Attn Snorri (again) - Viking Heritage

I was reading a book about the Vikings over the weekend. It seems that in around 1000AD, a Viking party travelled over from Denmark to Newfoundland (which they called Vinland) and set up a colony there.

They sailed and arrived safely at Leifsbudir in Vinland, and the account mentions that they had plenty of food ‘with all kinds of game and fish and other things’ and busied themselves gathering timber, a scarce commodity in Greenland. Also, about this time, Gutrid, the wife of Karlsefni, gave birth in the Vinland settlement to a boy named Snorri, the first known child of European parents born in America.

good job Genghis Khan wasn't there.

he'd have made mincemeat of the Vikings.

When they arrived, they had rather a lot of trouble with the natives, made worse by the huge language barrier.

Initially, the natives are scared of the Vikings because they have brought strange beasts (a few cows) with them, so they run away. Then the Vikings make them a gift of a large white shield and they trade with one another for a while. Then it all went wrong for a bit when one of the natives tried a spot of shoplifting and was killed by the Vikings. The natives turned up mob handed and, after a lengthy battle, threw a large blue object at the Vikings which frightened them into retreat. As they were legging it, the Vikings met one of the Viking-ettes, Freydis.

She shouted ‘Why run away from these wretches? Such brave men as you are… If I only had a sword, I would fight better than any of you!’ But they did not listen and Freydis, although she was ‘slow on her feet since she was with child,’ managed to join them in the forest ‘pursued by the natives’. There she saw a dead Viking ‘with a flat stone buried in his head,’ and she picked up his sword ‘in order to defend herself with it’ as the Skraelings [the natives] came rushing towards her. ‘Then she pulled out her breasts from beneath her shift and slapped them with the sword. The natives were so terrified that they ran off to their boats and rowed away. Karlsefni [the Viking leader] and his men came over and praised her for her courage.’

thanks for the history lesson.

Nice one! Quality Viking name and no mistake...

Snorri xxx