THE LEIF ERICSON MILLENNIUM

and Why the Vikings have never been celebrated as the first Europeans to colonize North America, even though they were 616 years earlier than Columbus and Leif Ericson was not a pagan Viking who roamed the Atlantic Ocean with sword and horn on his helmet. He was a young farmer from the south-west coast of Greenland hoping to find fresh sources for timber for ship building and grazing for cattle.

The Millennium is extra special for Scandinavians as it also marks 1 000 years of presence in North America. It was 1 000 years ago that Leif Ericson and his crew landed on this continent. The Millennium provides a unique opportunity to celebrate this achievement and to proclaim this historical fact.

The Nordic Ambassadors to the United States and enthusiasts like explorer Thor Heyerdahl and author Garrison Keillor are already working on several events to take place between October 9, 1999 and October 9, 2000. There will be a special travelling exhibit prepared by the Smithsonian, several books as well as hopefully a commemorative coin and stamp. There will be various symposia, parades and a grand finale in the form of an armada of replica Viking ships sailing from the Viking settlement of L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland to Philadelphia.

But even with a presidential proclamation on Leif Ericson Day October 9 - three days before Columbus Day, it is doubtful whether the Vikings will find their rightful

In 1893 Magnus Andersen and a crew of 11 crossed the Atlantic on the "Viking" to take part in the Columbian Exposition in Chicago place in history as the first Europeans to colonize North America more than 500 years before Columbus. The Vikings have sadly been surrounded by too many myths to be really taken seriously.

Right now American adventurer Hodding Carter is leading a Lands End- sponsored expedition to replicate Leif Ericson's voyage from Greenland to Newfoundland. Carter is sailing a Greenland Knarr Viking transport ship and it is hoped this achievement will help publicize the jubilee.

Already in 1893 when Chicago hosted the Columbian Exposition, newspaperman and captain Magnus Andersen crossed the Atlantic in a replica of the Gokstad Viking ship. The ship took half a year to construct and 28 days to reach Newfoundland. Captain Andersen and his crew of eleven continued the 1 500 miles inland to Lake Michigan where many millions of visitors saw the "Viking" at the Exposition.

In 1927 Captain Gerhard Folgero sailed a Viking Femboring warship from Norway via the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland to the Straits of Bell Isle. He then continued to Boston, New York and Philadelphia. The reception Captain Folgero and his crew of three and a dog got was fantastic, but tainted by the usual disclaimers like "Christopher Columbus was the real discoverer." Folgero got so upset by this that he replicated Columbus' journey in another Viking ship a few years later arriving in Havana, Cuba to try to prove his point.

Norwegian archaeologist, Helge Ingstad spent a lifetime proving that the Vikings were the first Europeans to reach North America. In 1960, after years of searching for the site of Leif Ericsson'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 1000 AD. The archaeological 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 artifacts 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. L'Anse aux Meadows has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

However, it was in Greenland that the Vikings really set their legacy in the pre-Columbian era. 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 Gunnbjorn Ulfson, son of Ulf Krage. He explored part of Eastern Greenland around the Angmasslik area. He described the highest mountain in that area so well that it has officially been called Gunnbjørn'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 Snebjbm 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 in the year of 986.

Christianity was introduced to this area for the first time in the year 1000 by Leif Ericson (Eiriksson, Eriksson, Ericsson), son of Erik the Red. Leif Ericsson's mother, Tjodhilde built, together with other women, the first church ever built in the Western hemisphere in the year 1000. The ruins of this first church was found in 1961 by local Greenlanders who had co-incidentally chose the same spot to building a church as Tjodhilde had done nearly 1000 years ago.

In the summer of 1999, 20 Icelanders spent time in Greenland reconstructing the farm of Erik the Red and the church of Tjodhilde as a millennium gift from the Icelanders to the Greenlanders. The site in Brattahlid is the location of Erik The Red's original settlement. Erik The Red remained a believer in the traditional Norse gods.

The Greenland colony grew under Erik the Red and it was not long before more wood was needed for houses and other needs. As neither Greenland nor Iceland was blessed with woods, Norway seemed to be the neares5 source. Or was it?

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

Leif Ericson set out on his expedition together with 35 men. The first land they reached was barren and did not correspond to B jame's story. Leif named it "Helleland". 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 crew member, Tyrkir, found wild grapes.

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

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

While in Vinland, Thorvald Ericson 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 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 Trondheim, Norway.

In 1126 the first bishop in 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. Leif "The Lucky" Ericson 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 became Danish. Greenland still remains under the Danish Crown and is thus the first and oldest remaining kingdom in the North Atlantic.

The last recorded European ship to have contact with those first settlers 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 in southern Greenland in 1520, they found it empty. Whatever happened to the Norse of Greenland?

In the mid-18th century, Niels Eged whose father was a missionary, and who also spoke Inuit, asked an Inuit shaman what his people knew about the disappearance of the Norse.people from Greenland.

The shaman told him about stories handed down to him. The stories told of 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 people 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.

Scandinavian Press, Issue 4, 1999