Vinland Forever
From Alternative History
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[edit] Points of Divergence
Several divisive events between the Norse and the skraelings during the voyage of Thorfinn Karlsefni (such as the killing of a skraeling caught attempting to steal weapons, discontent among the settlers, and the rather humorous serving of milk to the lactose-intolerant skraelings), never take place. Relations between the Vikings and skraelings remain uneasy, but the Vikings are not chased out of Vinland by the skraelings after only a decade. Relations among the Viking settlers quickly grow closer. A tenuous but diehard permanent settlement is established, and the population very slowly begins to increase as the Norse get used to their new home and raise families, attract more settlers from Greenland and Iceland, and as regular trade with the skraelings spreads disease which begins to cut into the native skraeling population, reducing competition.
[edit] 900s
[edit] Bjarni Herjolfsson’s Accident
In 985 or 986, a merchant by the name of Bjarni Herjolfsson set sail to Greenland for his biannual visit to his father (who he recently learned had emigrated there from Iceland). After three days of smooth sailing, he and his party encountered bad weather for several days and were blown off course. He eventually caught sight of a wooded land far to the west of where he knew Greenland should be, and despite curiosity on the part of his crew, Bjarni headed back east to search for Greenland, and arrived in time to meet his father.
[edit] 1000s
[edit] The Voyages of Leif Eriksson
Leif Eriksson was the paramount chieftain of Greenland around the turn of the millenium, following in the footsteps of his father Erik the Red. Having heard of Bjarni’s tale, Leif’s curiosity led him to mount an expedition around the year 1000 to find the new land. His first sighting of land consisted of the sighting of a barren, rocky beach which he named Helluland (“Flat Stone Land”). Further south, he came upon a heavily wooded land which he named Markland (Wood Land). Finally, he came upon another land with an abundance of berries (which at first glance are mistaken for grapes), and he accordingly calls the land Vinland (Wine Land).
[edit] Thorvald Eriksson’s and Thorsteinn’s Expeditions
Thorvald Eriksson, the brother of Leif Eriksson, set out on an expedition to explore more of Vinland. He spent the winter at Leif’s old camp, then set about exploring in the spring. He spent another winter there, and in the summer afterwards does more exploring. During this time he and his party come across a party of skraelings and kills them. The skraelings return and attack, and Thorvald is killed by an arrow. He is buried in Vinland and the rest of his party returns to Greenland. His brother Thorsteinn later attempts to go to Vinland to recover the body, but this expedition is forced to turn back.
[edit] Thorfinn Karlsefni’s Expedition
In 1007, a group of settlers led by Thorfinn Karlsefni (among them Leif Ericksson’s own half sister, Freydis Eriksdottir) set sail for Vinland, hoping to establish a permanent settlement. Thorfinn is a prudent man, and he realizes that his expedition will have to learn to live with and deal with the skraelings if it is to succeed. He recruits as many people as he can to come with, to establish a settlement. He is keen to bring with weapons and men with military experience, although he is also keen to make sure that everyone understands that nothing is to be done to provoke the skraelings, and weapons are to be kept out of sight if skraelings are encountered.
Thorfinn takes up residence at the camp used by Leif and Thorvald, and immediately starts the process of fortifying it by building a palisade. The party spends the winter and spring building up the settlement. In the summer, a group of skraelings comes to the palisade, and they and the Vikings begin to cautiously start a process of trade. Eventually limited conflicts break out, but these are rather small and don’t affect trade. The palisade constructed by the Norse helps protect their limited numbers from any serious casualties. After a couple of years, Thorfinn sends Freydis back to Greenland to talk to her brother Leif and get him to encourage more people to join the settlement. From this time on, interactions with the skraelings become rarer, as those skraelings who made contact with the Vikings became sick and died of mysterious diseases, and those skraelings who hadn’t personally interacted with the Vikings came to believe that the Vikings were cursed.
[edit] Harald Hardrade’s Expedition
The next big chapter in the exploration of the new land occurred in 1052 after Harald Hardrade came to the throne of Norway. For a while rumors had been going around that there was a new land in the west, and this captured the interest of Harald Hardrade, who became king of Norway after spending several years in the Byzantine Varangian Guard. During that time, he had heard the rumors of the far off land, and in the years immediately after he came to the throne had sent a series of several envoys to Iceland and Greenland to gather more information about this new land. This culminated in the spring of 1051 when an envoy Hardrade had sent to Vinland itself returned. He told the king of having lived for a year in a settlement of several hundred people on a large island with a mild climate good for farming that was almost uninhabited, aside from a rare small group of skraelings who avoided the Norse settlers. The envoy also told of brief expeditions mounted by the Vinland settlers to lands even further away from the island, lands which stretched for as far as the eye could see. This led Hardrade to resolve to gain a foothold in this new land, and he organized a large fleet of ships to carry soldiers and settlers across the sea to this new land in the spring of 1052. Although eager to go to the new land himself, he knew that he had to remain behind to keep a hold on power in his kingdom. In his stead he sent Haldor Snorrison, a friend of his from his time in the Varangian Guard.
[edit] Harold Godwinsson’s Expedition
1069
