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Bjarni was not looking for a new land. He was looking for his family
He'd left them in Iceland
But when he returned he found they've gone with Eric to Greenland
But the ice lenders hadn't been able to tell him where Greenland was exactly
They just said it was an inhospitable rocky land to the west. So he sailed west and
missed blown off-course
This was the wrong place there were too many trees
It was too full of resources to be the hardscrabble Greenland. His family was not here
So be Bjarni the first European to sight the new world turned back east without landing
999 Leif Eriksson was nothing like his father Eric the Red he was temperate and thoughtful a polite boy
But that was only part of the reason that the two were at each other's throats the colonists of Greenland
At least those that survived the crossing had found this new land wasn't exactly the paradise
Eric had promised but they could hunt and fish for a living trading seal skins and walrus ivory and under Eric's leadership
They developed a stable though not comfortable society
Then Eriksson Leif came and messed it up
see leif had gone to Norway to seek service with the king
upon arriving the monarch had immediately converted him to Christianity and turned him back to Greenland with a mission to evangelize and
He'd been successful. That was the problem
See Eric was an avowed pagan and this son of his had even managed to convert his mother cooling their marriage
So like his father before him life thought that maybe he'd do a little exploring while things calm down
after all
He'd heard Bjarni stories about a forested land to the west and thought it was worth checking out because Greenland practically had no timber
So leif bought Bjarni's ship recruited some of his remaining crewmen and struck out to find this land of trees
The first island he found was instead full of large flat stones. He called it flat stone land from there
He traveled south to an area of dense forest, which he named?
forest land
Shakespeare life was not
he eventually reached a more temperate area with good salmon runs and meadow lands where he decided to build a settlement for the winter while
Half the crew explored and they hit the jackpot
They'd seen plentiful game and timber but more importantly they came back with baskets of wine grapes
which Leif and his crew of course turned into alcohol and
Finally Leif had a brainstorm to match. His father's brilliant christening of Greenland. He called the new land drumroll, please
Vineland, huh
Though a quick aside. They may not have actually been grapes
Scandinavians tend to call any berry a wine grape, so it's possible
These were actually currants blackberries or gooseberries, but hey, they could be fermented. So
score
Come summer life loaded his ship with timber and wine berries flushed with success by all accounts
The expedition was a triumph and on his way back
He even rescued some shipwrecked men stranded on a rock a deed that earned him the nickname
Leif the lucky but when they hit Greenland his luck ended the same year
They'd arrived in Vineland plague arrived in Greenland Leif's father
Eric was one of the victims the settlement turned to Leif for leadership
This meant no more voyages Leif had to settle down but he still believed in Vineland as a settlement
It had the timber Greenland so sorely needed. So he passed the mantle of Explorer to his brother Thorvald
Thorvald's journey seemed charmed at first his crew easily found life settlement and survived up to see their first winter
But as they explored further along the coast they discovered something ominous a shed
There were others here
But they also found the perfect settlement site a place Thorvald said to make his home then they sighted long shapes up on the beach
Three skinned canoes when they flipped them. They found nine men underneath
Communication was impossible. The two groups didn't even share a root language
violence followed
Thorvald and his men had killed eight of the strangers one
escaped
The Norseman named these new people Skraelings it may have meant screamers for their unfamiliar language or dried skin referring to their clothes
We're still unsure what they called themselves
but his first meeting of Europe and the first nations steeped with
misunderstanding and violence would prove prophetic
The man who escaped roused his village and shortly the village descended on the Norseman they sheltered in their ships
arrows bouncing off helmets shields and hard armor, except one
Single shaft carefully aimed entered under thorvald's arm
The beach where he planned to build his Hall would instead be his grave
The death broke the men's resolve and they returned to Greenland
Vineland was clearly dangerous Leif's second brother launched his own expedition
But he never made it getting blown back to Greenland and dying of an illness
But one person in life's family was still willing to try his illegitimate half-sister
Freydis a woman who inherited all of Eric's qualities that Leif had somehow missed
well
that's one theory others think that later christian propagandists used the raging pagans Eric and Freydis as
contrast to the wise Christian life, but still
Freydis was a force. So when a rich Norwegian decided to launch a new expedition
Freydis pushed her husband to join up
they made Leif's encampment without issue and as summer came met with the first nations in a peaceful trade at
first the native people wanted iron weapons
But the expedition leader forbid the trade offering instead dairy products for skins
The trade complete the sides withdrew in good spirits and what happened next is still debated
Perhaps the lactose-intolerant native people thought they'd been poisoned by the milk and cheese
Perhaps they decided to attack the settlement and take their weapons or maybe a rival tribe
Noticed the trade and wanted to eliminate this new powerful ally in some versions
But Norseman kill a man who tries to reach for an axe
Whatever the reason someone attacked the settlement in force
The Norseman had superior weapons and armour the attackers had numbers soon
The settlers broke rushing for the ship native warriors entered the compound and saw a pair of horrors
The first was a bellowing charging bull an animal completely alien to the attackers in the panic
It had broken its fence and gone on a rampage. The second was Freydis
Infuriated by the retreat she emerged from a house and heavily pregnant snatched up a fallen man's sword
She flew at the attackers striking in every direction and howling that the Norseman were coward for running
That she could fight better than any of them. She tore open her dress and beat her chest with the blade
Seeing this the attackers decided that yeah, they weren't gonna mess with this mad woman and her horn monster. They made a quick retreat
Freydis had saved them and for her trouble she got wait
Scolded for being unwomanly what it what the how
Way to go history, huh?
Sorry
Despite surviving. This expedition was done. They couldn't hold out against determined assaults like that. No way
After another winter they headed back to Greenland
But you know who wasn't done Freydis heck. No there was still money to be made over there
She convinced her husband to set up a new expedition but Freydis was really the one in charge
She convinced two brothers recent arrivals from Norway to join them and split the profits 50/50
they laid down ground rules as far as manpower just so no one crew would have an advantage and thus you guessed it the
cheating began
When the expedition arrived the brothers found Freitas had snuck five
Extra men aboard her ship and she found out that they moved into Leif's hall
Which was supposed to be hers
As you'd expect things deteriorated through the winter as the rival settlements aggravated each other in a hundred small ways
Finally Freydis had enough
She manufactured a crisis telling her husband that one of the brothers struck her and badgered him into taking revenge
They came upon the rival settlement at night binding the sleeping men before killing them
Freydis revenge was almost complete except her men refused to kill the settlements five women
Hand me an axe. She said
They bribed everyone to secrecy and returned to Greenland
but the story leaked as stories always do Freydis went unpunished but her reputation never recovered and
With that last burst of Darkness the Norse settlement on North America died
Greenland crews returned to harvest timber from time to time, but they didn't stay
Greenland itself after all was dying the rus trade networks moved business east and the
Scandinavian homeland lost interest in Greenland seals and walrus ivory by
1400 a change in climate known as the Little Ice Age made
Scandinavian habitation increasingly difficult and they were gradually supplanted by proto Inuits
Perhaps the same people the settlers fought in Vineland who moved East from North America the Vineland Colony considered a mere curiosity
Passed into myth and was largely forgotten
Which is interesting because today the North settlements in North America are by far the most famous
products of the Viking expansion yet
they had the least impact of all their endeavors as
We've seen the Vikings are reshaped modern Europe from Norway to Iceland Ireland to Russia
Heck we didn't even get to the impact on England. I'm figuring we'll leave that to our Danelaw episodes and a future series on
1066
Sure, the Vikings bounced off more organized states like the Byzantine Empire and Islamic kingdoms, but in areas of political chaos
They often proved the special ingredient to help create the country's we know today
So raise our drinking horn friends, it's been our pleasure sailing with you