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Nov 10, 2016 · The Norse settled Greenland from Iceland during a warm period around 1000 C.E. But even as a chilly era called the Little Ice Age set in, the story goes, they clung to raising livestock and church-building while squandering natural resources like soil and timber.
Jul 22, 2023 · The Norse settlers strove through winter cold, food shortages, and, in the end, a shifting climate. The remnants these people left behind show they were determined to survive at the foot of this vast, icy, and challenging wilderness.
- Climate Shifts to Little Ice Age
- Less Demand For Walrus Ivory
- Black Death Isolates The Norse
- Clashes with Inuit?
- Sea-Level Rise, and Drought
The climate, for one thing, likely played a role. At first, the Norse occupied Greenland during the so-called Medieval Warm Period, when pastureland would have been in relative abundance. “Conditions were really favorable,” Borreggine says. Around 1250, however, the onset of the Little Ice Age purportedly depressed hay production, to the detriment ...
At about the same time, the European market for walrus ivory crashed, replaced in part by higher-quality elephant ivory from Africa. Suddenly, the Norse had little of value to trade with mainland Europe, a particular blow since the search for more walruses, following the extirpation of Iceland’s walrus population, may have been what led them to Gre...
Already struggling to maintain ties with mainland Europe, the Black Deathof the mid-1300s sealed their isolation. It’s unknown whether the plague reached Greenland, but it certainly devastated the Norse’s benefactors in Norway, which, as McGovern notes, “basically collapsed as a country.” “Norway is their main connection,” McGovern says, “and the p...
Meanwhile, the arrival of the Inuit from Canada around A.D. 1200 presented yet another challenge. Ancient Nordic texts mention a couple of skirmishes between the Inuit and Vikings, and Norse artifacts have been found at Inuit sites. Nonetheless, it remains entirely uncertain as to what extent the Inuit contributed to the Vikings’ demise. “I imagine...
Recent research has added two more potential pieces to the Norse puzzle: persistent drought, which would have decimated hay production, and sea-level riseof up to 10 feet, which, as Borreggine’s paper explains, would have inundated dozens of square miles, including much of the productive farmland near the fjords. “It’s larger than the entire area c...
- Jesse Greenspan
The wooden roof, rafters and doors collapsed and rotted away long ago. Now sheep come and go at will, munching wild thyme where devout Norse Christian converts once knelt in prayer.
- The early days. 791: Raids begin on the British Isles. Early targets were Christian monasteries on small islands, which were often unprotected. One of the most famous early raids was in 793 at Lindisfarne, north east England.
- Far and wide. 844: Muslims repel a Viking raid in Spain. Vikings sailed up the Guadalquivir river to raid Seville. A Muslim army fought back, and the rapid Muslim response dissuaded the Vikings from further attacks on Spain.
- Control and establishment. 872: Harald I gains control of Norway. According to medieval Icelandic historians, Harald Fairhair (Harald hårfagre) became the first King of Norway and would rule to 930.
- Southern Europe. 900: Raids along the Mediterranean. Vikings began a series of raids in the Med. A few years later, the Swedish Olef the Wise led a force to Constantinople, the city now known as Istanbul.
For several centuries, the Vikings of Scandinavia ruled the waters and land of Northern Europe. The ancient Norsemen were explorers and warriors who sped through rivers and seas to raid and conquer wealthy and often unsuspecting people. Yet despite the Vikings’ dominance and achievements, the notorious Scandinavians vanished from history.
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