6 ms·

I think the consensus has been for some time that they showed up, caught some fish, logged a few trees, decided it sucked, and left, all in probably less than

I think the consensus has been for some time that they showed up, caught some fish, logged a few trees, decided it sucked, and left, all in probably less than a decade.

simonklitj 5y ago
I love that idea. "Man, this is just like back home, let's go boys."
- Apocryphon 5y ago
  Newiceland
  - daveslash 5y ago
    Niceland.
philwelch 5y ago
According to some sources, one factor is that Newfoundland was so heavily populated with indigenous people that there wasn’t enough room for a Norse colony to grow. By the time the English made it back to Newfoundland, smallpox and other epidemics had devastated the indigenous population.
- datameta 5y ago
  There is a Norse description in the Saga of Icelanders of what the indigenous skraelings looked like, as the norse called them, as well as accounts of repelling assaults from the native populations. > They were short in height with threatening features and tangled hair on their heads. Their eyes were large and their cheeks broad. > despite everything the land had to offer there, they would be under constant threat of attack from its prior inhabitants. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skr%C3%A6ling https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skr%C3%A6ling
- mig39 5y ago
  Can you cite one of these sources? The archeological record doesn't seem to show a large aboriginal population in Newfoundland around 1000 C.E. I don't think the Beothuk, for example, were ever very numerous, certainly not as numerous as other aboriginal people in Labrador and Greenland at the time. It wasn't just the Norse that had a hard time living in Newfoundland at the time. It wasn't very hospitable to any humans.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - philwelch 5y ago
    A good start is the book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann. That book fundamentally changed my understanding of the pre-Colombian Americas. > It wasn't just the Norse that had a hard time living in Newfoundland at the time. It wasn't very hospitable to any humans. I don’t think it was as crowded as, say, New England (early explorers of the coast of New England, IIRC, wrote that there wasn’t enough open shoreline to even make landfall on). However much or however little of Newfoundland was habitable, though, was already inhabited by the time the Norse got there.
irrational 5y ago
This is the part I don't get. These guys were awesome sailors. It didn't occur to them to sail down the coast until they got to the Florida Keys and set up a little surf shop?
- PeterisP 5y ago
  They most likely had a family and a harvest to return to back home - viking raids generally were seasonal in between farming, so they had a built-in time limit.
- goodcanadian 5y ago
  This was the extreme end of the supply chain so to speak. Iceland was sparsely populated, Greenland even more so. They simply didn't have the people to set up new colonies further west, or much need to. Perhaps, if they had stumbled on a particularly rich area, they may have done so, but to get any significant number of settlers, they would have had to go all the way back to Scandinavia.
- pvaldes 5y ago
  The major sea currents run towards north here
  - kzrdude 5y ago
    And they had no base nearby to launch from. Go back home and stock up? Noo.. home was Greenland, there's no riches there, and they went to Vinland to try to stock up.
    - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
      Greenland wasn't a frozen wasteland back then. The climate was warmer. Climate change is a large part of what drove the Norse out of Greenland.
      - kzrdude 5y ago
        It was no paradise
ravenstine 5y ago
"On second thought, let's not stay in America. It is a silly place."
mig39 5y ago
Sounds like my summer vacation in Newfoundland in July 2021. Not much has changed! Kidding. Unless they were fishing for cod (usually offshore), they weren't doing so well on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. And the trees in that area of Newfoundland are skinny, short, and useless for most construction. I think they just landed on the part of Newfoundland that has the least to offer. It's still that way 1000 years later. Had they landed in one of the bays on the East Coast of Newfoundland, they might have enjoyed better weather, better shelter, better fishing, and more contact with the local aboriginal population.

I think the consensus has been for some time that they showed up, caught some fish, logged a few trees, decided it sucked, and left, all in probably less than a decade.

simonklitj 5y ago

I love that idea. "Man, this is just like back home, let's go boys."

Apocryphon 5y ago
Newiceland
- daveslash 5y ago
  Niceland.

philwelch 5y ago

According to some sources, one factor is that Newfoundland was so heavily populated with indigenous people that there wasn’t enough room for a Norse colony to grow. By the time the English made it back to Newfoundland, smallpox and other epidemics had devastated the indigenous population.

datameta 5y ago
There is a Norse description in the Saga of Icelanders of what the indigenous skraelings looked like, as the norse called them, as well as accounts of repelling assaults from the native populations. > They were short in height with threatening features and tangled hair on their heads. Their eyes were large and their cheeks broad. > despite everything the land had to offer there, they would be under constant threat of attack from its prior inhabitants. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skr%C3%A6ling https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skr%C3%A6ling
mig39 5y ago
Can you cite one of these sources? The archeological record doesn't seem to show a large aboriginal population in Newfoundland around 1000 C.E. I don't think the Beothuk, for example, were ever very numerous, certainly not as numerous as other aboriginal people in Labrador and Greenland at the time. It wasn't just the Norse that had a hard time living in Newfoundland at the time. It wasn't very hospitable to any humans.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- philwelch 5y ago
  A good start is the book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann. That book fundamentally changed my understanding of the pre-Colombian Americas. > It wasn't just the Norse that had a hard time living in Newfoundland at the time. It wasn't very hospitable to any humans. I don’t think it was as crowded as, say, New England (early explorers of the coast of New England, IIRC, wrote that there wasn’t enough open shoreline to even make landfall on). However much or however little of Newfoundland was habitable, though, was already inhabited by the time the Norse got there.

irrational 5y ago

This is the part I don't get. These guys were awesome sailors. It didn't occur to them to sail down the coast until they got to the Florida Keys and set up a little surf shop?

PeterisP 5y ago
They most likely had a family and a harvest to return to back home - viking raids generally were seasonal in between farming, so they had a built-in time limit.
goodcanadian 5y ago
This was the extreme end of the supply chain so to speak. Iceland was sparsely populated, Greenland even more so. They simply didn't have the people to set up new colonies further west, or much need to. Perhaps, if they had stumbled on a particularly rich area, they may have done so, but to get any significant number of settlers, they would have had to go all the way back to Scandinavia.
pvaldes 5y ago
The major sea currents run towards north here
- kzrdude 5y ago
  And they had no base nearby to launch from. Go back home and stock up? Noo.. home was Greenland, there's no riches there, and they went to Vinland to try to stock up.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    Greenland wasn't a frozen wasteland back then. The climate was warmer. Climate change is a large part of what drove the Norse out of Greenland.
    - kzrdude 5y ago
      It was no paradise

ravenstine 5y ago

"On second thought, let's not stay in America. It is a silly place."

mig39 5y ago

Sounds like my summer vacation in Newfoundland in July 2021. Not much has changed! Kidding. Unless they were fishing for cod (usually offshore), they weren't doing so well on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. And the trees in that area of Newfoundland are skinny, short, and useless for most construction. I think they just landed on the part of Newfoundland that has the least to offer. It's still that way 1000 years later. Had they landed in one of the bays on the East Coast of Newfoundland, they might have enjoyed better weather, better shelter, better fishing, and more contact with the local aboriginal population.