The Reykjavík Grapevine's Almost Completely True History of Iceland
Season 01: The Alternative History of Iceland
What if Icelanders had settled in North America during the Viking Age? What if Iceland was wiped out by a volcano and the survivors moved to Denmark? What if Iceland had been occupied by the Nazis instead of the Allies? What if the Nordic Countries had united? And what if the economic collapse had been averted?
Listen to historians Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson talk about Icelandic history as it happened and what could have been.
Produced by Sindri Freyr Steinsson
Season 02: The Last Viking Mystery
What happened to the Viking colony in Greenland, which strangely disappeared after almost 500 years? Join us in a voyage of discovery that takes us from the home of Eric the Red in Western Iceland to the Viking settlement in North America and the frozen wastes of Greenland as we try to solve the greatest mystery the North has even known.
The Reykjavík Grapevine's Almost Completely True History of Iceland
The Viking History of Greenland: Leifur Eriksson: Losing and Finding America
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Icelanders discovered America, and lost it again. Or did they? How long did the Viking voyages to the new continent last? How did the first longship vs. canoe battle go? And where - and what- was the legendary Vinland that the Sagas speak of?
Hosted by historians and Grapevine founders Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson this episode features an interview on the subject with History Professor Sverrir Jakobsson.
The likeness of Leifur Eriksson in front of Hallgrímskirkja is probably the most photographed statue in the most photographed spot in all of Iceland. And yet Leifur’s appearance in the Sagas is somewhat underwhelming.
In the Saga of the Greenlanders, he’s not even the man who discovers North America for the Vikings. Instead, the story goes that one Bjarni Herjólfsson accidentally stumbled across the continent upon getting lost en route to visiting Erik the Red (Leifur’s dad) in Greenland.
Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson — a historian and a history nerd, respectively — delve into the saga and the reality of how Icelanders found North America and then lost it. Did that actually happen? How long did Viking voyages to the new world continue? How about that longship v. canoe battle? And where even is the legendary Vinland that the Sagas speak of?
Hosted by historians and The Reykjavík Grapevine founders Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson
The likeness of Leifur Eriksson in front of Hallgrímskirkja is probably the most photographed statue in the most photographed spot in all of Iceland. The statue was a gift from the United States on the 1000-year anniversary of Alþingi in 1930 — an extended middle finger to any Norwegian who might want to claim him.
And yet Leifur’s appearance in the Sagas is somewhat underwhelming. In the Saga of the Greenlanders, he’s not even the man who discovers North America for the Vikings. Instead, the story goes that one Bjarni Herjólfsson accidentally stumbled across the continent upon getting lost en route to visiting Erik the Red (Leifur’s dad) in Greenland.
Bjarni, however, does not go ashore and is mocked by the residents in Erik’s household for his “lack of curiosity.” That wouldn’t be the case for Leifur, who decides to buy a ship and set out for himself. There he sets up camp in a place he calls Vinland. This may have been in L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, where remains of a Viking settlement were unearthed in 1961. Still, the Sagas tell us little about his exploits there and he doesn’t even seem to have come into contact with the natives.
Instead, it is Leifur’s half-brother Þorvaldur — the Buzz Aldrin to Leifur’s Neil Armstrong — to whom the honour falls of being the first European to make contact with the Indigenous people of North America. This is done in a very Viking manner, whereby Þorvaldur came across nine of them sleeping under their canoes and proceeded to murder the lot, with one getting away.
Why they choose this course of action is not explained in the Saga of the Greenlanders, the narrator seemingly finding it all an entirely natural chain of events.
But they soon get their just desserts. As Þorvaldur and co. attempt to sail away, they find themselves surrounded by the locals in history’s first documented canoe vs. longship battle. The Vikings escape, but in the best Hollywood manner, Þorvaldur soon finds he has been mortally wounded by an arrow underneath his armpit. He is buried on a hill they come to call Krossnes, or Cross Peninsula, after the cross they erect over his grave.
A handsome man boards a boat
But the family is not yet done with North America. On his way back from the new world, Leifur found the survivors of a shipwreck, thus acquiring the nick-name Leifur the Lucky. His brother Þorsteinn was even luckier, for among the rescued was a beautiful young woman named Guðríður, who he married. Þorstein’s luck didn’t last though. He soon died of a plague.
Enter Þorfinnur.
It’s worth noting at this point that nearly everyone in this Saga — bar Leifur himself — has a name starting with Þor-, a reference to the god of thunder. This is despite Leifur having converted everyone to Christianity by now. Perhaps in order to tell them apart, Þorfinnur goes by the nickname “Karlsefni,” which could translate as “manly” or even “handsome.” The widowed Guðríður can’t help but notice and the pair are soon married. In lieu of a honeymoon, they set off to colonise America, with Leifur’s half-sister Freydís along for the ride.
The newlyweds find Leifur’s camp and make contact with the natives, and, exhibiting more sense than Þorvaldur before them, opt for trade over murder. The natives get milk from a cow (an animal they hadn’t seen before), while the Vikings get pelts and seem to come off better.
Things soon turn sour anyhow. Þorfinnur had forbidden the trading of weapons but when the natives took an axe anyway, fighting broke out.
The Vikings take flight and the pregnant Freydís is left behind. Unimpressed by the men’s prowess, Freydís grabs a sword from a fallen warrior and slaps it on her bare breast. This, understandably, results in the likely weirded out natives to retreat.
Axe-murderer and a nun
But Freydís has more in store. She later returns to Vinland with her husband and two boatloads of followers. She refuses to allow the crew of the second boat to stay at Leifsbúðir, so they set up camp elsewhere. Later, she goads her husband into murdering the residents of the other settlement, ostensibly to steal the stuff they collected, vines and wood. Her husband relents, and along with his men proceeds to kill off the neighbours. However, the men refuse to murder the five women in the other camp. Realising that if she wanted something done right, she had better do it herself, Freydís kills them all with an axe.
Back in Greenland, Freydís claims the crew of the other boat decided to stay behind, but the truth will come out. Leifur, by now a chieftain after his father’s death, decides not to punish his little sister, but it is said that her actions sullied the reputation of her descendants.
This is in stark contrast to the descendants of Guðríður and Þorfinnur. They had a baby in North America and eventually moved to the farm of Glaumbær in northern Iceland. The descendants of their son, Snorri, eventually became the bishops of Iceland. After Þorfinnur’s death, Guðríður walked all the way to Rome. Having travelled to southern Europe and North America, she was undoubtedly the best travelled woman of her day. The Norse Greenlanders continued travelling to North America for over 300 years, until they mysteriously disappeared.
We’ll take a closer look at their disappearance in the Grapevine’s next issue. Look for it January 10, 2025.
