Battle of Vinland (1010)
| Vinland battle 1010 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Norse colonization of the Americas | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Icelandic Vikings | Native warriors | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Thorfinn Karlsefni | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 140 | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
2 killed 5 wounded | 14 killed | ||||||
The Battle of Vinland was an armed conflict in 1010 between Icelandic explorers and a group of indigenous people, likely in present-day Newfoundland. The battle is attested only by the Saga of Erik the Red, recorded several hundred years later.
Thorfinn Karlsefni was the first Norse explorer to arrive in Canada, the newly discovered land of Vinland on the same site as his predecessors Thorvald and Leif Eriksson. According to the Saga, he set sail with three ships and 140 men.[1]
Upon reaching Vinland, their intended destination, they found the now famous grapes and self-sown wheat which the land was named for. They spent a very hard winter at this site, where they barely survived by fishing, hunting game inland, and gathering eggs on the island. The following summer they sailed to the island of Hop where they had the first peaceful interactions with the native people, whom they traded with. Karlsefni forbade his men to trade their swords and spears, so they mainly exchanged their red cloth for pelts. Afterwards they were able to properly describe the aboriginal inhabitants, saying:
| “ | They were short in height with threatening features and tangled hair on their heads. Their eyes were large and their cheeks broad.[1] | ” |
Shortly thereafter the Norsemen were attacked by natives who had been frightened by a bull that broke loose from their encampment. They were forced to retreat to an easily defensible location and engage their attackers; at the end of the battle two of his men had been slain, while "many of the natives" were killed. As with anywhere in this foreign land, Karlsefni and his men realized that
| “ | despite everything the land had to offer there, they would be under constant threat of attack from the natives.[1] | ” |
After this adventure they returned to Greenland—their three-year excursion would be one of the longest-lasting known European colony in the New World until Columbus' voyages nearly 500 years later initiated full-scale trading operations.[2]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Keneva Kunz (Translator) The Saga of Erik the Red, in The Saga of Icelanders, Penguin Books, New York, 2001. ISBN 0-670-88990-3 Search this book on
.
- ↑ Pringle, Heather (19 October 2012). "Evidence of Viking Outpost Found in Canada". National Geographic News.
See also[edit]
Other articles of the topic Canada : Canadian hip hop
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