Norse colonization of the Americas

Norse sailors, often referred to as Vikings, explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeast fringes of North America, beginning in the 10th century. While this settlement process did not have the lasting effects that later settlements and conquests would have, it can be seen as a prelude to wide-scale European settlement in the Americas.

The Viking activities are often erroneously described as the Viking colonization of North America, but there are few findings to support the idea that the Vikings colonized North America,^[1] except for Greenland which they occupied for almost 500 years (see below). Outside Greenland, though, the Viking settlements only grew to a small size and never fully developed into permanent colonies, partly because of hostile relations with Native Americans, whom the Norse referred to as Skrælings. In turn, the Viking exploited the natural resources such as furs and lumber. Lumber, in particular, was in short supply in Norse Greenland, due to deforestation.^[2]

Adam of Bremen is the first historian in the Old World that referred to the Americas (Vinland). The Icelandic sagas are still the most important written sources about the early Norse activities in America.

Purported runestones have been found in North America (e.g. the Kensington Runestone, Newport Tower and Heavener Runestone) that are thought by some to be artifacts from further Viking exploration. However, these runestones are generally considered to be forgeries. There is a map depicting North America, the Vinland map, that some believe is related to Norse exploration, though it is almost certainly a hoax.

Greenland

According to the sagas of Icelanders, Vikings from Iceland first discovered Greenland in the 980s. Erik the Red led a settlement expedition there in 982. At its peak, the colony consisted of two settlements with a total population of between 3,000 and 5,000; at least 400 farms have been identified by archaeologists.

At its height, Viking Greenland had a bishopric (at Garðar) and exported walrus ivory, furs, rope, sheep, whale and seal blubber, live animals such as polar bears and cattle hides. In 1261, the population accepted the overlordship of the Norwegian King, although it continued to have its own law. In 1380 this kingdom entered into a personal union with the Kingdom of Denmark.

The colony began to a decline in the 1300s. The Western Settlement was abandoned around 1350. By 1378, there was no longer a bishop at Garðar. After a marriage was recorded in 1408, no written records mention the settlers. It is probable that the Eastern Settlement was defunct by the late 1400s, although no exact date has been established. The most recent radiocarbon date found in Norse settlements as of 2002 was 1430 A.D. +/- 15 years. Several theories have been advanced about the reasons for the decline. The Little Ice Age of this period would have made it harder to travel between Greenland and Europe, and more difficult for Greenlanders to farm for subsistence; in addition, Greenlandic ivory may have been supplanted in European markets by cheaper ivory from Africa.

Vinland

According to the Icelanders' sagas ("Eirik the Red's Saga" and the "Saga of the Greenlanders" — chapters of the Hauksbók and the Flatey Book), the Vikings started to explore lands to the west of Greenland only a few years after the Greenland settlements were established. Bjarni Herjólfsson, a merchant, while sailing from Iceland to Greenland, was blown off course and sighted land west of the latter. He described his discovery to Leif Ericson, who explored the area in more detail and planted a small settlement.

The sagas describe three separate areas discovered during this exploration: Helluland, which means "land of the flat stones"; Markland "the land of forests" (something of definite interest to the settlers in Greenland, which had few trees); and Vinland, which recent linguistic evidence identifies as "the land of meadows", somewhere farther south of Markland. It was in Vinland where the settlement described in the sagas was planted.

For some centuries after Christopher Columbus's voyages opened the Americas to large-scale colonization by Europeans, it was unclear whether these stories represented real voyages by Vikings to North America. The sagas were first taken seriously after the archaeologist Carl Christian Rafn in 1837 pointed out the possibility for a Norse settlement or voyages to North America.

The question was definitively settled in the 1960s, when a Viking settlement was excavated at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland by Helge Ingstad and his wife. The location of the various lands described in the sagas is still unclear, however. Many historians identify Helluland with Baffin Island and Markland with Labrador. The location of Vinland is a thornier question. Most believe that the L'Anse aux Meadows settlement is the Vinland settlement described in the sagas; others argue that the sagas depict Vinland as being warmer than Newfoundland, and therefore that it lay further south. There are still many questions remaining, and only new archaeological findings can supply more information.

Leif's settlement did not prosper. According to the sagas, the settlers fought over the few women who accompanied the expedition, and also had conflicts with the local Native Americans. The settlement was abandoned after a few years. The Greenland Norse remembered the existence of land to the west, though, and continued to travel to Markland for wood. Evidence suggests that sporadic voyages in Markland for forages, timber, and trade with the Native locals, could have lasted as long as 400 years.^[3]^[4] Evidence from the continuing trips include the following: a Norwegian coin from King Olaf Kyrre's reign (1066-80) was found on an Indian settlement in the state of Maine, suggesting an exchange between the Vikings and the Natives late in or after the 11th century. Finally, an entry in the Icelandic Annals from A.D. 1347 referring to a small Greenlandic vessel with a crew of eighteen aboard that arrived in Iceland while attempting to return to Greenland from Markland with a load of timber. Because no further details were provided, this reference may indicate that voyages to Markland were relatively common.^[5]

Aftermath

Despite the loss of contact with the Greenlanders, the Norwegian-Danish crown continued to consider Greenland a possession, and the existence of the island was never forgotten by European geographers. It is also possible that the lands west of Greenland were remembered. This matter is more speculative, but it has been documented^{citation needed} that the Danish king appointed Didrik Pining to lead a German-led, Danish-sponsored, and Portuguese-financed expedition seeking a northwestern route to Asia. Pining sailed with three ships to Greenland, and then searched further south. He is said to have landed in 1473 on what could perhaps be Newfoundland and Labrador, together with Hans Pothorst, also from Hildesheim, Portuguese explorer João Vaz Corte-Real, and possibly the semi-mythical figure John Scolvus.^{citation needed} In support of this claim, it has been documented that, in 1474, Corte-Real was rewarded by the King of Portugal with the post of Governor of Terceira in the Azores for having discovered "Terra do Bacalhau", which literally means "Land of the Codfish"^[6], a food which became an economically crucial trade good. Moreover, Martin Frobisher, when referring to the Labrador, mentions that he is near the lands visited by Scolvus. These few cues suggest that Pining, Corte-Real, and Scolvus could have visited the Gulf of Saint Lawrence about twenty years before Columbus reached the New World. While such a voyage is plausible, the complete lack of evidence condemns it to remain conjecture.

In 1721 a joint merchant-clerical expedition led by Norwegian missionary Hans Egede was sent to Greenland, not knowing whether the old Norse civilization remained there, and worried that if it did, it might still be Catholic 200 years after the rest of Scandinavia had experienced the Reformation. Though this expedition found no surviving Europeans, it marked the beginning of Denmark's assertion of sovereignty over the island, a story that belongs to the Danish colonization of the Americas.

Contents

Greenland

Vinland

Aftermath

See also

References