline unfamiliar to him. Herjolfsson didn’t take time out to explore the new lands he discovered. He was eager to get back to Greenland and return to business as usual. He did, however, tell other voyagers about the land he’d found.

Around 1000, Erik the Red’s son, Leif Eriksson, returned to Greenland. He had been converted to Christianity by King Olaf I Tryggvason while visiting Norway. He brought the first Christian missionaries to Greenland. Soon after his return, his mother converted to Christianity and established the early Christian church in Greenland at Brattahild.

From this point on, the story gets a little fuzzy.

Some accounts say Leif Eriksson was blown off course and accidentally landed on the North American coast. Other reports suggest Eriksson heard stories about Bjarni Herjolfsson’s discoveries and set off to Christianize the natives of those lands as commanded by King Olaf I. Since the Greenland Sagas say Eriksson made the voyage in Bjarni Herjolfsson’s boat, he likely intended to retrace Herjolfsson’s voyage.

Remains of a Viking ship found at Oseberg, Norway. (The Century Magazine. 1905)

Leif Eriksson is said to have made three landfalls in the New World.

The first was on a rocky, desolate coast (most likely Baffin Island). He named the area Helluland. His second stop was in a forested area he called Markland (thought to be Southern Labrador). Eriksson’s last stop was Vinland, named after the grapevines discovered there. Over a thousand years later, the exact location of Vinland is still a mystery. Historians have pegged it anywhere from New York to Newfoundland.

Leif Eriksson sailed back to Greenland with grapes and timber and never returned to Vinland.

Seven years after Leif Eriksson’s voyage, Thorfinn Karlsefni and his wife Gudrid voyaged to Newfoundland. Their son, Snorri, was the first European child born in North America. The settlement comprised roughly 100 people. They most likely built traditional Norse-style longhouses with sod walls and peaked roofs of timber and stone.

The colony came under constant attack from the local natives, whom they called Skraelings, or “the wretched people.” The Skraelings were fierce, warlike people who didn’t get along with the Norsemen. They constantly attacked the villagers, preventing them from progressing with their settlement.

After three years, the Vikings abandoned their North American colonies and returned to Greenland and Iceland.

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