Showing posts with label Vinland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vinland. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

The Saga of Erik the Red

The Saga of Erik the Red is not about Erik the Red. Erik is in it, as well as his son Leif Ericsson, but it focuses more on the actions of Thorfinn Karlsefni and his wife, Gudrid, with references to exploration and the spread of Christianity.

The first few chapters are background, explaining how Erik the Red gets banished from Iceland and discovers an island he calls Greenland, hoping the name would attract colonists—which it does. A difficult and famine-laced winter causes them to ask a seiðr worker (magician/prophet) to prophesy when their fortunes will change. She needs someone to sing warding songs. A young girl, Gudrid, knows the songs even though she has converted to Christianity. She sings the songs, the prophet predicts the famine will soon end and that Gudrid will make two marriages, one in Iceland and one in Greenland.

Gudrid marries a son of Erik the Red, but he dies in an epidemic. He appears to Gudrid after his death, asking her to make sure asking her to make sure Greenland starts to bury their dead in consecrated ground., tells her to not marry another Greenlander, and says she should give their money to the Church.

A few chapters (and several years) later, Thorfinn Karlsefni visits Greenland as a wealthy merchant, for the purposes of trade. He stays the winter and helps co-host a Yule feast with Erik the Red which becomes a wedding feast when he asks Gudrid's hand in marriage. The newly married couple, with 160 others in two boats, set out for Vinland.

One of the boats goes astray and has several difficulties. Thorfinn's and Gudrid's group reach Vinland where they find plenty of game and fish, and where grapes and wheat grow. They encounter the natives, called the Skrælings, who use boats made of animal skins. When the Skrælings bring a delegation and appear to want to trade, the Norse trade red cloth for animal pelts but refuse the Skrælings' desire for swords and spears. The Skrælings later return in a large group and fling arrows and large stones at the Norse.

The final chapter relates that Thorfinn realizes the hostility will not end, and he and Gudrid eventually return to Iceland and raise their family. Their grandchildren will become the parents of three bishops.

The saga reads like a travel documentary, but is also seen as a glimpse into the non-Christian beliefs of the Norse in Iceland and Greenland. For more on the seidworker and similar figures, come back tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

The Skræling

Of course, there were inhabitants in North America when the Norse arrived.

The Saga of the Greenlanders tells of an Icelander named Bjarni Herjólfsson who drifted off course while sailing to Greenland in 985 or 986. He spotted land that he suspected was not Greenland. Later sailors such as Leif Eriksson explored past Greenland and found lands they gave names to, such as Helluland (Baffin Island), Markland (Labrador), and Vinland (Newfoundland). Leif built some houses on Vinland in his short time there, delighted that grapes and wheat grew wild.

After returning to Greenland, his brother complained that they had not spent enough time exploring the new territory, so Leif gave his brother, Thorvald, his ship and told him to go ahead. It is Thorvald who would record the first contact with people living in the new lands west of Greenland.

First contact was not amicable. Thorvald's crew was attacked on the beach, and killed eight of the natives. Then the Saga tells us:

'I have been wounded under my arm,' [Thorvald] said. 'An arrow flew between the edge of the ship and the shield into my armpit. Here is the arrow, and this wound will cause my death.'

A few years later, Thorfinn Karlsefni attempted to colonize Vinland about 1010, which may explain the settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows.  (The illustration shows the routes of different voyages. I have added a green star for the location of L'Anse aux Meadows.) His encounter with natives was initially peaceful, trading native pelts for red woven cloth owned by the Norse. This is in the Saga of Erik the Red, which describes them:

They were short in height with threatening features and tangled hair on their heads. Their eyes were large and their cheeks broad.

Later records called these natives Skræling, used to refer not only to Vinland inhabitants, but also to Inuit they encountered in Canada and the proto-Inuit with which they shared Greenland. One likely origin is from the Old Norse skrá, which means "dried skin" and probably referred to the animal pelts they wore. It could also be related to Old Norse skrækja, "shout or yell"; his could be an etymology similar to the Greek barabaros for barbarian, which refers to the nonsensical sounds the Greeks considered any non-Greek language. Modern Icelandic skræling means "barbarian."

Thorfinn had brought livestock, and when a bull broke loose from its pen and rampaged, the natives were frightened and attacked the Norse. Two Norsemen were killed, and many natives. Thorfinn realized that his colony would be under constant threat of attack, so he retreated to Greenland.

The Saga of Erik the Red is a mine of information about these events and more. I'll delve into that mine a little tomorrow and see what can be found.

Monday, August 8, 2022

The Norse in North America

The Medieval Warming Period may have helped the Norse discover North America by reducing North Atlantic ice, making the crossing easier.

They didn't necessarily get far into North America, but on the extreme northern tip of the island of Newfoundland in Canada, there is an archaeological site at L'Anse aux Meadows (Meadows Cove). Begun in 1960, the remains of three structures were found whose timbers via tree-ring dating showed they were cut down about 1021CE. (Model of the village to the left.)

One of the structures contained iron slag, showing that it was a smithy. Stone weights found in one building are consistent with the type used in looms. These suggest the place was not just a seasonal hunting camp, but intended to be a long-term settlement.

One question that remains about this site is: is it the Vinland mentioned in literature? In 1073, a German cleric writes

He [the Danish king, Sven Estridsson] also told me of another island discovered by many in that ocean. It is called Vinland because vines grow there on their own accord, producing the most excellent wine. Moreover, that unsown crops abound there, we have ascertained not from fabulous conjecture but from the reliable reports of the Danes.

Vinland is mentioned in two Icelandic sagas: the Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders. They discuss the discovery by Norse Greenlanders of land to the west of Greenland that they call Vinland. Although there is no direct evidence to support the theory, many are content to link the settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows with Vinland. Why didn't the settlement grow and continue? The sagas suggest that internal conflict among the Norse as well as conflict with the peoples native to Vinland caused the failure of the settlement. 

I'll talk a little more about the Norse encounter with the natives tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

The Problems of Pope Paschal

Pope Paschal II speaking to Anselm of Canterbury
On 13 August 1099, a Cluniac monk from northwest of Rome named Ranierius was named Pope Paschal II, following Pope Urban II. He sat the chair of Peter until 21 January 1118—a long stretch compared to many popes.

Like other popes, he had to deal with the controversy over investiture; in his case, specifically, he weighed in on England's trouble between King Henry I and Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, finding the same solution later settled in the Concordat of Worms: agree that the pope names clergy and confers religious titles, but the king of England can confer secular titles and grant land.

As for the relations between Paschal and the Holy Roman Emperor: Henry V proved to be more difficult in some ways than his father had been, even marching an army into Italy against Paschal over the Investiture Controversy. Paschal had to agree to give up all properties and possessions it had received since the days of Charlemagne. Only for this would Henry give up his "rights" of investiture.  The agreement was to take place in February 1111, but the Romans objected very strongly to a German army trying to change the status quo: they revolted, and Henry retreated, but not before capturing Paschal and 16 cardinals! The pope was imprisoned for two months; a rescue mission by Robert I of Capua with 300 men failed. Paschal was released after agreeing to allow Henry to invest priests and bishops. (Months later, with Henry safely back across the alps, a council and Paschal would excommunicate him for his actions.)

Paschal also had the opportunity during his reign to unite the Catholic (Western) and Orthodox (Eastern) churches; Emperor Alexios I was willing. Paschal, however, laid down the condition that the pope be seen as the ultimate ruler of all churches throughout the world, and this the Patriarch of Constantinople would not agree to.

One of Paschal's appointments in 1112 was of a priest named Erik Gnúpsson to be Episcopus Groenlandia regionnumque finitimarum ["Bishop of Greenland and nearby regions"]. Norseman had settled Greenland in the 10th century, and there was another land to the west called "Vinland," which was almost certainly Newfoundland. This gives Paschal the privilege of having appointed the first bishop of the Americas. (Gnúpsson left for Vinland in 1121 and never returned, alas.)*

*Vatican and Icelandic records both mention this; see These Stones Bear Witness, by Richard White for more on the Norse presence in North America.