--- Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
>
> But whether we call the Greenland Norse a
> civilization or not is really
> besides the point.
I'm interested in this region/period of history. Does Diamond discuss or allude to the type of relations that existed between the Norse and the natives (or "skralings," as they called them)? Clearly they did a great deal of trading back and forth. The Icelandic sagas (short relevant extract from the Greenland Saga below) describe them as doing a great deal of mutual killing. ;) But it's a saga, and the desciption concerns events in what is now Canada, not Greenland.
"Afterwards they sail from thence away and to the east of the land and into the firth-mouth, that was there next to it, and to a headland, which sprang forth there; it was all wood-grown; there they make first their ship fast, and put out the gang-board to the shore, and goes Thorvald there on shore with all his followers. Quoth he then: here is fair, and here would I raise my abode.
"Went afterwards to the ship and saw on the sands within the headland hills, and went there and saw there leather-boats and men under each of them. Then they divided their party and laid hand on them all but one, who escaped with his boat. They kill those and go afterwards on the headland and looked about, and saw up the firth some hills, and supposed they those to be settlements. After that they were stricken with weariness so great, that they could not keep awake, and fell they all asleep."
"Then came a call above them, so that they all awoke. Thus says the call: Awake thou Thorvald and all thy company, if thou wilt keep thy life, and go thou to thy ship with all thy men, and sail from the land as quickly as possible. Then came from within the firth numberless leather boats and made at them. Quoth then Thorvald: we shall put outboards the shields and defend ourselves as best we may, but attack only little. So they did, but the Skralings shot at them for a while and fled afterwards away, as hurriedly as each of them might.
"Then asked Thorvald his men, if they were anyhow wounded. They answered not to be wounded, I have got a wound under the arm, says he, and flew an arrow between the shipside and the shield under my arm, and here is the arrow, and may me this to death lead, now I advise that you prepare to go as soon as possible back, but you shall bring me to that headland, which I thought most habitable to be, may be, that a true word came of my mouth, that I might dwell there for a while. There you shall bury me and set a cross at my head and at my feet, and call it Krossaness for ever after. Greenland was at that time christianized, though Eric the Red died before the Christendom. Now died Thorvald."
http://www.northvegr.org/lore/flatey/001.php
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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