Sorry for the lateness, like I said in last post real life things happened, anyways I'm back now. So what are your thoughts on the Timeline? Do you like the writing style or should it be different? Discussion and criticism is encouraged.
1028-1029
In Elgurland Snorri was fearful of a revolt, so he tried to shift public interest into something and had a Helluland Skraeling who had gone far west lead a group of twelve men into the interior of the Northern plains in search of gold. Snorri had also started road projects that spanned along the Elgur river and it's tributaries in order to capitalize on potential gold deposits there that were made from the abundant gravel in the area and if people were not farming, sleeping, fishing or building they would be too tired to make any plans for revolt or at least this is what Snorri apparently believed according to the Sagas. It had initially worked but after a month one man was caught conspiring against him and Snorri had him beaten and turned into a thrall for punishment, other than that it was relatively peaceful and he was able to temporarily keep the peace.
In Greenland, Bjarny's brother finally conceded to the people and had all the people in Greenland move to Herjolfness and bought a slave every time anyone had left in order to fill the population gap. The people of Greenland had received grain for shipments of sheep due to the genetic non-diversity among some of the livestock in Vinland. Another one of its exports was Garnets found along it's rocky coasts and sometimes a ruby or two was found, not enough to warrant mass exploitation but enough that it was a trade item.
Ragnar Bjornsson was still traveling with his guide and a few other men over land when he reached a town called "Yachititkez" (OTL Feurt site) in the Skraeling tongue, they had gotten there by going fifteen days southeast of the southern part of the second great lake and then traveling southwest on a raft that was surprisingly large and stable built by the guide along a large river (OTL Ohio River) and on it's north bank was the village. The village had grown the crop he had seen along the Hitvur river which was known as the Gulurskera, but here the size of the crop head was much bigger than the ones grown to the north and it had grown a diverse variety of beans around them large gourds, some edible and others were used for making bowls and water holders. There was the mounds as well, the guide informed Ragnar and his crew that the mounds held the remains of the dead, the village also had palisades and other defenses; The people were surprised to say the least when they say the distinct white color of the Norsemen's skin and the strange material of their tools and clothing and the extreme difference in language which had become a norm for a trading culture like the Norse but was still new and strange to the Skraeling villagers. The Norse had noticed the enormous shells that were apparently traded from a ocean deep to the south along a river even larger than the Nawahlid River also known as the Great River, they had also noticed the heavy usage of animal bone and filed stone unlike the Vinland skraelings that mostly used flint. While the villagers had farmed they had no livestock and relied on river fishing and hunting for their supply of meat, Ragnar noticed this and pondered the idea of selling sheep to them. Ragnar as suggested by his guide to present a steel battle ax to the chief of the village which he did, he had also traded some copper rings for some provisions. When it was time to go further into the westerns trade land some of the men in the village had wanted to marry their daughters to the Norse men but through his guide and translator he had gotten through that they would return. Ragnar had left five men to stay and attempt to teach them Norse or learn their tongue, unsurprisingly these men ended up marrying women there while Ragnar was gone and even had children there.
When Ragnar headed further west along the river destined for another village like that he seen earlier, three days on barge him, his men, and the guide had arrived at a town the guide called "Hashkratatela" (OTL Turpin mound site). This village too had mounds the people there just like the last village had been astounded by the presence of the Norse, once again the Norse encountered the large shells from a sea to the south. Ragnar Bjornsson had limited the amount of rings and iron they could trade to the skraelings, in this village however the Skraelings had given large amounts of food and gifts to the Norse for free and historians now believe they may have seen them as divine beings but nothing was ever proven. These villagers had cleared enormous expanses of land and grown Gulurskera (once again, Corn/Maize), it was noticed that the people here were short and weak due to the un-balanced food and most animals in the area had been hunted and had relied on fishing from the river for meat. After seven days Ragnar had rounded up several of the men to leave for the village they were at previously and from there back to Nawahlid. When he had arrived at the one village along the Versla River (river of trade). They had left and the five men that had taken wives there had taken them with them and Ragnar was planning on building settlements along the great river where rapids and waterfalls were to allow easier access to the interior, and with the people that had learned the language of one of the village tongues and with the one village learning Norse in tidbits allowing the foundations for major extrusion into the western land of cities. He was particularly interested in what his guide told him of far to the west and south there being a city of over eight thousand and of some of the other large cities near the coast of the southern sea from where the large shells were taken from and apparently the guide said to him, "When I was young my father told me of the tales he had heard while there, that even further south from there, along the southwestern coast there had been Grand cities of cut stone and enormous amounts of gold and the rival cities engaging in large battles where hundreds would die". While this had interested Ragnar, he had figured it mostly to be exaggeration on the part of the original story tellers, the guides father, and the guide himself; However this had prompted him to support Olaf Thorgilsons' exploration of the coast in hopes of finding this southern sea and perhaps taking large amounts of gold for only a Battle ax or two. Ragnar Bjornson returned to Nawahlid and reported his findings to Bjarny Leifsson and to the Chief there, Bjarny had taken interest in it but it was never his main priority; but Ragnar was ambitious and was planning on setting up regular intervals of trade between the Skraelings of the Hitvur river and the ones south of the second great lake, send missionaries to the area and have them settle closer to the lake coast for ease of trade.
On the Bjornsvirke the Skraelings climbed the wall but were put down quickly and the wall was further reinforced and thorn bushes were planted on the outside face.
In Thorkellsborg business was thriving, a good portion of the population was experienced in blacksmithing and the demand for quality Iron increased as the more wealthy common man could afford stronger and more durable tools; Most plows were now built out of steel as it allowed cutting through the soil without the soil sticking to the plow. The low quality bog iron was primarily used for carving knives, sometimes for arrows, and tools to trade to the Skraelings. Thorkellsborg had also made good wealth in shipping out grain and fish from other parts of Vinland to Markland to Greenland to Iceland, however compared to the farms of Saeturland and Hnetaland it was mediocre at best. The population of the town was beginning to be too much yet again so much that Bjarny Leifsson had convinced/bribed over four hundred people to leave, half went to Nawahlid and the other went to Hnetaland, some of the ones that went to Nawahlid had been sent to to create small settlements along the river where there were obstructions that needed portage. The ones that went to Hnetaland increased the size of it's farmland and repaired fortifications.
In Hnetaland vast amounts of forest had been cleared, some by cutting down and others by burning. The burnt forests produced a more fertile soil and it was a fast efficient means of clearing forest and there are a few reports of finding the scorched skeletons of Skraelings in the burned down forest; The Skraelings had been another problem, the people of Hnetaland had mail Armour and Ulfbehrt Swords paid for by Bjarny Leifsson himself (while the sagas say this it is possible that they were all produced by Bjarny's many slaves). The Skraelings however were numerous, but they had been kept at bay for the most part. One day a man from Norway called Eluf Haldorsson who had experienced battles in Europe had settled down in Hnetaland and organized the militia there, the fighting kept on going for months but this time the Norse were n the offensive and most of the Skraelings had been killed. Nearly the whole North Island of Hnetaland (Prince Edward Island) had been devoid of skraelings but what little remained had attacked from time to time, after the climax of the fighting ended the people there had cleared and cleared so much land that they didn't even cultivate most of it.
In Norway King Olaf had been driven to exile, he had went to Vinland to retrieve his son there and lay in wait there waiting for the chance to reclaim the throne of Norway. When Olaf arrived in Leifsbudir he was greeted by Bjarny Leifsson and his son Magnus was with him, Olaf Haraldson the former king had then set off for Thorkellsborg. He had wished to visit all the big towns of the land under Bjarny, when he had heard of the western trade he was impressed, when he had reached the colony Olaf Thorgilsson was living in he had asked about the pelt and skull from the Aurdreki and the land it came from. Olaf Thorgilsson told the former king about the lands to the south and west, even of the warm Isles that could be used to jump across the Atlantic without going near the arctic. Olaf Haraldson then set out to Thorkelsborg where he lived in peace for the time being as a guest of the Paramount Chieftain Bjarny Leifsson; it is also said that Olaf had been intrigued by the Bjornsvirke and the abilities Skraeling allies had in battle. He also later recounted their style of armor, which was long leather strips woven to form armor then shrunk by boiling to make it harder and stronger.
In Saeturland the production of Sugar and Syrup was large, so was the production of wheat and even small amounts of the crop Ragnar Bjornson had but they were not meant to be grown that far north and did not particularly thrive; However the beans and gourds brought back did thrive and because there was so much food around ten percent of the people there were Carpenters or Shipwrights working the fine wood of the land that was found little in the rest of the Nyrfold. Bjarny Leifsson once more asked for the production of Grand Ships that were the only reliable way to sail southwards and to make large jumps across open waters, other than the grand ships a great many ships were being built there as one of the Chiefs there stated, "So much abundance that the majority find little reason to farm so turn to ship building to make a large sum of cash in Iceland or Norway and to take up their time.". Saeturland was also exporting some of the finest crafted Ships in the Norse world, often trading the ships for slaves or for gold.
Around this time the "Chain of Slaves" was established, the people in the Nyrfold were always in need for slaves both Female and Male, so men who had struck it rich in the Nyrfold had made much profit from going to Denmark to buy slaves and then sell them in the Nyrfold. It was like that at first but then it began to become more complicated, men who didn't want to risk the full journey had just bought slaves in Denmark and sold them in Iceland at "Slave Posts" where they would be bought by other slave traders who then sell them in Leifsbudir and from another Slave Trader spread to everywhere else. Another trade in the Chain of Slaves had started, people had pre-ordered their desired slaves in some sense, mostly it was just descriptions of what they wanted in a women for a female slave or a slave experienced in blacksmithing, carpentry or some other trade. There had been some cases of using Skraelings as slaves however because in the small settlements where slaves where most needed they would often run away and due to little knowledge of the land and them knowing how to survive in the wilderness it did not work so well, and in the large communities like Bjarnystad or Thorkellsborg where they simply could not run away easily there were tales that were exaggerated of Skraeling slaves killing their masters which in the eyes of a Norse where Skraelings are seen as a barbaric unreasonable people was enough to discourage them from using them as slaves.
In Leifsbudir drinkable water was becoming and issue, at first pond or stream water was boiled so that it killed the pathogens in it but because of the large population the water supply was getting infected and disease was spreading. Around a third of the population left for other parts of Bjarny's control, but still the problem was still there. Bjarny Leifsson had decided to have his slaves and whatnot to build large wooden boards on a slant to funnel rainwater into wooden pipes that fed small uncontaminated wells, they would require maintenance very regularly but it was a better choice than letting dysentery and the like spread over the town. A similar problem had begun years later in Thorkellsborg but a similar approach was taken before it became a large threat.
This TL is great, by the way.