Vinland: North America's Viking Colony

this video is brought to you by shaker and spoon  shaker and spoon is one of my absolute favorite   sponsors on this channel because they send you  cocktails not exactly what they do is there are   a subscription cocktail box and they send this out  to you once per month and basically in here is all   the magic that you need to make 12 cocktails four  of each different kind let's have a look inside   the box what you do is you have three cards like  this this one is called the don't tell richard   these are cocktails for use with dark rum all you  have to do is provide the dark rum everything else   you need is included in this box and it is a  lot of stuff from this which is lemon water   to coconut water to stuff for making cold brew  coffee and best of all i mean that stuff you   could maybe buy at like a larger supermarket but  what shaker and spoon really do is they send you   these tiny little things but impossible to get  agree i mean i'm not impossible to get but you   know you 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show you guys so you'll  see footage of me at home making the whiskey one what you can do is go to the  link in the description below   or just go to shakeranspoon.com forward  slash geographics and you'll get 20   off your box and uh well with that  said let's get into today's video it was the settlement that rewrote history  sometime around a thousand a.d a viking   ship left greenland on a mission that would push  european exploration to its limits for nearly two   thousand miles the crew battled hostile seas and a  lack of navigational aids braving weeks of unknown   dangers then finally they saw it the long rumored  distant land filled with forests its climate   a paradise compared to their frozen home the  vikings named this new world finland after the   wild grapes that grew there but you and i know it  today by a very different name the greenlanders   had just landed in what is now canada and their  settlement would become the first european colony   in north american history for centuries  considered a mythical place finland's   existence was only confirmed in the 1960s when  the remains of norse buildings were found at le   as umedo in newfoundland and even now much of it  remains shrouded in mystery from exactly where   the greenland has explored to why they abandoned  europe's first new world colony today that story for centuries it was one of european history's  biggest riddles sometime around the 13th century   two norse oral histories have been separately  written down known as the saga of eric the red   and the saga of the greenlanders they dealt  with events that had happened over 200 years   earlier each saga had its own characters each  with its own spin on events yet they contained   remarkable similarities telling tales such as  that of greenland's discovery they were clearly   true one of these similarities was the discovery  of a place called vinland as recounted in the   two sagas known collectively as the finland sagas  finland was a sort of paradise a place of infinite   natural riches because of this scholars spent  the next few centuries arguing whether it was   real or just some drunk fantasy dreamed up by a  lonely viking far from home but today we no longer   have to speculate thanks to archaeological finds  over the last 60 years we now know that vinland   was real and its story is more awe inspiring than  those dead dudes studying the sagas could have   ever have dreamed the tale of how the norse came  to reach north america nearly half a millennia   before christopher columbus begins way back around  the year 800 a.d and it begins not with a long   boat landing on the shores of canada but with  a whole bunch of vikings colonizing scotland's   northern isles although no one was thinking it at  the time the arrival of the norse in shetland and   orkney was the first of a series of stepping  stones that would ultimately lead all the way   to finland just 25 years later the second  step took them to the pharaoh islands after   that a far bigger step led to the colonization of  iceland but it would be the next step that proved   decisive the discovery of greenland if you're  a regular biographics watcher or sister channel   you'll already know from our video on eric the  red how he came to establish greenland's first   settlement for today's story though the key part  is that eric didn't explore greenland alone he   took his family with him including his son leif  eriksen and it was life who would take the last   and biggest step of all well at least according  to one of the sagas as we said earlier the two   vinland sagas contain a lot of differences and not  least is the first to settle finland the saga of   the greenlanders is clear that leif erikson was  the driving force while the saga of eric the red   gives leif a supporting role but has a guy named  thor finn kaufmani as its hero basically comparing   the two sagas is like comparing 2003's full  metal alchemist series with the 2009 anime   same characters same origin wildly different  stories and you're sure about this so we're   just gonna go with what the majority of historians  say and that's that the saga of the greenlanders   is probably the more accurate version fair warning  though take everything you're about to hear   with a bit of a pinch of salt born sometime in the  960s leif grew up in iceland where he was mostly   raised not by his dad but by a german thrall or  slave named tirka but while tiaka is said to have   become more of a father to life than eric the red  ever was that didn't mean life was free from his   father's influence in 982 eric was banished from  iceland for killing a man rather than go alone he   took his family with him sailing west in search of  a rumored unexplored land that was how olaf became   one of the first europeans in history to set foot  on greenland a witness to the founding of the   island's first norse colony for the still teenage  lad it must have made one hell of an impression   the adventure of the long voyage the romance of  an undiscovered place in just a couple of decades   that experience would inspire the boy to undertake  his own great adventure a voyage to north america it was 986 a.d when bajani hayolfson accidentally  made history a wannabe greenland colonist who set   off later than the others bajani got caught  in a storm after leaving iceland and was blown   wildly off course by the time the winds abated  his ship had come in sight of a strange land   mass thick with forest this place clearly wasn't  greenland which bhajani knew to be treeless in   fact it was something far more interesting bajani  heilsen didn't know it yet but he'd just become   the first european to set eyes on north america  well sort of technically of course greenland is   part of the north american plate facts i'm sure  plenty of parents have already helpfully pointed   out in the comments but while both greenland  and the extreme west of iceland may technically   be in north america there was nothing technical  about bajani's discovery this was the real deal   the coastline of modern canada rather than land  majani sailed north along the coast eventually   turning east after several days at sea he had  at last reached the greenland colony there he   told everyone of his astonishing tale only for  people to be like cool story bro i'm gonna go   talk to someone else now yes it seems no one was  interested in bijani's history changing discovery   no one that is except for leif erikson it's not  exactly clear at what point leif heard about this   mysterious western land but the tale certainly  seems to have stuck with him when as an adult   he returned from norway around a thousand a.d with  a mission to spread christianity one of the first   things he did was contact bhajani hailfson  and buy his old boat a few months later leif   gathered up 35 men got in bijani's boat and set  off into the great unknown as adventures go it was   next level stuff all i've had to go on was  a vague description by bijani of a voyage   he'd taken over 15 years earlier standing in his  way was a stretch of treacherous icy ocean even   vaster than the distance separating the already  remote greenland from norway by writes it was   an adventure that should have ended with leif  earning the nickname leif the very dead instead   it would be the making of him the first land the  crew sighted was unencouraging after a dangerous   voyage a jagged icy coast came into view a rocky  land that appeared even more barren and dead than   greenland's inhospitable east today we call this  place baffin island but laith called it hella land   meaning stone slab land but rather than turn back  the vikings carried on down the coastline looking   for somewhere less hostile to human life somewhere  like markland markland or forest land was the   exact landscape bianni had described skirted by  beaches with dense trees growing in the interior   since a lack of trees to build boats was one of  the greenland colony's biggest problems it's kind   of surprising lathe didn't stop here on what  is now the labrador coast but no lathe eriksen   was still searching searching for that perfect  spot to settle after two more days hard sailing   he found it even today newfoundland is a  place of rare beauty the sort of tempting   spot canada's tourist board had wet dreams  about for the norse colonizers it was like   heaven lush and green with a milder climate  than greenland or iceland the island contained   everything a viking could possibly need there was  food in abundance including grapes although modern   scholars think what the crew thought were grapes  were actually naturally fermenting gooseberries   still they were grape-like enough for leif to  name this new world finland or wine land but   he did more than just name it that winter  the crew built a small settlement they named   leifspudia as the weather turned cold the sagas  record that the norse were amazed by the mild   frosts and comparatively long daylight hours by  the time the warmer weather returned there was   no longer any doubt the greenlanders would return  to this place as soon as possible and when they   did it would be with the intent of founding the  first permanent european colony in the americas for any greenlander watching as leif erikson  unloaded his ship it must have been a little like   a kid watching santa unpack his sleigh prior to  their return home the crew had packed their craft   with timber grapes and all sorts of exotic food  stuffs on top of that they'd even bumped into a   whole bunch of shipwrecked norse on the way back  and rescued them her feet which earned leif the   nickname the lucky but while leif eriksen had now  reached the peak of his fame it also reached the   point where he exits our story either just before  or shortly after the finland vikings returned home   eric the red died leaving leif to assume  the role of the greenland colony's head   honcho while that meant everyone giving him fist  bumps and a sick new longhouse to live in it also   meant no more opportunities to go exploring leif  was needed now in greenland the finland saga would   have to be continued by someone else or rather  several someones life's siblings and sister-in-law   would all take stabs at colonizing the new world  it's here that the sagas and the archaeological   record begin to diverge as we'll see in the next  chapter the settlement established on newfoundland   seems to have been peaceful if short-lived a  stable prosperous place according to the vinland   saga though the expeditions after life were marked  by almost non-stop trauma and bloodshed the next   person to take a stab at these new lands was  probably laff's brother thorvold at some point   maybe around a thousand and three thouvald and his  men were exploring some corner of markland when   they ran smack into a gang of indigenous americans  leif's expedition had somehow managed to avoid   contact with any native people so this moment on  a forgotten beach on a long forgotten day should   have been truly momentous the first documented  meeting of americans and europeans unfortunately   thorvald was apparently super into perpetrating  viking stereotypes because he killed eight of the   nine men without even blinking sadly for thorvold  the one who escaped returned with an army in tow   and a battle broke out on the shoreline and  that's how within a few hours of becoming the   first european to ever meet an american thorwald  also became the first european to be killed by one   it was an encounter that would set the tone  for all future expeditions the trouble was   the norse never seemed to figure out a way  to either get along with or defeat the locals   who they called scrailings a word most sources  translate as wretches wretched or not though the   scrailings were a force to reckon with when late  former sister-in-law gudrid thor bajan nardotia   and her new husband thor finn carl stephanie  tried to establish finland's biggest colony yet   they initially got an okay with the natives from  their base of straumfijo they developed a trading   relationship with the local tribe that seemed to  blossom until karlsephany's men killed a scralling   for trying to steal weapons their settlement  became a target for attacks while the vikings   could mostly fend them off the sheer time and  energy required convinced them to abandon their   colony after just two winters still at least  something historically valuable came of the   aborted settlement while there goodrid reportedly  gave birth to a boy that she named snorri thor   finnessen if true that would mean snorri beat all  other claimants to the title of first european   born in america by over 500 years there are  yet other colonization projects recounted in   the vinland sagas one by leif's sister freydis  that turned into a bloodbath one that supposedly   ended when a dude called bajani grimolsson had his  boat eaten by seaworms at this stage though we're   really reaching the limit of what the sagas  can tell us alone so for a moment let's put   these tales aside and focus on an entirely  different source the archaeological record   because scanned as they are the traces the vinland  vikings left in canada are all sorts of impressive way way out on the northern tip of newfoundland's  great northern peninsula lies the only confirmed   north settlement in the whole of the americas  uncovered in the 1960s by norwegian archaeologist   ann stein inkstart and her husband helge la's  omers is a marble to behold a collection of   now rebuilt viking dwellings thousands of miles  distance from their owner's home while a lot about   the site remains up for debate for example if this  was the settlement leif erikson founded or a later   one there are things we can't say for certain  thanks to radiocarbon dating we know it was built   between 980 and 1020 a.d about when the sagas  say the greenlanders explored finland we know too   that it was an unusually big settlement one that  could hold 90 people including at least a handful   of women we also know that for whatever reason  it didn't last our best estimates say that it was   in use for only a decade before it was abandoned  what caused its abrupt end remains a mystery not   that you should go thinking this was the viking  equivalent of the lost colony of roanoke rather   than a place for living archaeologists things  that it can better be understood as a kind of   base camp a place to refuel recharge or store your  wares after an expedition there was equipment for   repairing boats a blacksmith and carpentry shop a  set of eight long houses with large storage areas   the idea seems to have been that different  expeditions would use the settlement for   anywhere between one and three years people would  bed over winter at its quarters and then head off   to explore the rest of finland and spring and  summer each time they returned it would be with   furs timber iron or edibles anything that could  be stockpiled before they finally returned to   greenland weighed down with treasure unlike the  greenlanders then the vinland vikings weren't here   for the long haul we can deduce this from the  absence of graves and the tiny middens or trash   heaps that they left but it's worth remembering  that la also meadows wasn't likely the only   settlement the descriptions the sagas give of leif  buddhi for example portray a way mulder climate   to the one you'll find in northern newfoundland  that means at least some of the finland vikings   probably traveled further south in fact it's  likely vinland itself referred to a vast area   rather than a specific place but figuring out  its exact dimensions is a colossal pain in the   backside since sla also meadows remains the only  confirmed norse settlement in canada although   there's some buzz around a possible second site on  baffin island places they may have visited have to   be puzzled out using the few clues to hand for  example the discovery of butternuts at the site   points to the vikings visiting as far south as  new brunswick where they grow locally the repeated   references to grapes in the sagas also point to  another outpost in the south perhaps on prince   edward island but nothing is as intriguing as the  settlement of hope a vital southern settlement in   the sagas hope was rich in salmon and timber and a  great source of grapes unlike the staging post at   la sumeros though the location of hope remains  a mystery theories are placed everywhere from   shallow bay in new brunswick to as far south as  modern day maine yet despite decades of searching   we've never found it for a while in 2016 it  looked briefly like satellite imagery had picked   up its traces at point royalty and the south of  newfoundland but that sadly turned out to be an   illusion in fact if hope was only ever a flimsy  summer outpost it might now be lost forever eaten   away by a millennium of harsh canadian winters  of course hope might not even have been the most   remote outpost of the vinland vikings go looking  on the internet and you'll find claims that leif's   brethren sailed all the way to minnesota or  even right down to mexico however there's   pretty much no actual evidence for any of this  beyond faked rune stories and wishful thinking   so you can probably file this alongside aliens  did it in terms of plausibility no matter where   hope actually was though pretty much everyone  can agree on one thing it didn't last very long   that's because the finland colony was about to  collapse in the most spectacular way possible in all the finland vikings thought to have  lasted around 10 years 10 years it's shorter   than justin bieber's career or the length of time  between george r.r martin novels with such a tiny   lifespan it could be tempting to think they must  have been wiped out in some great cataclysm but no   at the lasso meadows site all the settlers  equipment and tools seemed to have been taken   with them there's no sign of violence and while  the two holes were burned it's thought the norse   torched them as a kind of leaving ritual so the  million-dollar question is what happened what   caused this group of manly scandinavians  to ditch the treasures of the new world   after just a decade all we have are guesses  the most popular one is of course an inability   to get along with the locals the saga of eric  the red explicitly blames the scrailing saying   they were a source of constant terror and not  worth the danger yet there are no signs that   lawsuit meadows of attacks bar a single arrowhead  found in a wall hence others think the scratching   threat was overhyped that may be the end of the  finland colony has less to do with violence and   more to do with practicalities in the centuries it  existed norse greenland was as remote from norway   as could be a hardy outpost of several hundred  thousands of kilometers from their natural home   finland was that distance all over again further  from greenland than greenland was from norway   and while norway and iceland were populous  enough to supply greenland with a small but   steadiest trickle of colonists there was simply  no way to repeat the trick even further west   with only some 500 greenlanders alive at the  time lyon's su meadows flourished there just   wasn't the manpower to establish a successful  vinland base add to that a short sailing season   between the two plus a bunch of pissed off  locals tried to chase you out of their home   and it may have been that keeping the colony  going was simply more hassle than it was all worth   yet the end of the colony didn't mean the under  viking visits to the new world on the contrary   little clues in the archaeological record point  to return trips that continued for decades or   even centuries of these the most fascinating has  to be the main penny found during excavations of a   native american site in the 1950s the belly hails  from norway was minted during the biking era but   here's the kicker it dates from between 1065 and  1080 a.d after the settlement atla also meadows   was abandoned suggesting continued contact between  the new and old worlds there are other clues too   in greenland viking farms post-dating the vinland  era have been excavated which contained the fur   of bison and lumber from trees native to canada in  fact an icelandic document dated to the year 1347   casually mentions norse ships sailing to markland  to collect timber suggesting these sorts of   voyages happen semi-regularly finland then seems  to have been luring vikings on a seasonal basis   for centuries possibly right up to the collapse  of the greenland colony in the 1400s yet despite   all this north america's viking history would soon  be forgotten the great expeditions there consigned   to oblivion that they were ever rediscovered  is only thanks to an incredible stroke of luck although the tale of vinland faded into  myth it wasn't forgotten altogether   in the early 19th century a craze began in the  usa for locating the saga's fabled land with   books placing it everywhere from cape cod to  martha's vineyard so it's not like the world   was like vikings in america nonsense plenty  of people still read the sagas looked at   the remains of the greenland colony and induced  canada or america was the only place left to go   but there's a big difference between assuming  something is true and actually proving it   just ask your average flat earther unlike flat  earth as though the vinland fans would eventually   be proved right and it would all be thanks to one  couple in 1960 norwegians helgen and stein ins   dad decided they were fed up just speculating  about vikings in the americas and that they'd   rather just go find the evidence so that year they  toured canada's northeast coast hunting for any   traces of norse remains after a long journey they  reached the village of la sumeros and newfoundland   there they started asking around about viking  ruins one man agreed to show them some old mounds   everyone assumed had been built by first nations  people improbably these random mounds would turn   out to be the remains of the settlement the  ingstads were looking for for the next seven   summers the couple conducted excavations with  growing excitement they found evidence of iron   smelting unheard of elsewhere in the americas  dug up a wooden boat building frame that matched   the dimensions of a typical norse rivership but it  would be a single find in 1968 that finally proved   their theory right the excavations up until 1967  had uncovered a whole lot of evidence that vikings   had probably been there but nothing that could  prove it with 100 certainty then on the final   day of their final dig season in the summer of  1968 they uncovered a bronze pin a small straight   pin with a ring used for fastening cloaks a  pin in that style had only ever been found   at viking sites at that moment the vinland sagas  stopped being just a story they became a piece   of history again a european history in the new  world that pre-dated columbus by hundreds of years   today we're still on the lookout for more  signs of vikings in canada and the u.s   long-lost settlements are artifacts that could  tell us more about this brief exciting era the   moment when the two worlds met for the first  time already there are candidates after that   false start back in 2016 there's some buzz about a  possible sight in tanfield valley on baffin island   but even if that doesn't pan out the search is  far from over as technology improves it becomes   more and more likely that we'll find another  fragment of the vinland story maybe the remains of   a seasonal hunting camp maybe the lost settlement  of hope itself maybe just another viking coin   buried in the earth thousands of miles from its  homeland whatever it is it will represent a tiny   miracle another fragment of europe and america's  shared past recovered and preserved for us all   perhaps this way eventually the full saga of  the vinman vikings will finally become known so i really hope you found that video  interesting if you did please do hit   that thumbs up button below don't forget to  subscribe and as always thank you for watching

Channel: Geographics

Views: 293,214

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Id: 05vuX_0fKxM

Length: 24min 26sec (1466 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 22 2021