The Norse colonization of North America began in the late 10C AD, when Norsemen explored & settled areas of the North Atlantic including the northeastern fringes of North America. At this time, it was believed that the 1st European contact was made with the indigenous Native Americans. Continental North American settlements were small & did not develop into permanent colonies. While voyages, for example to collect timber, are likely to have occurred for some time, there is no evidence of any lasting Norse settlements on mainland North America.
For centuries it remained unclear whether the Icelandic stories represented real voyages by the Norse to North America. The sagas first gained serious consideration when, in 1837, the Danish antiquarian Carl Christian Rafn pointed out the possibility of a Norse settlement in, or voyages to, North America. North America, by the name Winland, 1st appeared in written sources in a work by Adam of Bremen from approximately 1075. The most important works about North America & early Norse invasions there, The Sagas of Icelanders, appeared written form only in the 13C & 14C. According to the Sagas of Icelanders, Norsemen from Iceland settled Greenland in the 980s.
There is evidence of Norse trade with the Native Americans, called Skraelings by the Vikings. Some translate Skraelings as “skin wearers,” which may be true as to how they described them. The Norse generally wore woolen or linen clothing, & North American Natives generally wore animal skins. The Skræling & Thule people were commonly referred to by the Norse. The island of Thule, which is now called Qaanaaq, is located in northwest Greenland towards Canada and is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is believed the Thule people are the ancestors of the modern Inuit (Eskimo), linked biologically, culturally, & linguistically. The Norse would have encountered both Native Americans (the Beothuk, related to the Algonquin) & the Thule, the ancestors of the Inuit. Items such as comb fragments, pieces of iron cooking utensils & chisels, chess pieces, ship rivets, carpenter's planes, & oaken ship fragments used in Inuit boats have been found far beyond the traditional range of Norse colonization.
In 1004, the storey goes that Leif's brother Thorvald Eiriksson sailed with a crew of 30 men to Vinland & spent the following winter at Leif's camp. In the spring, Thorvald attacked 9 of the local people who were sleeping under 3 skin-covered canoes. The 9th victim escaped & soon came back to the Norse camp with a force of local Natives. Thorvald was killed by an arrow. Although brief hostilities ensued, the Norse explorers stayed another winter & left the following spring.
In 1009 Thorfinn Karlsefni, or "Thorfinn the Valiant", supplied 3 ships with livestock & 160 men & women (although another source sets the number of settlers at 250). After a cruel winter, he headed south & landed at Straumfjord. A sign of peaceful relations between the Native Americans & the Norse invaders seemed to occur here. The 2 sides bartered with furs & gray squirrel skins for milk & red cloth, which the Native Americans tied around their heads as a sort of headdress. There are conflicting stories, but one account relates that a bull belonging to Karlsefni came storming out of the wood, so frightening the Native Americans, that they ran to their skin-boats & rowed away. They returned 3 days later, in force to confront the European interlopers.
These European settlements in continental North America aimed to exploit natural resources such as furs & in particular lumber, which was in short supply in Greenland. It is unclear why the short-term settlements did not become permanent, though it was likely due to the harsh winters & to hostile relations with the Native Americans. Nevertheless, it appears that sporadic voyages to Markland for timber & trade with Native Americans could have lasted as long as 400 years. Evidence of continuing trips includes the Maine Penny, a Norwegian coin from King Olaf Kyrre's reign (1067–1093) allegedly found in a Native American archaeological site in the U.S. state of Maine, suggesting an exchange between the Norse & the Native Americans late in or after the 11th century. An entry in the Icelandic Annals from 1347 refers to a small Greenlandic vessel with a crew of 18 that arrived in Iceland while attempting to return to Greenland from Markland with a load of timber presumably from the Native Americans.
Recent research noted in a book by Njord Kane, “Chapter 14 – The Skræling.” The Vikings:The Story of a People. 2nd ed. Yukon: Spangenhelm notes DNA evidence has led scientists to identify more than 80 living Icelanders with a genetic variation similar to one found mostly in Native Americans. One theory is that this mother-to-child DNA probably entered Icelandic bloodlines around 1000 AD, when the 1st Viking-American Indian child may have been born. Possibly a Native American female was transported from Vinland to Iceland on one of the Viking voyages, as the Norse were known to capture inhabitants on their raids. Further new archaeological & DNA research has revealed, that Europeans probably had visited North American shores far earlier than the Vikings. These findings date arrivals to approximately 17,000 years before Columbus was born. This was a time when the 2 geographical regions were connected by land-ice bridges. Read more here.
Busy Vikings -
789AD Vikings begin attacks on England
840AD Viking settlers found Dublin in Ireland
844AD Vikings raid Seville but are repulsed
860AD Rus Vikings attack Constantinople
866AD York is captured by a Viking army
870AD Vikings colonise Iceland
981AD Erik the Red discovers Greenland
986AD Bjarni Herjolfsson sights North America after being blown off course
1002AD Leif Ericsson, son of Erik the Red, explores the coast of North America, named them Karland, Helluland and Vinland
