Columbus Come Lately

Columbus Come Lately. 616 Years !

1992 has been heralded as the "year of discovery" to mark the 500th anniversary of Columbus' landing in the Caribbean. However, so much as Columbus deserves his place in history, the first Europeans to colonize North America 500 years before Columbus, the Norse people from Scandinavia, have been largely ignored.

Norwegian archaeologist Helge Ingstad spent a lifetime proving that the Vikings, not Columbus, were the first Europeans to reach North America. In 1960, after years of searching for the site of Leif Eriksson's settlement, a fisherman led Dr. Ingstad to some ruins in a meadow. A carbon 14 test revealed that this find could be dated to about 1060 AD. The archaelogical find at L'Anse aux Meadows (Lancey Meadows) revealed several rectangular structures with sod walls, one to two meters thick. Inside slightly raised along the walls, appears to have been seats and sleeping platforms. The floors were of hard clay and several hearths and cooking pits were found. Among artefacts discovered were a bronze pin with a ring, a bone needle and iron rivets. This discovery leaves no doubt about the Norse settlement on mainland North America.

However, it was in Greenland that the Vikings really set their legacy in preColumbian North America. The first recorded landing in Greenland by the Vikings was back in the year 876, 1115 years ago, 616 years before 1492, by a Norwegian Viking named Gunnbjörn Ulfson, son of Ulf Krage. He explored part of Eastern Greenland around the Angmasslik area. He described the highest mountains in that area so well that it has officially been called Gunnbjorn's Mountain. However, Eastern Greenland is a very inhospitable land. The Inuits were the only ones who knew how to survive there, and an attempt to colonize that area 100 years later by SnebjØrn Galti ended in disaster.

Knowing about Snebjörn Galti's misfortunes in Eastern Greenland, the legendary Erik the Red decided to look for greener pasture further south in the year of 982. He explored Greenland for three years and returned back to Iceland where he convinced 800 settlers to come back with him to Greenland in the year of 986.

Christianity was introduced to North America and the Western Hemisphere for the first time in the year 1000 by Leif Eriksson, son of Erik the Red. Leif Eriksson's mother, Tjodhile, built, together with other women, the first church ever built in the Western hemisphere in the year 1000. The ruins of that first church in the Americas was found in 1961 by local Greenlanders who coincidentally chose the same spot for building a church as Tjodhilde did, nearly 1000 years ago.

The Greenland colony grew under Erik the Red and it was not long before more wood was needed for buildings and other needs. As neither Greenland nor Iceland was blessed with woods, Norway seemed to be the nearest source. Or was it?

Erik's son Leif had earlier heard from the Icelandic trader Bjarne Hjärvulsson that during a storm in 986 he had drifted along land with plenty of trees west of Greenland.

Leif Eriksson set out on his expedition together with 35 men. The first land they reached was barren and did not correspond to B j arne's story. Leif named it "Hellluland". Next they landed on a white sandy beach with woods as far as the eye could see. This they named "woodland". They set sail again and did not see land for two whole days. Finally they came to an area where they stayed for the winter. This was Vinland, so named after a German crew member, Tyrkir, found wild grapes.

The Norse made several attempts to colonize the mainland North America but hostile Indians (Algonquins) prevented that.

After his brother's (Leif Eriksson) discovery of Vinland, Thorvald Eriksson borrowed his brother's ship for a second trip.

While in Vinland, Thorvald Eriksson ordered the first massacre of native North Americans by Europeans, but he paid for it with his life when an Indian arrow struck him, and he became the first white man to be killed by an Indian.

In 1001, Thorfinn Karlsefni moved from Greenland to Vinland with sixty other Norse. The settlement was short-lived due to hostile Indians and all the Norse returned back to the safety of Greenland the following year. However, Thorfinn's wife, Gudrid, gave birth to a son, Snorri, while in Vinland.

Meanwhile, Greenland was first organized under the Archbishop of Bremen, Germany from 1000-1103, then it came under the Archbishop of Lund, Sweden, and in 1152 the power was transferred to the Archbishop of Tronheim, Norway.

In 1126 the first bishop in North America and the Western hemisphere arrived in Garda, Southern Greenland. His name was Arnald and he built an Episcopal residence and the first cathedral in the Americas and dedicated it to the seafaring saint, St Nicolaus. The cathedral had glass windows!

At first, all the political power was in the hands of Chief Erik the Red who enjoyed much respect. Leif Eriksson took over the chiefdom after his father. Gradually, the political power was transferred to the bishop.

In 1261, King Håkon the Old, of Norway became the first European king of the Americas when Greenland voluntarily accepted to be part of the Norwegian kingdom in return for regular ship service from Norway.

In 1389, Norway and Greenland came under the Danish Crown. Greenland still remains under the Danish crown today and is thus the first and oldest remaining kingdom in the Americas.

The last recorded European ship to have contact with those first settlers of North America was in the year 1410, and it reported everything to be normal in the Norse communities of Greenland. But when Norwegians arrived in the Norse settlement at Southern Greenland in 1520, they found it empty. Whatever happened to the Norse of Greenland?

In the mid 18th century, the Norwegian missionary's son Niels Eged, who also spoke Inuit, asked an Inuit shaman what his people knew about the disappearance of the Norse people from North America.

The shaman told him about stories handed down to him. The stories told how the Inuit themselves had migrated from Canada and down the west coast of Greenland where they had hostile encounters with the Norse people. But eventually the two peoples had learned to live together in peace. In Southern Greenland the Norse outnumbered the Inuits. According to the shaman, one day, around 1418, three ships arrived from the southwest. The European pirates on the ships were easily defeated by the Norse and one of their ships was captured.

However, the following year, a large armada of pirates arrived once again from the southwest and the first European colonizers of North America were defeated by their European kind. Many surviving Norse, especially women and children took refuge among the Inuits. They later intermarried with the Inuits, and their offspring are among today's Greenlanders.