The Vikings, or as they were known outside of their Scandinavian homes, the Norse or those rotten bums, were aggressive colonizers, who murdered and raided their way across Europe and as far west as Canada--but you couldn't call them imperialists. They weren't primarily interested in acquiring land and power.
Reading Viking histories, you get the impression that the Northerners seem to have been restless, adventurous, irritable young men who left Norway and Sweden to find treasure and excitement, to explore different places, and if they could pillage and burn in the meantime, well, so much the better.
Reconstructed Viking Longhouse, Stöng, Iceland. Photo by Thomas Ormston
But a weird thing happened after these young men arrived in their various places. They settled down. At Áth Cliath in Ireland, the Norse simply parked their boat, converted it into living quarters, and eventually founded the town of Dublin. Even if their settlements weren't such a great success, like in the Eastern Settlement of Greenland where climate change and stubbornness eventually conspired against them, the descendants of the violent murderous Norse became farmers and traders and lived quiet productive lives.
More of that you can learn from studies of Viking houses:
- Hofstaðir, Iceland
- Garðar, Greenland
- Beginish Island, Ireland
- Áth Cliath, Ireland
- Eastern Settlement, Greenland
- Viking Settlements
Comments
To me, the most fascinating aspect of the Norse is their exploration of North America. How strange it is that they preceded Columbus by close to 500 years yet we go on teaching and learning the fantasy that “Columbus discovered the New World.”
Even more intriguing is the question of how far south from Newfoundland on the continent the Norse actually traversed. The numerous references to “Vinland” in the Norse sagas as well as other sources are tantalizing clues to what is, in truth, one of the greatest historical mysteries of our American heritage. Was it Boston Harbor and the Charles River ? Cape Cod ? Naragansett Bay? The Hudson? Somewhere on the Eastern US coast yet further south?
Perhaps some day, “mainstream” archaeology will actually endeavor to study the question rather than continuing to instinctively dismiss it out of hand.
This is an interesting question, and I looked into what archaeologists had to say about in the scholarly literature. Here’s what I found about “Vinland”
http://archaeology.about.com/od/vikings/a/vinland.htm
also, I found out some more information about L’anse aux Meadows, if you’re interested in that:
http://archaeology.about.com/cs/explorers/a/anseauxmeadows.htm
I thought it was long ago established that “nobody” discovered the New World. It already was an inhabited land by the time the Vikings arrived. As for why Columbus gets the press that he gets, Columbus “rediscovered” the New World so well that it never needed to be “discovered” again.
Interesting to point that besides the murderous Norse,
the Spaniards under Columbus in the space of about 50
years wiped out the indigenous Carib and Arikawa indians
by making them slaves and working them to death in the
mines,etc. So much for these newcomers to the New World.
These tragic events were soon to be repeated over and over again.
Well, in fairness however, one can always point out about the fact that whether it was Columbus or the Norse, it was not a “discovery” insofar as the indigenous peoples were already since here.
But then what? Is the suggestion implicity thatit therefore isnot worthy of scholarly and archaeological inquiry to research the Norse or other pre-Columbian exploration of the Americas ?
Moreover if one wishes to go that intellectual route, there is innately a new question raised: Who truly WAS here first ? The ancestors of Native Americans via the Bering land bridge ?
The Soloutreans from Western Europe ?
To me it seems beyond dispute that that particular question is one that remains very much an open one….
Well–somebody discovered the Americas. I (and lots of scholars) suspect it was somebody from northeastern Siberia, at least 15,000 years ago, and at the time there wasn’t anybody human living there.
Everybody after that was definitely, or maybe definitively, a rediscoverer.
I get tired of these one-sided stories calling the Vikings “violent murderous Norse,” as if that was all they ever were!
There are no people on the earth that weren’t at one time or another “violent murderous _____!”
The Hebrew tribes (according to the Old Testament,) sometimes murdered everyone on lands they wanted – right down to smashing infants heads against the rocks!
Christian groups tortured and murdered their way around the world.
Muslims are still torturing and murdering in the name of religion.
Tribes in Africa – right now – are torturing and murdering people from other tribes!
Please give well rounded information in these articles.
Absolutely right, Ingledsva. As the Firesign Theatre said so eloquently, “We are all bozos on this bus”.
http://www.rhapsody.com/album/Alb.125691
I agree that violence seems to be a quality of humans.
Kris
I appreciate what you are saying, for sure.
However, I would simply add, and especially since we are on the subject of the Vikings, that “lots of scholars” were adamant that the Norse had not reached North America (other than Greenland). That is until the L’Anse Au Meadows site was discovered in Newfoundland in 1960.
I find it entirely within the realm of possibility that in the not too distant future the lion’s share of scholars may start to be more of the school of thought that there were “explorers” from other areas of the world already here when the Siberians arrived. The evidence seems to be mounting.
Great site you run, though, Kris, and please keep up the fantastic work ! Thank you so much for it.