Moderator:
Rationale: Initially, the Norse colony in Greenland prospered, but the situation changed quickly upon Greenlanders instituting their way of life. Many issues arose, such as materials shortages, which hinted toward the long-term struggles the society would face.
1. What hints were there that society was on the way towards collapse?
Rationale: The fertile volcanic soil in Greenland grew native vegetation like willow, birch, and juniper trees as well as shrubs and turf grass. After the logging of tree populations, harvesting turf grass became common to use in building as well as for fuel.
2. What factors contributed to the environmental damage that occurred after the settlement of the Norse Greenland colony?
Rationale: The Inuit had been living in Greenland for a long time before the Norse Greenland colony was settled. Large settlements indicated their proficiency at surviving in the arctic environment.
3. What advantages did the Inuit have over the Norse Greenlanders?
Rationale: Interactions between the Inuit and Norse Greenlanders never turned out well. Even from the beginning, during the first few interactions between the groups, there was bloodshed.
4. What disadvantages did the Norse Greenlanders face in their interactions with the Inuit?
Rationale: Many factors contributed to the collapse of the Norse Greenland colony. The underlying, long-term factors behind their decline are known, but the final blow that ended the weakened society hasn’t been identified.
5. In your opinion, what was the most detrimental long-term factor, and did it bring about the final blow or was it something else?
Character 1:
Character Description: I am the wife of seafaring warrior Arne. We traveled by boat from rural Scandinavia to settle and raise our two young children, Bo and Bjørn. I spent my days caring for the children, tending to the farm and our livestock, spinning yarn and wool, and preparing meals with the harvest from the day’s hunt.
Brief Essay: Arne has been called on an important expedtion, leaving me to tend to the farm and the children. It happens often, but never seems to get easier. Luckily some of the other housewives, who I enjoy quite fondly, are left in the same position and we keep each other company. We usually gossip in front of the fireplace, spinning yarn and working wool from our lambs while our children play in the pasture – but this time, there’s no gossip. Our husbands have left the mainland on a desperate search for food and resources. We are starving. With every waking day, the children’s ribs become more and more visible.
Our sheep are gradually dying, either from starvation or slaughter. Even so, there’s very little meat on their bones due to malnourishment, so we pick at the bones until we see white. Our husbands have been gone for almost two moons and we are starting to worry. Winter is coming and we have limited resources to help us make it through – if we even make it. The townspeople seem to blame the church or even God, which I find myself starting to do. I must put on a brave face and fend for our family until Arne comes back… hopefully with some food or resources.
Character 2:
Character Description: I am Ivar Thorsson, the son of a Chieftain, and we live on a large farm in the western settlement of
Greenland. I have a wife and children; I hunt and farm to help produce food for my
family, farmers, and tenants. Since I am a large male, I also help my father solve any
disputes over resources on the land we control. I am strong and a good fighter. I have a
calm mind and try to resolve problems fairly; most people respect my opinions. If not,
there is a problem.
Brief Essay: Our life in Greenland has become more challenging since we have suffered from colder weather. We cannot produce as much hay for our livestock, and our cows suffer from the weather. We have to keep them in barns for over 9 months, and they have become weak and small. Because of my size, I carry them out of the barns to the pastures. Our resources have become scarcer, and we cannot produce tools and weapons to hunt like our neighbors in Iceland and Norway. We do not have many trees left for fire and coals. They were burned or used by the first settlers. Our community has become increasingly isolated because of sea ice and being cut off from supplies we have traded with before. We used to be able to get goods for Ivory from walruses, Live Polar Bears, and tusks or Narwhals, but that has become less and less since few ships come anymore. Because of my family, we hunt during the summer. It is called Nordstrea. We hunt caribou and seal, but we also have pigs, goats, sheep, and cows as well. We make our own butter, skry (yogurt), and dry meat for the winter. Our hunt takes us away from harvesting, but we have farmers and tenants that work for us. They eat mainly seals due to their position on the farm. We have also built great churches in our area because we are strong Christian people. This is important to our Norwegian alliance and us. Because we have limited wood resources, we now use turf for fires as well as wood, but the tenants use animal bones and manure. We do not mix with the native (Inuit) people who are here. They are not like us and do not understand our ways of doing things. We are Christian, and they are not. We believe in the old ways of life for
survival because we cannot take the chance and make changes. The results would be disastrous.
Character 3:
Character Description: My role in this society is a Norse woman in the Western settlement. My duties include tending to cattle and sheep, making dairy products, and spinning wool.
Brief Essay: The year is 1275. Everyday I notice the winter is getting closer. I leave my newly turfed home to tend to my farm. Most of the grass is gone now, with no soil to hold it. I milk every last drop from the cows that survived the night, barely enough to make my breakfast skyr. Before heading to my shed, I overlook the fjord. Yet again, no European ships are arriving. Those scraelings must have scared them away. I brave the cold a little longer as I herd my sheep into the shed.
I grab my shears and attempt to work on my best one, but the blade has become so dull, no wool will come off. I wonder if wooden shears exist, and if they would be as efficient. That thought leaves my mind quickly as I barely have enough firewood for the pressing winter. I look to the fjord again, the barren landscape looking more and more unfamiliar. I check my bucket where I keep my dairy, and see no fish are left. If I want to survive another week, I’ll have to spin some more wool to trade with the men. I manage to scrape the top layer off my best one, and head back to home to attempt to spin.
Character 4:
Character Description: I am Halstein Bjarnison, a dairy farmer in Norse Greenland, with a proud heritage of dairy farming going back hundreds of years to my ancestors that lived before Greenland was even discovered. I am responsible for keeping my cows fed and milking them to provide dairy products for the community.
Brief Essay: Throughout my time in Greenland, the years have grown colder, and the land more barren. The cattle run out of pasture to graze more quickly, and the hay supplies are diminishing. The fields were always slow to replenish, but with the increasing chill, the grasses barely come back. Instead we are left with fields of dirt, and with no plants to hold it in place, that dirt gets blown away by the frigid winds until it is all gone. Under the dirt is sand that cannot grow anything, and that gets blown away as well until we are left with fields of rock.
Additionally, we are running out of wood. There are not many trees left. We have had to resort to cutting turf to use for building materials, destroying even more pasture land. My herd is starting to dwindle, and we have had to resort to burning turf, manure and bones, which hardly works. Without fire, I cannot properly sanitize the milk buckets and I fear our saeters are at risk of shutting down permanently. I am doing everything I can to keep my cattle and myself fed and warm.
Every year there is less and less meat. We have also run out of iron, so we cannot make tools or weapons to hunt like we used to. I have heard that the skraelings that have invaded our land and hunt our walruses have now killed 18 of our men, meaning that we have even less people to search for food. Those pagans are a curse on this earth and must be eradicated; it’s us or them.
I do not know how we can continue like this, and I am beginning to lose faith that the chief will save us, as Norway has stopped sending ships.
Character 5
Character Description: My character was a common Viking male warrior within Norse society in Greenland. Sigrid lived in the Eastern Settlement along the fjords of the southwest coast with a small family in a compact house made of thin pieces of lumber, recycled or scavenged wooden objects, and turf. He lives in a small village just outside the Gardar surrounded by other families with equal housing accommodations. Outside, there are little to no trees left with only grass and herbaceous vegetation like shrubs in the area. The entire region is covered with cattle pastures.
Brief Essay: Hello, my name is Sigrid Thorvaldsson, son of Erik Thorvaldsson. I am a Viking warrior male living with my family on the Southwest coast of Grœnland. Overall, my life has been somewhat of a rough one, filled with strife and living accommodation hardships. So much seems to be going wrong all at once and I do not know why! Life seemed to be going smoothly at first here in our Eastern Settlement because of the vast abundance of natural resources and a plethora of land, but as time goes on, things seem to be getting worse. I am not sure if it’s the anger of Jörd/Fjörgyn God of earth unhappy with my village and me or something else. The ivory trade was running well with the Eastern folk, but for some reason, they seem to not want anymore now. There have also been rumors of strange people settling here coming far from the West and I already do not like them. They better leave or else I will get a raiding party together for them, as this is our land! Only thing is, we are running very low on steel in the village. We do have a lot of bog iron, but since we don’t have enough charcoal from trees to light a fire hot enough to liquefy and mold the metal into weapons, we can rarely make anything. You know, it’s really damn humiliating trying to terrify my enemies on raids when yelling and running straight into a fight with a makeshift axe made out of whalebones… I hate those new people.
As for more domestic concerns with the village and our land here, there are so many problems coming up that we have no idea what to do at this point or how it came to be like this. Everything was great when we first settled here! We had plenty of lumber and timber from the surrounding forests, strong soil to grow hay and other stuff like food, and plenty of space for pastures for animals like cattle! Sure, I mean we torched most of the forests to make room for our grazing animal pastures and cut down a lot of the trees for tools, firewood, craftsmanship, and housing purposes, but Jörd/Fjörgyn God of earth should be bringing us more resources by growing back right?? Where are they?? My family and I, as well as the entire village, are getting a little worried now. It is getting pretty bad now because we are starting to have to reuse old or scavenged wood since there aren’t anymore trees left besides our sacred ones! Without wood, we can’t make tools for farming, steel for tools, ships for trading, or houses for living! The only way I have managed to keep my family going is by raiding coastal settlements with the other men in the village, and even that is starting to reap scarce rewards. Nothing seems to be growing anymore as well and the soil continues to look more sandy each year my wife tells me. No matter how much care we take to plant food, vegetation, or even trees, things always come up dead, especially in the winter. One of our wise old elders believes this is because of our pasture livestock grazing or trampling the soil and because there isn’t enough herbs, brush, or vegetation to hold the soil in place now. I say what a load of shite. If it goes in the earth, it should grow and cattle have nothing to do with it! Grasses and weeds are still growing so that doesn’t make sense! All I know is that it that the soil seems to be getting blown into my face whenever I’m outside. The elder also says that the bones and cattle manure could be used to make more food, that’s disgusting! All my brothers in arms agree that it makes no sense. On another note, our little village seems to be dwindling with it growing gradually smaller by the year. Everyone is scared about the next few years, more specifically the next few winters. Turf has been helping with the cold on our houses, but it doesn’t seem to be enough. Alas, our chief and council believe that we need to increase our raides and try to make military strategies or tactics to survive and help improve results of taken resources, but I never attack with a plan. I prefer to run in screaming with a double-headed battleaxe. I think this change in our culture of warfare would be ruinous to our lifestyle.
Well, I am off to raid more of those weird invaders from the West. Till Valhalla brothers!!!
Character 6:
Character Description: My name is Raya, a 13 year old child with the Norse. My life was filled with hunting trips and explorations along the west coast. I was taught to hunt at a young age and cows became a useful animal of ours, which we carried over to our new region in Greenland, despite the lack of correct conditions provided for cows. Instead of changing our preference and changing to sheep, we learned to farm and kept the cows in a barn. I helped my dad build one once, but it was difficult to construct with the heavy stone. I remember having to carry the cows out of the frozen barns to get milk to supply for our people. Overall, my life was pretty common for a Norse child, especially since my family consisted of farmers and hunters, the average population in the region. Well, it was normal until the Inuit arrived and the climate issues, environmental damage, and attacks/threats consumed our home and family.
Brief Essay: As a child of the Norse with farmer and hunter parents, I encountered environmental damage through the cutting of turf and hints of soil erosion as my family built the barns of stone/turf, with no caution in digging, causing soil damage. After all, there was no evidence of this until the vikings, otherwise known as the norse arrived. I witnessed trees being cleared until we encountered the horrors of deforestation and climate change. Our sources of food were ruined by our introduction of non native plants and once again, we were back to the drawing board as if we had just arrived on the land again. My sister starved to death and by that point it was only my mom and I, but we did not know how much longer we would have left.
From what I remember about my dad’s death, mom and dad had issues with the inuit and they became hostile not too long after the Inuit’s appearance in our region. Blood was shed and eventually deaths were increasing and my people continuously denied coinhabitation and trade. The inuit killed and threatened my people, my father being one of their first attacks. I was terrified and angry but these people were not friendly. We did have some friendly neighbors though who would trade with us peacefully, but eventually fell out of touch with Norway and the Inuit took over our home. In response to these horrors we were lost, the deaths of hunters and farmers were increasing as the Inuit was becoming a terror. All we could do was accept our fate and hope for a better future for this land, but it was too late for us and we were not sure how to respond or save ourselves.
Character 7:
Character Description: Hilda is a young housewife with pale eyes and curled hair residing on the western settlement some few years prior to its unknowing collapse. Possessing a gentle and quiet demeanor, she is kind and hardworking, spending most of her time tending to her family’s sheep and spinning their wool with nimble fingers. Despite her soft-spokenness, she can be firm when need be, and is stronger than she looks — she’s just as good with kids as she is with animals, and often puts her daughters to work kneading flatbread or making skyr, butter, and cheese — skills that were passed down to her from her own mother.
Brief Essay: The fireplace does just as little to keep the cold out as it does quell my nerves. All I can think of is when the kindling will be burnt to ash and the flame goes silent, casting our longhouse in chill and darkness. Spring has been difficult — my mother tells my daughters stories of warmer days and simpler times, her voice trying to soothe their worries. But they too have noticed the number of animals dwindling, and have seen them grow skinny and frail as the hills are stripped down to bare earth. I had to slaughter a lamb the other day — barely any meat on its bones, but I couldn’t risk losing the ewe and her wool. My mother tells me things were easier, once — stories her own mother passed on, of hills decorated with vast walls of birch and aspen forests. I wonder where the trees went.
There used to be ships from Norway, as well. I remember cleaning the house for visitors, and the joyful chatter of my girls when my grandfather brought back something new and shiny for them, that he’d traded iron or timber for. I don’t think there’s been any new iron — most of the tools I use for cooking or fixing the house are made of antler or sometimes wood. My husband’s been away more and more — scouring the seas for food, crossing the lands for resources. He doesn’t tell me much — I think he tries not to worry me. But I know there’s little out there to find. He seems angry at the Church authorities. I can’t help but feel the same. I keep a brave face for my girls and my neighbors, but still… I can’t help but droop from a heavy, inescapable feeling of dread weighing on my shoulders. Surely, the ships will return, right? I can only pray.
[ factors of decline — climate change, exploitation of the land, and cultural reasons (church authority) and friendly trading (loss of touch with norway) ]
Character 8:
Character Description: I am a hunter and hunt wild animals for meat. Our community works together to survive and so I always hunt with a group. We hunt anything we can find — hares and other small mammals, seabirds, ducks, mussels — but mostly we hunt caribou and seals. In the winter, the caribou descend from the mountains and we hunt them with bows and arrows and dogs. In May, when our stores of caribou meat and dairy products are dwindling, we hunt the migratory seals that arrive.
Brief Essay: Now that it’s very cold and our communities are growing larger, nearly 80% of our diet is seal. We depend on their migration for our survival, but the ice in the fjords and on the coast make it difficult to reach the seals. Also, the most abundant type of seal is one we have not been able to successfully hunt. These seals make holes in the ice to breathe. We have seen the Inuit hunters wait above the hole for hours, and when the seal takes a breath, the Inuit harpoon them through the hole. The harpoon head is attached to a rope, which the Inuit hunter pulls on until the seal is tired enough to be captured.
We have also seen the Inuit hunt whales with their harpoons and with small boats covered in stretched-out seal skins. They have thousands of years worth of technology they have developed to help them endure this cold and brutal landscape, and we are on the brink of starvation because we do not have access to the type of game we are used to hunting. If we had developed trade with the Inuit, we would have access to tusks and sealskins and other tools. If we had established friendly relations, we could learn their hunting techniques and other means of survival during these harsh winters. Unfortunately, our early encounters with them were violent, as is our way. Now, they are a threat to us. Our inability to establish peaceful relations with our neighbor may lead to our demise.