Viking, n.:
-
Daring Scandinavian seafarers, explorers, adventurers, entrepreneurs world-famous for their aggressive, nautical import business, highly leveraged takeovers and blue eyes.
-
Bloodthirsty sea pirates who ravaged northern Europe beginning in the 9th century.
Hagarās note:
The first definition is much preferred; the second is used only by malcontents, the envious, and disgruntled owners of waterfront property.
I wonder why they didnāt stay? Unfortunately, they arenāt telling.
There is another definition, concerning northern athletes who in ancient times would lose championships, but in later years would fail to reach them. I can confirm the existence of a second site on which they built two settlements, the newer upon the ruins of the older. It is not too many miles from the first site, which in modern times is the location of a mall.
Likely the Beothic didnāt like themā¦ or the Inuit. (There is an inuit legend about retaliatory killing a group of white men by disguising themselves as icebergs and floating right into their campā¦ google is failing me, it was a filmā¦ dammit)
When I went to LāAnse aux Meadows there was much talk of the area being called āVinelandā which if youāve been up there, makes no sense. We know they were there, and that they moved on, but not to where, makes sense theyād go to the west coast of the rock, its a totally different climate. Green and growing, not so barren, possibly where they meant when they said āvinelandā. Neato!
What if the Viking stayed long enough for steel making to be passed to the Native Americans, especially those in South America.
And what if, more importantly, they had infected them with small pox and other Old World diseases, meaning that by 1492 the population would have rebounded and gained some immunity. America and the world would look veeerrrryyyy different.
aliens
How 'bout some context for that pic?
How things have changed!
I donāt blame them.
From the NASA Ames Research Center: Procedure to Follow in the Event That Building 245 is Attacked by Vikings
I think I read that it had to do with cranberries, which are kind of like grapes, even though they grow in a bush.
Hey, Rob @beschizza, where did you get that photo? I think I know those people!
The second is the actually the more accurate. Viking was effectively a job, a trade, a roll. I means something along the lines of āpirateā or āraiderā. Not all groups described as Vikings were Norse, and apparently a non-trivial number of those in Norse lead groups were Irish or from other areas of Northern Europe. Settlement in North America seemed aimed at, well settling. As well as providing resources for settlements in Greenland, so these are better described as Norse settlements since there wasnāt much raiding involved. Which is sort of the Norseās schtick, they did a lot of settling and and a lot of traiding. Founded most of the major cities in Ireland, and a large number of the ones in Eastern Russia.
Iād guess clashes with the locals and inability to keep themselves properly supplied and in contact with other Norse holdings. Particularly because these were offshoots of Greenland settlements, and those seemed to fail around the same period. Pretty much the same things that caused early European settlements to fail during the early part of that whole colonialism thing.
Its interesting stuff.
Nice try with your fancy Mad Men marketing, āNewfoundland!ā More like OLD foundland.
ā¦ a documentary of their efforts will be presented this month on PBS.
Dunno about PBS, but the BBC seems to be covering Dr Parcakās work at the moment (like, right now, this minute):
Watched the BBC documentaryā¦Talk about tenuous āevidenceā. Wishful thinking Iām afraid.
Pffft.
Jarg was here.
On rocks.
Inland.
America.
These were the people who had come up with the name āGreenlandā. So eliding grapes and some sort of berries is a relatively minor embellishment in comparison.
Or it could be like āGreenlandā ā a name meant to attract settlers.
