The
Vikings
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The Vikings established the earliest known
contact with Aboriginal peoples in North America
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Contact occurred at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland
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Contact took place approximately 1ooo BP at
Vinland
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Vikings (Norsemen) were led by Leif
Ericsson who was nicknamed Leif the Lucky
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Vikings raided coastlines in their
dragon-prowed longships
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The word for raiding translates into the
word Viking
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The Vikings were bold explorers, skilled
sailors and feared warriors
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Leif’s father was Eric the Red and was the
first to discover Greenland
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Ericsson found great resources like salmon
and timber
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Ericsson spent the winter in NFLD and lived
in huts
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The saga of the Greenlanders reported that Ericsson
discovered grapes in NFLD and that the winter was mild
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The next spring, Ericsson returned to
Greenland
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Leif’s brother Thorvald led the next
expedition to NFLD
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Thorvald had a bloody run in with the
natives and was killed
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During the next couple of years a man by
the name of Thorfinn Karlsefni went to NFLD bringing 250 men and women
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The Vikings lived in houses of sod and
stone
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The Vikings experienced cold, and frigid
weather
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The Vikings made clothing from sheep’s wool
and drank nourishing sheep’s milk
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Thorfinn’s wife gave birth to the first
European child born in North America
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Thorfinn’s people also had battles with the
natives
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The Vikings referred to the first people
as, skraelings
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The natives managed to fight off the
Vikings
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The Vikings returned to Greenland
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Years later the Norsemen left Greenland to return to Iceland due to worsening
climate
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The Norse settlements slowly dwindled away
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Not long after the Norse abandoned NFLD,
the Inuit in their kayaks began exploring the coast of Labrador [1]
Additional Links to Information on the Vikings:
http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/vikings.htm
http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/start.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/vikings/index.shtml
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vikings/village.html