Damn okay I actually have something interesting to add as a student! Last spring, I took an anthropology course on circumpolar peoples (focusing later in the semester on the recent history of Canadian Inuit peoples) and we specifically covered the instance mentioned where an initially friendly trading encounter ended poorly. My anth professor mentioned there's oral history on the indigenous side that suggests the norse poisoned them in some way, and if we consider the record which states milk was traded, and the bioanth side wrt the lactase persistence gene, it might have had something to do with the indigenous people suddenly experiencing lactose intolerance symptoms, and thinking they were poisoned. Not a wild conclusion to jump to, all of your people suddenly falling ill hours after you eat the newly traded food, and might explain the responding violence better.
In an age where no one knew what lactose intolerance was, nor what caused it, a group of people gave milk to another group of people. Imagine what would've happened if both groups knew that most mammals stop being able to digest milk when they stop breastfeeding.
Such a treat finding this channel. I'm a former archaeologist and during my degrees I focused on the Vikings. Many moons ago now, but wish I could have remained in the career.
Mind if I ask why you couldn’t if it’s anything that might be helpful to someone considering going into the field anyway, such as me. Thank you! Sorry you couldn’t stay in in any case.
The whole family seemed a little off-kilter: in addition to her behavior described here, the "Saga of the Greenlanders" describes her as committing cold-blooded murder ona still-later expedition, and being found out by her brother. Also, Leif's illegitimate son, Thorgils, was described as having "Something uncanny about him all his life," and basically being the local weirdo. Overall, a strain of instability seems to be quite visible in the family.
I live in Newfoundland, did a degree in Archaeology from '03 to '09 and got to visit L'anse Aux Meadows while working one summer at a nearby dig site-- L'a.M is a beautiful, desolate place. The sod houses are great, and surprisingly cozy (although VERY smokey!). There was a long term employee there as an interpreter who would character act as 'Bjarni the Beautiful' and he handcarved wood and antler spoons while he told tales and tended the fire. NL is very proud of it's short Norse history-- it's a helluva drive to get there, but the whole western coast (Gros Morne, Port au Choix) is so wildly beautiful! Recommend!
Archeologically greedy. I like that term. I wonder what would've happened if the Vikings had figured out how to live permanently in North America. How would that have changed the ways in which European colonization played out?
The way I imagine it, we'd have an Anglo-Norse, rather than Anglo-French, nation to the north of the US, corresponding to Canada. Its provinces would have names like "Markland," "Vinland," and so on, and one stubborn class of people living around the Gulf of St. Lawrence would be speaking a dialect of Old Norse instead of old French.
Honestly, long-term, low-level contact between Native Americans and the Norse (and maybe the Irish too, or anyone else headed in that general direction) may have had a better outcome than the Columbian contact. Slow diffusion of disease, technology, and culture could have strengthened native societies, so when a Columbus analogue finally does show up, he's facing more organized native polities with steel weapons, horses, and natural immunities.
@@TheSaneHatter Those "stubborn" people lived, early on, not on the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, as you put it, but farther down the river - establishing themselves Quebec City early on. And from there these people spread out to areas farther afield, such as a place now know as Detroit etc. and fought the British for domination of north America. (You probably already knew this and were only joking - but I'm descended from those "stubborn" people who were able to hold onto their culture all the way to the present day. 😉)
Early European reporting of Australia’s climate sometimes get described similarly - “oh, they said it was green and reminded them of Wales, they must have lied, it’s soooo hot”…but if you were only there for a week mid-winter, you’d definitely say that. And Eric was seeing Greenland at the start of the Medieval warm period. Maybe he was there during warmer seasons and it really did seem like promising farmland at the time. Do people lie? Sure. Do people say “i’m going back to live there, come with me” if they expect to starve and die? Less common.
It’s a thing that always happens with bilinguals (I’m a linguist) but usually gets ‘lost’ in natural conversations. It’s only the camera being right in his face that makes it apparent at all. Anyway, it’s great to hear the Welsh!
PLEASE talk about Herjolfsnes and those garments PLEEEEAAAASSSEEEE? Pretty please with a cherry on top? (yes I am mildly obsessed with the garment find and a video about that would bring me so much joy)
That was very interesting! I loved that you used a map that's more accurate in the poles, because in my brain the distances from Iceland to Greenland and North America are so much larger than they appear to be on a globe. Still a hard trip to make. But it looks more logical.
Honestly I find it super cool we even have evidence of Viking settlement in North America, especially because of how temporarily they were there. An ocean of time has passed between then and now.
I was thinking similarly. Imagine how different coast lines are in hundreds of years! Along the Mississippi River there have been farmers who have found paddle boats in the middle of their fields as rivers DO change over time.
And who knows they might have gotten further beyond Canada. There was a late Viking period silver coin found at an archaeological dig during the 1950s in Maine which might indicate that, perhaps, the Norse actually sailed down and possibly reached Maine. I personally think they reached as far as upstate New York. Apparently butternuts (a type of nut not the squash) were found at the site in Canada and from what I know butternuts didn’t grow that far north. They might have but I’m not an archaeobotanist so I don’t know 100%. Anyway this could with an alternate meaning of Vinland, land of pastures, has led me to believe that the Vikings made it the Finger Lakes region which is still a good site for growing cool weather wine grapes like Riesling. I’m just hopeful Cornell will one day launch a dig in their neck of the woods in order to look at pre-Columbian sites and see if the tales the Haudenosaunee and other indigenous nations of the Northeast of redheaded people could be based on failed colonization efforts by the Vikings in their area. Sorry if I ramble, I’m just really fascinated with the potential that the Vikings might have sailed farther down the coast and the stories from various indigenous nations of Canada and America.
@@mirandagoldstine8548Have you considered that the travel of goods from the areas of confirmed Norse settlement to elsewhere (and vice-versa) could be due to indigenous trade?
There is a lot of wishful thinking in nova Scotia about norse settlement. It does have lots of wild grapes. There is some also up the st Lawrence where people want to believe they found pictograms of norse ships. Far more interesting is things found in labrador that suggest that bronze age norse were there trading. Unfortunately the archeologist who was doing this got on the wrong side of Harper who didn't like history and all her documents were trashed when he changed the museum of civilisation to the museum of Canadian history. A very sad moment for museums. He also trashed the Atlantic archives library.
@@gwelwynn Harper is a despicable anti intellectual, anti science sob. He is the reason the Alberta healthcare is in the toilet, Kenney is following his instructions to the letter because Harper has money invested in telehealth.
i have always been fascinated by pre-columbian transoceanic contact with the americas, one of my favorite stories is actually from the biography of columbus (written by his son, no less!) that said that in 1477, fifteen years before he would do the whole thing he's famous for, he was in galway, ireland, and saw two dead people in a boat which had washed ashore and a crowd of people gathered around them. nowadays there's a lot of speculation that they were Inuit people who had drifted off course, which means that, if true, columbus' own biography contradicts the whole discovery narrative (!) i really love this theory but unfortunately, unless we can find these bodies (assuming they were buried or otherwise not made impossible to find) or the boat, we can't say with 100% certainty that they were or weren't Inuit, but it's a cool idea that the Inuit could have gotten to europe before columbus (even if they died before reaching ireland, they could have stopped in iceland, the faroes, or jan mayen as a rest stop, although this is purely hypothetical.) i'm also quite fond of the theory that Basque cod fishers reached north america in the 1300s, but that theory is almost entirely based on circumstantial evidence.
When you mentioned trading with squirrel skin I immediately started to think about that we in school learned that squirrel skin was used as the first sort of currency in Finland, besides just trading goods. At least that is what they say... And that would have been when Finland and Sweden was one country, so I wonder if it was a general thing in the Nordic countries or just a thing around here.
Great video! I'm so thrilled that you don't sensationalise the possible settlement/waystation in L'Anse aux Meadows like some others. A tip on pronounciation: I'm no expert on phonetics, but Hans Egede's last name, at least in Danish, is pronounced more like "E-ye-the". The g is pronounced a bit like an english "y"-sound and the -de a little like "the" but with a softer th-sound. The letter "d" is a typical danish "soft d", something many english-speakers struggle with when learning Danish. I don't know about the Norwegian pronounciation, if someone could comment on that, I'd be thrilled. If anyone is interested in later "norse" exploration of the arctic, I'd recommend looking into Knud Rasmussens fifth Thule Expedition where he travelled by dog sled from Nuuk to Alaska. He brought back tons of very valuable data and objects, some of which can be seen in the danish national museum today.
I heard an interesting theory that potentially the Native People in the Saga who ingest the cows milk may have, essentially, had a lactose intolerant reaction to it and believed they were poisoned which then explains the delay between the natives leaving and then coming back with hostile intent. Dont think it was in a book so may just have been someone chatting in a TV program
As a Native American myself, our elder ppl have some stories about that happening. Sadly we have no proof, our ppl dont believe in writing books either :(
Jimmy, I'm a fairly recent subscriber who's working on your back catalog. This video looked interesting, and it most certainly was - especially at 8:00 when the familiar face of the Leif Eriksson statue I pass daily popped onto the screen! Hello, old friend!
I also read that they tested some Icelanders and found mitochondrial DNA specific to Native Americans (or Eastern Asians but the article said the genealogy of the tested families doesn't match with that hypothesis) which could be further evidence of precolumbian contact.
It's an unfortunate thing that so much of history will never be known but I tell you what it's very much fun to do our best to figure it out/piece together theories 😁
I know this is really niche, but thank you for standing so close to the camera and letting me get a good look at your sweater lol. I'm a knitter and always trying to figure out what techniques went into a garment and it's so rare for anybody to get close enough to the camera.
A question in the "Did the _______s Get To ______?" category: can you talk a bit about what evidence there is for the Irish having been in Iceland before the Norse got there? Is there more than just the mention of it in the Landnamabok that is not the Navigatio Sancti Brendani? (I know the Irish sources pretty well, but not the Norse ones, so if you have any aid to lend in this regard, I would be beyond appreciative! Plus, I'd love to hear your witty commentary on all of it as well and your enjoyable curation of appropriate captioned illustrations!)
The sources are legendary but it seems to suggest that the Irish were aware of Iceland, but never settled there. It might be more likely that they're mostly talking about the Shetland or Faroe Islands, though.
@@LordJagd The Landnamabok seems to indicate that there were monks in Iceland (possibly Irish, it has been theorized) who were there when the Norse settlers first arrived.
Super topic! I am curious about the artwork behind you and would watch a video about them just because ;) love your videos and your comfortable delivery. THANK YOU!
"Yeah the vikings were in the new world! They traveled there in their three ships, the Ninny, the Pinto and the Yog Sothoth." -A very drunken historian
@@snazzypazzy It's been a long time since I heard mention of them, but there are archeological digs and sites still preserved. Some of them, stories and digs, are about giants.
I heard of those stories as well. I think the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) have similar stories involving redheaded people who wore metal. I would need to double check though but if I remember correctly then it could point to contact between other Native American nations and the Vikings.
Thanks once again for putting this smile on my face. You're always a joy to watch and I'm sure tons of people feel the same.😊 Also, I'm sending you a massive e-hug for your rough week. The weather's not helping and I'm sure we could all use one. I hope you get to practice a lot of selfcare sometime soon so we get to see lots more of happy, overexcited Jimmy😉 (no, I'm not saying you look like sh*t, I may very well just be projecting 😅)
Back in the late sixties, I read a Canadian children's book called "Curse of the Viking Grave" by Farley Mowat on the theory that the Greenland Norse had contact with Inuit pretty far to the West. (Specifically the Inalhuit.) I recall the books as being charming - but I haven't been able to find reviews from Cree, Chippewyan or Inuk about what they think about them.
I would say go to the ppl themselves they might still have their old stories about them, many of us dont know/remember anything cuz most of our traditions were lost
@@m.maclellan7147 I know some of the things he was called out on were about wolves and Canadian laws. I don't know what the Cree, Chipweyan, and Inuit thought about his writing - and they are the authorities on their cultures. I do know that the two tv movies hired First Nation actors to play First Nation roles long before that was the standard (not that it's the standard YET).
@@manywarswhitewolf7718 I've never heard of Mi'kmaq or Malaseet traditions referring to Vikings, and white people have looked, (if there had been settlements in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick or Maine they would have heard about them.) The tribe whom we know had (bad) interactions with them were the Beothuk, who are extinct.
@@davidcheater4239 I would be interested in any native peoples oral history. I think an author making money off of his "stories" & writing a long time ago (before fact checking was more rigorous) might play fast & loose with the story. Oral histories are an entirely different thing. Much more likely to be true, in my humble opinion.
Of course we’ll never find King Arthur’s tomb - he’s not dead, just kipping on Avalon for a bit. 😜 Even though the parts of what is now Canada that they would have settled is a large area, surely that could be cut down significantly by focussing on coastal and riparian areas as they probably wouldn’t have ventured too far inland, especially with hostile natives around?
The people working on this actually have cut the search area down this way, as far as I know; but that's still an absolutely *massive* amount of area to cover in an extremely remote region, and not a lot of archeologists currently working on it. In order to do a comprehensive search of the area, it would probably take tens of thousands of people working on this to complete it in less than a few decades. That, and the area is still very remote and hard to travel even to this day. I'm from Labrador, and the coast is still one of the most inhospitable and isolated environments in the world; even basic travel between the dozen or so villages on the coast is an ordeal, let alone stopping to check every nook and cranny along the hundreds of miles of uninhabited coastline. Plus, you only have a few months of the year to work with, as the long and severe winters make any kind of archeological dig functionally impossible during the 5-8 months that the ground is burried under massive amounts of ice and snow (depending on how far north you are). These kinds of expeditions require skilled people and specialized equipment, and the area we're talking about searching is actually *very* disconnected to the kinds of infrastructure you need to conduct searches on this scale.
As a Minnesotan, I'm glad you touched on that briefly, I've always wondered how much salt to take with that story. 😄 But still badass that Viking age people landed on this eventually American continent way before doofus Chris Columbus.
Just so you know, I read that caption next to the picture of Erik the Red as "I [ten percent] looked like this," and it took me a split second to realize you were not making a comment about your reenactment garb.
I would love to go to Newfoundland and see the settlement there. Maybe when it's covid safer. I live in the middle of Canada, which is still a long way to go.
Thank you for another fabulously entertaining video mate! Your channel is really helping me to learn so much for the Living History side of things, and your narrative style really makes the videos for me 😁
Thank you for taking on my absolute favorite subject in Norse/Viking studies apart from the old myths: as mentioned long ago, I actually have an old Penguin Edition of "The Vinland Sagas" right on my bedstand, bought for a dollar at a long-ago yard sale. I could bicker all night over the details of this story, but I'd like to just flesh out Bjarni Herjolfsson's part of the tale for everyone's benefit, simply because I think I tell it better . . . In 985 CE, good ol' Eirik leads a flotilla of 25 shuips towards Greenland, 11 of which are either sunk OR turned back after a major storm. One of the survivors is a landowner named Herjolf, whose son Bjarni is a successful merchant, out at sea at the time. Bjarni alternates wintering between norway and his parents' home in Iceland, and when he arrives in 986, he discovers that they've gone (the story isn't clear how). He consults with his crew and they decide, as a group, to after them. So that year he heads off towards Greenland and gets in *another* storm, which blows him off course, and sights a strange new land, which they only know ISN'T Greenland. His crew are game to explore, since the Nrose were always looking for new resources, but Bjarni is a good mama's boy and says they're running late already, and have all the supplies they need. He insists they keep going, and they eventually find their way to Greenland where he retires from trading and beaches the old boat. He also says nothing about the new land he saw. THIRTEEN YEARS LATER, in 999, Bjarni gets invited to meet his liege lord in Norway, and only *then* does he let the story flip. He's given great honors for his deeds, while also getting scolded for his lack of initiative, and generally getting a reaction of, "What the fjord, Bjarni?" Leif Eiriksson then steps in, buys Bjarni's old ship, and sets out on the voyage that makes his name, pretty much following Bjarni's route in reverse order and then exploring further. Yeah, something like that.
My further comments keep getting deleted..... Anwyay, what an irony that the very next day after this video, a major discovery was publicized about the L'anse aux Meadows site, giving its exact age for the very first time! Articles about the discovery, by now, have appeared in every major news publication, and some even discourse on the other legends and on the proofs and likelihood of exploration farther south.
I got to visit L'ans aux Meadows a good couple years ago, and I can tell you I never talked to any of the living history people, I was just too enamoured with the sheep they kept.
8:01 I metaphorically peed myself laughing at the picture and its caption. Loved the video. Thank you so much! Edit: I really want to visit L'Anse-au-Meadows. I'm in Canada, but it's still far from me and not easy to get to if one doesn't drive.
I remember reading ages ago (can't remember where though, possibly Jared Diamond?) that there is surprisingly little evidence of the Norse in Greenland eating fish. It was postulated that there was a social taboo against it, and this would have contributed to their decline. I remember it seemed suspect at the time, but they referenced the archaeology and other theories that had been put forward to explain the lack of fish bones in the middens. I wonder if you have encountered this theory - is it a load of fermented walrus blubber?
I think it was more likely that all the fish caught would be barrelled up and sold/traded and not for consumption. Preserved fish was a major driver of the economy for coastal peoples, including Norse peoples, for many centuries.
More recent research via isotope analysis has disproven that theory. Toward the end, fish appears to have made up 50-80% of the Norse Greenlanders' diet.
Just finished watching another video and clicked out, was about to leave TH-cam but wait! Jimmy made a new video! And it's about North America! Must watch immediately. As always very informative and the most over actually heard about the possibility of Vikings finding North America. Hope the PhD is going well!
Ahhh the weapon you described that was used by the Natives sounds like a weapon the Algonquin people used. Its description is, a large round bolder sewed up in a newly painted skin(don't recall the color) and it was attached to a pole. I remember a drawing or picture that labeled it a balista. I also remember reading about them using it in tribal wars to sink enemy boats. The Algonquin lived in eastern Canada from around 1500 B.C.E. to mid 17th century.
It’s really interesting to hear about Freydis ripping open her ‘bodice’ before killing men. I recall this is remarkably similar to Mary Read the Irish pirate who supposedly used this ‘trait’ too.
Wishful thinking for sure! I live in NB along the saint john river and everytime i look out to sea i wonder, did they stop here swell? (we have tons of wild grapes, strawberries black/raspberries,cranberries, rose hips,bear berries, tall timber, moose, deer, bear ect...) if i was norse id try to settle here
tradition is that St Brendan sailed there on a millstone but I'd put more trust in Madog who could have had Welsh Viking blood as he was about in the 1100s
Actually, St. Brendan is said to have used a traditional, leather-hulled Irish boat, which researcher Tm Severin successfully replicated and sailed back in the 1970s: there's actually a book and a movie about it, called "The Brendan Voyage." The feat is still unproven, but we now know it's *feasible*.
@@TheSaneHatter I did know that but still prefer the millstone theory which I first found in T H Whites' Queen of Air and Darkness the second part of The Once and Future King
Oh, that's what they are called in English. Squash berries, in Swedish we call them vinbär. Wine berries... It's funny to hear Leif be pronounced like leaf. It should be more like "Leif" for a Scandinavian sound.
Yay new video! Earlier this year my wife and I stopped by the big "viking" statue (Big Ole is it's name) near the Kensington Runestone museum in MN. Its....something. The text on the shield claims that MN town is the "Birthplace of America." We did not go into the museum, because I know better, though part of me is still curious to see exactly what they have to say/show. What can I say, we like to take rest breaks at tourist traps. The giant Otto the Otter statue in another town down the road was nicer. :)
As a newfoundlander the way you say the word makes me cringe but I love this channel anyway. So refreshing to find a good viking-themed channel that's not fash nonsense.
Great video Jimmy, although your kitty seemed nonplussed 😅🐱 I believe your from my neck of the woods, North Wales? I'm from near Wrexham ,are you from that area? 🏴 all the best 👍
I'm from Vinland. As a child my father took me to visit L'anse a Meadows. Both my parents came from small islands, my fathers island community resettled sixty years ago. I think I'd be happiest living my days away there, I'm quite introverted and it's very special to me. It's a very affordable home and the best opportunity to live with nature and lower food costs raising/growing and fishing for my family.
Just a question about the functioning of comments, rather than the topic. I posted comments yesterday with links to two articles, one to an article about the new research giving a precise felling date of 1021 for some of the timber used at the Norse site in North America and one about the role that the collapse in demand for walrus ivory in late middle ages Europe may have had in making the Greenland settlements unsustainable, but they don't seem to be here. Do comments not support the posting of links?
I have had similar experience. I posted a comment this morning with a link to the original Nature paper that was published yesterday and my comment has not appeared. TH-cam dooes not want external links in comments
Just to elaborate on the point about the role that the late medieval collapse in demand for walrus ivory had in making the Norse settlements in Greenland non-viable, since You Tube won't let me post a link to any articles about it, recent research apparently suggests that the viability of the settlements was always heavily dependant on export of walrus ivory, which paid for the import of things that the settlements couldn't produce for themselves. Increasing availability of elephant ivory from Africa during the late middle ages caused a slump in the price that walrus ivory could command. There is apparently also evidence that initially the Norse settlers sought to compensate for the loss of income from their main export by harvesting and exporting more, but this led to over-exploitation of the resource, ultimately causing production to fall, as well. The suggestion is that it was this, rather than changing climate that finished the settlements off.
I remember reading an article (I think in National Geographic) about a possible norse location like Lans aux meadows (sp?) found somewhere along the Hudson River but it said it would take years of research to confirm it.
An interesting theory I heard about Greenland is that actually the Little Ice Age wasn't the only reason which caused the population to sink. The settlers made a living from trading ivory to Norwegians against natural resources like wood, iron etc. which they couldn't find in Greenland. In the 15th century Europeans had discovered another, cheaper source for ivory: Africa. With the trade dying out and living conditions becoming harsher, many Greenlanders eventually moved back to Norway or Iceland. (I would link my source, but it isn't in English)
Chuckle. I live in Minnesota, and have never seen anything credible to state that specifically Vikings were here. That said, lots of Norskies moved here. Lots of English and Germans as well. Seems that every town has a lutafisk festival... (shudder) jello like fish dish that is made with lye... no just no. Anyhow, Thank you for another lovely video. -L
Biggest problem is, the Norse only made it to modern day CANADA, which to a large proportion of those in north America doesn't count. So to have actually made it to north America they had to have landed below what is now the southernmost Canadian border on that coastline. Hence the desperation for them to have landed much further south than they did. Simply because to an unfortunately large section of people, north America stops at the US/Canadian border. Interesting though that the book I remember reading about Eric finding north America did make it clear it was almost certainly the coastal reaches of northern Canada - again almost certainly having come across from Greenland - and while it didn't mention any names such as Vinland it did say that they almost certainly found, and summered or possibly over-wintered, pasture land enabling them to grow basic crops to sustain themselves as well as living off the land. And this would have been 45 years or more ago, a library book probably in the children's reference section. I have no idea who wrote it or the title but it was the first time I had heard of Eric and his voyages to both Greenland (touted as a con, they named it GREENland to try and persuade more settlers who probably wouldn't have gone if the truth were told) and northern north America. Great video. Thanks.
weird question maybe, but in highschool maybe 15 years ago or so, I was told about this welsh folk hero type called Maddog, that went to America at iirc about the same time as Erik et al, is there any truth to this or is it complete nonsense
Oh yeah you talk about this! 😏😎✨ I already heard about it but it's nice to hear it again from you 😏. As with archaeological greed, I think it's also partially fueled by the (obsessive) demand for evidence - sometimes you just wonder at which point the amount of evidence we have regarding something is enough? 🤔 (...is there even such a thing as too much evidence?? 🤔🤨)
Damn okay I actually have something interesting to add as a student! Last spring, I took an anthropology course on circumpolar peoples (focusing later in the semester on the recent history of Canadian Inuit peoples) and we specifically covered the instance mentioned where an initially friendly trading encounter ended poorly. My anth professor mentioned there's oral history on the indigenous side that suggests the norse poisoned them in some way, and if we consider the record which states milk was traded, and the bioanth side wrt the lactase persistence gene, it might have had something to do with the indigenous people suddenly experiencing lactose intolerance symptoms, and thinking they were poisoned. Not a wild conclusion to jump to, all of your people suddenly falling ill hours after you eat the newly traded food, and might explain the responding violence better.
I wouldn't be surprised, milk, or mead maybe? Were distilled spirits a thing?
This is right where my brain when they said milk. 😅
This is so cool. Oral traditions are starting to be proved as true. I think that this is a well of information that needs to be studied.
In an age where no one knew what lactose intolerance was, nor what caused it, a group of people gave milk to another group of people. Imagine what would've happened if both groups knew that most mammals stop being able to digest milk when they stop breastfeeding.
Where would they get the milk from though? I mean, fresh milk wouldn't last the trip
Jimmy: What a week.
Everyone: ...it's Tuesday.
Me: WHAT A WEEK
Such a treat finding this channel. I'm a former archaeologist and during my degrees I focused on the Vikings. Many moons ago now, but wish I could have remained in the career.
Mind if I ask why you couldn’t if it’s anything that might be helpful to someone considering going into the field anyway, such as me. Thank you! Sorry you couldn’t stay in in any case.
@@lunamercurious3 I graduated smack bang in the midst of the global financial crisis. Jobs were sparse and didn't pay enough to survive.
The "dad comes out of the boat and get embarassingly drunk with wine" has a Noah feel to me.
am I the only one who thinks Erik Thorvaldson, should have been called "Erik the Hot Head"?
He seems to have quite a bit of killing in fits of rage
The whole family seemed a little off-kilter: in addition to her behavior described here, the "Saga of the Greenlanders" describes her as committing cold-blooded murder ona still-later expedition, and being found out by her brother. Also, Leif's illegitimate son, Thorgils, was described as having "Something uncanny about him all his life," and basically being the local weirdo. Overall, a strain of instability seems to be quite visible in the family.
@@TheSaneHatter I can relate to that! (We all have "THAT" uncle)
@@Bluebelle51 I'm pretty sure I *am* that uncle.
I do wonder if his Red byname refers to the blood from all the killing.
@@frostflaggermus I think it refers to his hair color
The closeup of the "narwhal" at 5:09 killed me. The smile and the crown, everything about it is so good, I'm losing it... 😂
It's necessary to drink in winter, if you're in Newfoundland and Labrador!
What about the ones that landed at the Baffin islands
In winter??? it’s always a sport here in Wisconsin USA sincerely 38% Norwegian 😉
That first minute makes me feel so seen. Thank you, Jimmy.
I live in Newfoundland, did a degree in Archaeology from '03 to '09 and got to visit L'anse Aux Meadows while working one summer at a nearby dig site-- L'a.M is a beautiful, desolate place. The sod houses are great, and surprisingly cozy (although VERY smokey!).
There was a long term employee there as an interpreter who would character act as 'Bjarni the Beautiful' and he handcarved wood and antler spoons while he told tales and tended the fire.
NL is very proud of it's short Norse history-- it's a helluva drive to get there, but the whole western coast (Gros Morne, Port au Choix) is so wildly beautiful! Recommend!
Archeologically greedy. I like that term. I wonder what would've happened if the Vikings had figured out how to live permanently in North America. How would that have changed the ways in which European colonization played out?
The way I imagine it, we'd have an Anglo-Norse, rather than Anglo-French, nation to the north of the US, corresponding to Canada. Its provinces would have names like "Markland," "Vinland," and so on, and one stubborn class of people living around the Gulf of St. Lawrence would be speaking a dialect of Old Norse instead of old French.
Honestly, long-term, low-level contact between Native Americans and the Norse (and maybe the Irish too, or anyone else headed in that general direction) may have had a better outcome than the Columbian contact. Slow diffusion of disease, technology, and culture could have strengthened native societies, so when a Columbus analogue finally does show up, he's facing more organized native polities with steel weapons, horses, and natural immunities.
@@drungarious Well, it seems unlikely it would have had a worse outcome. Anything is possible I guess.
@@TheSaneHatter Those "stubborn" people lived, early on, not on the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, as you put it, but farther down the river - establishing themselves Quebec City early on. And from there these people spread out to areas farther afield, such as a place now know as Detroit etc. and fought the British for domination of north America. (You probably already knew this and were only joking - but I'm descended from those "stubborn" people who were able to hold onto their culture all the way to the present day. 😉)
Best. Intro. Ever. Worth watching this video just because of this. :)
Early European reporting of Australia’s climate sometimes get described similarly - “oh, they said it was green and reminded them of Wales, they must have lied, it’s soooo hot”…but if you were only there for a week mid-winter, you’d definitely say that. And Eric was seeing Greenland at the start of the Medieval warm period. Maybe he was there during warmer seasons and it really did seem like promising farmland at the time. Do people lie? Sure. Do people say “i’m going back to live there, come with me” if they expect to starve and die? Less common.
Love watching Jimmy’s face as he switches in and out of Welsh. Only takes him a nano second, but it’s there!
Also love the whole thing!
It’s a thing that always happens with bilinguals (I’m a linguist) but usually gets ‘lost’ in natural conversations. It’s only the camera being right in his face that makes it apparent at all. Anyway, it’s great to hear the Welsh!
It's endearing when I catch that glassy eyed split second look when my best friend switches from English to Korean or vice versa lol.
PLEASE talk about Herjolfsnes and those garments PLEEEEAAAASSSEEEE? Pretty please with a cherry on top? (yes I am mildly obsessed with the garment find and a video about that would bring me so much joy)
The clothing finds at Herjolfsnes are what got me into weaving.
Check out Morgan Donner's channel. She has videos of making a Herjolfsnes dress.
That was very interesting!
I loved that you used a map that's more accurate in the poles, because in my brain the distances from Iceland to Greenland and North America are so much larger than they appear to be on a globe. Still a hard trip to make. But it looks more logical.
Honestly I find it super cool we even have evidence of Viking settlement in North America, especially because of how temporarily they were there. An ocean of time has passed between then and now.
I was thinking similarly.
Imagine how different coast lines are in hundreds of years!
Along the Mississippi River there have been farmers who have found paddle boats in the middle of their fields as rivers DO change over time.
The norse settlements in Nova Scotia were probably center for the repair of ships.
And who knows they might have gotten further beyond Canada. There was a late Viking period silver coin found at an archaeological dig during the 1950s in Maine which might indicate that, perhaps, the Norse actually sailed down and possibly reached Maine. I personally think they reached as far as upstate New York. Apparently butternuts (a type of nut not the squash) were found at the site in Canada and from what I know butternuts didn’t grow that far north. They might have but I’m not an archaeobotanist so I don’t know 100%. Anyway this could with an alternate meaning of Vinland, land of pastures, has led me to believe that the Vikings made it the Finger Lakes region which is still a good site for growing cool weather wine grapes like Riesling. I’m just hopeful Cornell will one day launch a dig in their neck of the woods in order to look at pre-Columbian sites and see if the tales the Haudenosaunee and other indigenous nations of the Northeast of redheaded people could be based on failed colonization efforts by the Vikings in their area. Sorry if I ramble, I’m just really fascinated with the potential that the Vikings might have sailed farther down the coast and the stories from various indigenous nations of Canada and America.
@@mirandagoldstine8548Have you considered that the travel of goods from the areas of confirmed Norse settlement to elsewhere (and vice-versa) could be due to indigenous trade?
There is a lot of wishful thinking in nova Scotia about norse settlement. It does have lots of wild grapes.
There is some also up the st Lawrence where people want to believe they found pictograms of norse ships.
Far more interesting is things found in labrador that suggest that bronze age norse were there trading. Unfortunately the archeologist who was doing this got on the wrong side of Harper who didn't like history and all her documents were trashed when he changed the museum of civilisation to the museum of Canadian history. A very sad moment for museums. He also trashed the Atlantic archives library.
Ah. One more reason to hate Harper...
@@gwelwynn Harper is a despicable anti intellectual, anti science sob. He is the reason the Alberta healthcare is in the toilet, Kenney is following his instructions to the letter because Harper has money invested in telehealth.
That was a brutal time. I remember it well.
The intro was a mood. I think more people need to see messy blog interludes. Also....Hello from a Canadian!
i have always been fascinated by pre-columbian transoceanic contact with the americas, one of my favorite stories is actually from the biography of columbus (written by his son, no less!) that said that in 1477, fifteen years before he would do the whole thing he's famous for, he was in galway, ireland, and saw two dead people in a boat which had washed ashore and a crowd of people gathered around them. nowadays there's a lot of speculation that they were Inuit people who had drifted off course, which means that, if true, columbus' own biography contradicts the whole discovery narrative (!) i really love this theory but unfortunately, unless we can find these bodies (assuming they were buried or otherwise not made impossible to find) or the boat, we can't say with 100% certainty that they were or weren't Inuit, but it's a cool idea that the Inuit could have gotten to europe before columbus (even if they died before reaching ireland, they could have stopped in iceland, the faroes, or jan mayen as a rest stop, although this is purely hypothetical.)
i'm also quite fond of the theory that Basque cod fishers reached north america in the 1300s, but that theory is almost entirely based on circumstantial evidence.
When you mentioned trading with squirrel skin I immediately started to think about that we in school learned that squirrel skin was used as the first sort of currency in Finland, besides just trading goods. At least that is what they say... And that would have been when Finland and Sweden was one country, so I wonder if it was a general thing in the Nordic countries or just a thing around here.
Great video! I'm so thrilled that you don't sensationalise the possible settlement/waystation in L'Anse aux Meadows like some others. A tip on pronounciation: I'm no expert on phonetics, but Hans Egede's last name, at least in Danish, is pronounced more like "E-ye-the". The g is pronounced a bit like an english "y"-sound and the -de a little like "the" but with a softer th-sound. The letter "d" is a typical danish "soft d", something many english-speakers struggle with when learning Danish. I don't know about the Norwegian pronounciation, if someone could comment on that, I'd be thrilled.
If anyone is interested in later "norse" exploration of the arctic, I'd recommend looking into Knud Rasmussens fifth Thule Expedition where he travelled by dog sled from Nuuk to Alaska. He brought back tons of very valuable data and objects, some of which can be seen in the danish national museum today.
I heard an interesting theory that potentially the Native People in the Saga who ingest the cows milk may have, essentially, had a lactose intolerant reaction to it and believed they were poisoned which then explains the delay between the natives leaving and then coming back with hostile intent.
Dont think it was in a book so may just have been someone chatting in a TV program
As a Native American myself, our elder ppl have some stories about that happening. Sadly we have no proof, our ppl dont believe in writing books either :(
That's actually a very common hypothesis these days.
I herd that also
@@manywarswhitewolf7718 Oral histories need to be studied more. Some oral stories are turning out to be true.
The Beothuk prople are long dead, so there is no oral history to study.
Jimmy, I'm a fairly recent subscriber who's working on your back catalog. This video looked interesting, and it most certainly was - especially at 8:00 when the familiar face of the Leif Eriksson statue I pass daily popped onto the screen! Hello, old friend!
I also read that they tested some Icelanders and found mitochondrial DNA specific to Native Americans (or Eastern Asians but the article said the genealogy of the tested families doesn't match with that hypothesis) which could be further evidence of precolumbian contact.
Yep I read that in an article from National Geographic so I do think there was contact between the Vikings and the indigenous nations.
It's an unfortunate thing that so much of history will never be known but I tell you what it's very much fun to do our best to figure it out/piece together theories 😁
I know this is really niche, but thank you for standing so close to the camera and letting me get a good look at your sweater lol. I'm a knitter and always trying to figure out what techniques went into a garment and it's so rare for anybody to get close enough to the camera.
One of these days I'll go visit L'Anse aux Meadows ...you've only made me more interested in it!
A question in the "Did the _______s Get To ______?" category: can you talk a bit about what evidence there is for the Irish having been in Iceland before the Norse got there? Is there more than just the mention of it in the Landnamabok that is not the Navigatio Sancti Brendani? (I know the Irish sources pretty well, but not the Norse ones, so if you have any aid to lend in this regard, I would be beyond appreciative! Plus, I'd love to hear your witty commentary on all of it as well and your enjoyable curation of appropriate captioned illustrations!)
The sources are legendary but it seems to suggest that the Irish were aware of Iceland, but never settled there. It might be more likely that they're mostly talking about the Shetland or Faroe Islands, though.
@@LordJagd The Landnamabok seems to indicate that there were monks in Iceland (possibly Irish, it has been theorized) who were there when the Norse settlers first arrived.
Super topic! I am curious about the artwork behind you and would watch a video about them just because ;) love your videos and your comfortable delivery. THANK YOU!
"Yeah the vikings were in the new world! They traveled there in their three ships, the Ninny, the Pinto and the Yog Sothoth."
-A very drunken historian
Love the intro! ROFL
In the Great Lakes area, there are stories of the red-haired tribe. These stories were told by the First Nations people.
Do you have links to any of these stories? Or other places where one might find them?
@@snazzypazzy It's been a long time since I heard mention of them, but there are archeological digs and sites still preserved. Some of them, stories and digs, are about giants.
@@melissagoings1 Thank you!
I heard of those stories as well. I think the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) have similar stories involving redheaded people who wore metal. I would need to double check though but if I remember correctly then it could point to contact between other Native American nations and the Vikings.
Hi Jimmy
Just saw you on Priorattire's 🏹 competition. You looked like a proper gentlemen. Good shooting. ❤
Ngl, I was only half listening and at 4:50 thought you said "gaming PCs" instead of gaming pieces lol
Norse confirmed PC Mustard Rice.
Not sure about other Nordic languages (or Old Norse) but in Swedish "Leif" is pronounced "Layf".
Thanks. Was just about to comment.
It's awkward to hear Jimmy saying Leef, since I've been correcting people for my brother's whole life 😅
Same for Danish!
Thanks once again for putting this smile on my face. You're always a joy to watch and I'm sure tons of people feel the same.😊
Also, I'm sending you a massive e-hug for your rough week. The weather's not helping and I'm sure we could all use one. I hope you get to practice a lot of selfcare sometime soon so we get to see lots more of happy, overexcited Jimmy😉 (no, I'm not saying you look like sh*t, I may very well just be projecting 😅)
Back in the late sixties, I read a Canadian children's book called "Curse of the Viking Grave" by Farley Mowat on the theory that the Greenland Norse had contact with Inuit pretty far to the West. (Specifically the Inalhuit.)
I recall the books as being charming - but I haven't been able to find reviews from Cree, Chippewyan or Inuk about what they think about them.
I would say go to the ppl themselves they might still have their old stories about them, many of us dont know/remember anything cuz most of our traditions were lost
I was a big fan of Farley Mowat as a kid, but I DO remember that he has also been "called out" on inaccuracies in his writing- quite flagrant ones !
@@m.maclellan7147 I know some of the things he was called out on were about wolves and Canadian laws. I don't know what the Cree, Chipweyan, and Inuit thought about his writing - and they are the authorities on their cultures.
I do know that the two tv movies hired First Nation actors to play First Nation roles long before that was the standard (not that it's the standard YET).
@@manywarswhitewolf7718 I've never heard of Mi'kmaq or Malaseet traditions referring to Vikings, and white people have looked, (if there had been settlements in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick or Maine they would have heard about them.)
The tribe whom we know had (bad) interactions with them were the Beothuk, who are extinct.
@@davidcheater4239 I would be interested in any native peoples oral history.
I think an author making money off of his "stories" & writing a long time ago (before fact checking was more rigorous) might play fast & loose with the story.
Oral histories are an entirely different thing. Much more likely to be true, in my humble opinion.
Of course we’ll never find King Arthur’s tomb - he’s not dead, just kipping on Avalon for a bit.
😜
Even though the parts of what is now Canada that they would have settled is a large area, surely that could be cut down significantly by focussing on coastal and riparian areas as they probably wouldn’t have ventured too far inland, especially with hostile natives around?
:')
The people working on this actually have cut the search area down this way, as far as I know; but that's still an absolutely *massive* amount of area to cover in an extremely remote region, and not a lot of archeologists currently working on it. In order to do a comprehensive search of the area, it would probably take tens of thousands of people working on this to complete it in less than a few decades.
That, and the area is still very remote and hard to travel even to this day. I'm from Labrador, and the coast is still one of the most inhospitable and isolated environments in the world; even basic travel between the dozen or so villages on the coast is an ordeal, let alone stopping to check every nook and cranny along the hundreds of miles of uninhabited coastline. Plus, you only have a few months of the year to work with, as the long and severe winters make any kind of archeological dig functionally impossible during the 5-8 months that the ground is burried under massive amounts of ice and snow (depending on how far north you are).
These kinds of expeditions require skilled people and specialized equipment, and the area we're talking about searching is actually *very* disconnected to the kinds of infrastructure you need to conduct searches on this scale.
Best intro ever😂 Love your videos, they are always so informative. Diolch💘
As a Minnesotan, I'm glad you touched on that briefly, I've always wondered how much salt to take with that story. 😄 But still badass that Viking age people landed on this eventually American continent way before doofus Chris Columbus.
In Us and Canada PBS has some great specials made in the last couple of years about "Vikings in North America". Good stuff.
Just so you know, I read that caption next to the picture of Erik the Red as "I [ten percent] looked like this," and it took me a split second to realize you were not making a comment about your reenactment garb.
Me too!
I would love to go to Newfoundland and see the settlement there. Maybe when it's covid safer. I live in the middle of Canada, which is still a long way to go.
It's covid safe
Thank you for another fabulously entertaining video mate! Your channel is really helping me to learn so much for the Living History side of things, and your narrative style really makes the videos for me 😁
I just found your channel and I am loving all the debunking you do! Good luck on your thesis!
Thank you for taking on my absolute favorite subject in Norse/Viking studies apart from the old myths: as mentioned long ago, I actually have an old Penguin Edition of "The Vinland Sagas" right on my bedstand, bought for a dollar at a long-ago yard sale.
I could bicker all night over the details of this story, but I'd like to just flesh out Bjarni Herjolfsson's part of the tale for everyone's benefit, simply because I think I tell it better . . .
In 985 CE, good ol' Eirik leads a flotilla of 25 shuips towards Greenland, 11 of which are either sunk OR turned back after a major storm. One of the survivors is a landowner named Herjolf, whose son Bjarni is a successful merchant, out at sea at the time. Bjarni alternates wintering between norway and his parents' home in Iceland, and when he arrives in 986, he discovers that they've gone (the story isn't clear how). He consults with his crew and they decide, as a group, to after them.
So that year he heads off towards Greenland and gets in *another* storm, which blows him off course, and sights a strange new land, which they only know ISN'T Greenland. His crew are game to explore, since the Nrose were always looking for new resources, but Bjarni is a good mama's boy and says they're running late already, and have all the supplies they need. He insists they keep going, and they eventually find their way to Greenland where he retires from trading and beaches the old boat. He also says nothing about the new land he saw.
THIRTEEN YEARS LATER, in 999, Bjarni gets invited to meet his liege lord in Norway, and only *then* does he let the story flip. He's given great honors for his deeds, while also getting scolded for his lack of initiative, and generally getting a reaction of, "What the fjord, Bjarni?" Leif Eiriksson then steps in, buys Bjarni's old ship, and sets out on the voyage that makes his name, pretty much following Bjarni's route in reverse order and then exploring further.
Yeah, something like that.
My further comments keep getting deleted.....
Anwyay, what an irony that the very next day after this video, a major discovery was publicized about the L'anse aux Meadows site, giving its exact age for the very first time! Articles about the discovery, by now, have appeared in every major news publication, and some even discourse on the other legends and on the proofs and likelihood of exploration farther south.
Good to see you shooting those arrows and making bad jokes over at Prior Attire. You're a good person to have at a party!
I got to visit L'ans aux Meadows a good couple years ago, and I can tell you I never talked to any of the living history people, I was just too enamoured with the sheep they kept.
Not even 5 seconds in and I’ve laugh snorted so loud my toddler woke up 😂
"I'm a proffffffffffEHsional."
Best line in the video.
8:01 I metaphorically peed myself laughing at the picture and its caption.
Loved the video. Thank you so much!
Edit: I really want to visit L'Anse-au-Meadows. I'm in Canada, but it's still far from me and not easy to get to if one doesn't drive.
Nothing funnier than an angry Jimmy.....I haven't even finished the vid, yet. lol
I remember reading ages ago (can't remember where though, possibly Jared Diamond?) that there is surprisingly little evidence of the Norse in Greenland eating fish. It was postulated that there was a social taboo against it, and this would have contributed to their decline. I remember it seemed suspect at the time, but they referenced the archaeology and other theories that had been put forward to explain the lack of fish bones in the middens. I wonder if you have encountered this theory - is it a load of fermented walrus blubber?
I think it was more likely that all the fish caught would be barrelled up and sold/traded and not for consumption. Preserved fish was a major driver of the economy for coastal peoples, including Norse peoples, for many centuries.
More recent research via isotope analysis has disproven that theory. Toward the end, fish appears to have made up 50-80% of the Norse Greenlanders' diet.
it was more of they settled and tried cows and other grazing animals but there wasnt much grazing lands so they had to resort to fish
That opening man...we all feel it. Great video as always!
Just finished watching another video and clicked out, was about to leave TH-cam but wait! Jimmy made a new video! And it's about North America! Must watch immediately. As always very informative and the most over actually heard about the possibility of Vikings finding North America. Hope the PhD is going well!
I recommend Jane Smiley's novel The Greenlanders, a fictionalised account of the decline of the Norse colony in Greenland.
That's all very well but I think you'll find the true story is told in "The Technicolor Time Machine" by Harry Harrison :)
I love that book 😂
Ahhh the weapon you described that was used by the Natives sounds like a weapon the Algonquin people used. Its description is, a large round bolder sewed up in a newly painted skin(don't recall the color) and it was attached to a pole. I remember a drawing or picture that labeled it a balista. I also remember reading about them using it in tribal wars to sink enemy boats. The Algonquin lived in eastern Canada from around 1500 B.C.E. to mid 17th century.
I really like the smooth intro; such angry energy.
"Timber and berries" treasure, indeed!
It’s really interesting to hear about Freydis ripping open her ‘bodice’ before killing men. I recall this is remarkably similar to Mary Read the Irish pirate who supposedly used this ‘trait’ too.
Love the sweater bro! Keep up the great content, its getting better and better
Vitis riparia (frost grapes) grows in Québec and New Brunswick (even as North as Anticosti Island!) so they might have ventured further in.
Oh, look! Another wonderful video. Great work, Jimmy. Best wishes!
Wishful thinking for sure! I live in NB along the saint john river and everytime i look out to sea i wonder, did they stop here swell?
(we have tons of wild grapes, strawberries black/raspberries,cranberries, rose hips,bear berries, tall timber, moose, deer, bear ect...)
if i was norse id try to settle here
tradition is that St Brendan sailed there on a millstone but I'd put more trust in Madog who could have had Welsh Viking blood as he was about in the 1100s
Actually, St. Brendan is said to have used a traditional, leather-hulled Irish boat, which researcher Tm Severin successfully replicated and sailed back in the 1970s: there's actually a book and a movie about it, called "The Brendan Voyage." The feat is still unproven, but we now know it's *feasible*.
@@TheSaneHatter I did know that but still prefer the millstone theory which I first found in T H Whites' Queen of Air and Darkness the second part of The Once and Future King
Glad to enjoy your videos and learning new things about the Vikings. Keep up the great job, I really look forward to seeing your new videos.
Thank you, Avenilla, that's so kind!
Oh man, I feel the intro to this video so much.
Awwww the stomping face was adorable!
(Also, I adore your channel ❤ )
Aw shucks :3
Well... there's a whole bunch of people in Heavener, Oklahoma that will fight you over this. Not me, mind you; I'm from sensible Iowa.
I am also from Iowa! Hello, friend!
A Jimmy video is exactly what I needed today
Oh, that's what they are called in English. Squash berries, in Swedish we call them vinbär. Wine berries...
It's funny to hear Leif be pronounced like leaf. It should be more like "Leif" for a Scandinavian sound.
One of my historical fantasies is to find empirical evidence that St. Brendan encountered America on his voyages across the Atlantic
5:09 can't stop laughing about this super accurate narwhal drawings.
How are you here when I just saw you in Priorattire's video, badly shooting arrows? Love the video.
Welsh magic!
YOOOOOO DID YOU JUST PRONOUNCE NEWFOUNDLAND CORRECTLY? HECK YEAH
Understand it's Newf'nland!
Could I get some sources for your video? I'm writing an alt-history novel set around this time period and would love as much material as possible
Yay new video!
Earlier this year my wife and I stopped by the big "viking" statue (Big Ole is it's name) near the Kensington Runestone museum in MN. Its....something. The text on the shield claims that MN town is the "Birthplace of America." We did not go into the museum, because I know better, though part of me is still curious to see exactly what they have to say/show.
What can I say, we like to take rest breaks at tourist traps. The giant Otto the Otter statue in another town down the road was nicer. :)
Fascinating - thank you!
WEll, thank goodness! You've had the Rona and an unspecified domestic issue, if you don't post on time, I worry about you!
Ah, the pleasure of listening to a clear mind!
Love this information, thank you!!
Always searching for the truth of these stories, crossing the Atlantic is enough for sure!!
A few years back I was visiting a friend in Newfoundland and he took me to visit L’Anse aux Meadows. It is SO COOL. Anyway, great video. Thanks!
As a newfoundlander the way you say the word makes me cringe but I love this channel anyway. So refreshing to find a good viking-themed channel that's not fash nonsense.
I mean a Newfoundlander told me how to say it, so...
@@TheWelshViking Ahah I noticed the pronunciation changed about halfway through the vid actually. Went from New-FOUND-land to newf-n-land. Neat!
Look at you needing 4 screens for the patreons now
Doooo it!
I know! I should learn to do a scrolling credits screen to keep it tidy! So crazy
Angry-stomp-serious-face Jimmy is best Jimmy
This reminds me of a more serious take of Atun-Shei Films Lief Erickson day specials.
Great video Jimmy, although your kitty seemed nonplussed 😅🐱 I believe your from my neck of the woods, North Wales?
I'm from near Wrexham ,are you from that area? 🏴 all the best 👍
I'm from Vinland. As a child my father took me to visit L'anse a Meadows. Both my parents came from small islands, my fathers island community resettled sixty years ago. I think I'd be happiest living my days away there, I'm quite introverted and it's very special to me. It's a very affordable home and the best opportunity to live with nature and lower food costs raising/growing and fishing for my family.
Just a question about the functioning of comments, rather than the topic. I posted comments yesterday with links to two articles, one to an article about the new research giving a precise felling date of 1021 for some of the timber used at the Norse site in North America and one about the role that the collapse in demand for walrus ivory in late middle ages Europe may have had in making the Greenland settlements unsustainable, but they don't seem to be here. Do comments not support the posting of links?
I have had similar experience. I posted a comment this morning with a link to the original Nature paper that was published yesterday and my comment has not appeared. TH-cam dooes not want external links in comments
Just to elaborate on the point about the role that the late medieval collapse in demand for walrus ivory had in making the Norse settlements in Greenland non-viable, since You Tube won't let me post a link to any articles about it, recent research apparently suggests that the viability of the settlements was always heavily dependant on export of walrus ivory, which paid for the import of things that the settlements couldn't produce for themselves. Increasing availability of elephant ivory from Africa during the late middle ages caused a slump in the price that walrus ivory could command. There is apparently also evidence that initially the Norse settlers sought to compensate for the loss of income from their main export by harvesting and exporting more, but this led to over-exploitation of the resource, ultimately causing production to fall, as well. The suggestion is that it was this, rather than changing climate that finished the settlements off.
I remember reading an article (I think in National Geographic) about a possible norse location like Lans aux meadows (sp?) found somewhere along the Hudson River but it said it would take years of research to confirm it.
An interesting theory I heard about Greenland is that actually the Little Ice Age wasn't the only reason which caused the population to sink. The settlers made a living from trading ivory to Norwegians against natural resources like wood, iron etc. which they couldn't find in Greenland. In the 15th century Europeans had discovered another, cheaper source for ivory: Africa. With the trade dying out and living conditions becoming harsher, many Greenlanders eventually moved back to Norway or Iceland.
(I would link my source, but it isn't in English)
Thank you, this is very interesting as usual.
You have an R2D2! I'm envious. Okay, back to the video. :)
With the global tempurure 2 degrees warmer, Matha’s Vineyard could be Vineland.
I'd love if you reviewed the show Norsemen! I know it's wildly historically inaccurate but it's also hilarious for those of us who like dark humour.
Chuckle. I live in Minnesota, and have never seen anything credible to state that specifically Vikings were here.
That said, lots of Norskies moved here. Lots of English and Germans as well.
Seems that every town has a lutafisk festival... (shudder) jello like fish dish that is made with lye... no just no.
Anyhow, Thank you for another lovely video. -L
Hmm I noticed that too when I go there, I just assumed they moved there cuz it was similar to certain regions of scandinavia
Hi neighbor!
Fellow Minnesotan, also never will touch lutefisk lol!
This just makes me want a cross over between you and Sagathing
Biggest problem is, the Norse only made it to modern day CANADA, which to a large proportion of those in north America doesn't count. So to have actually made it to north America they had to have landed below what is now the southernmost Canadian border on that coastline. Hence the desperation for them to have landed much further south than they did.
Simply because to an unfortunately large section of people, north America stops at the US/Canadian border. Interesting though that the book I remember reading about Eric finding north America did make it clear it was almost certainly the coastal reaches of northern Canada - again almost certainly having come across from Greenland - and while it didn't mention any names such as Vinland it did say that they almost certainly found, and summered or possibly over-wintered, pasture land enabling them to grow basic crops to sustain themselves as well as living off the land. And this would have been 45 years or more ago, a library book probably in the children's reference section. I have no idea who wrote it or the title but it was the first time I had heard of Eric and his voyages to both Greenland (touted as a con, they named it GREENland to try and persuade more settlers who probably wouldn't have gone if the truth were told) and northern north America.
Great video. Thanks.
A bloated thing on a stick that scares everybody, sounds like bag pipes
weird question maybe, but in highschool maybe 15 years ago or so, I was told about this welsh folk hero type called Maddog, that went to America at iirc about the same time as Erik et al, is there any truth to this or is it complete nonsense
Oh yeah you talk about this! 😏😎✨
I already heard about it but it's nice to hear it again from you 😏. As with archaeological greed, I think it's also partially fueled by the (obsessive) demand for evidence - sometimes you just wonder at which point the amount of evidence we have regarding something is enough? 🤔 (...is there even such a thing as too much evidence?? 🤔🤨)