Dang it, you know something I just though of? It would have been better if I named the TL Vinland land of Wood, Iron, and Gold. Sounds much better than Wealth and Ambition but anyways if anyone wants to start their own Vinland TL (which I highly encourage as you can't read your own TL really and I need entertainment as well) The name is out there if anyone wants to use it.
1041-1042
In Norway, Harald Sigurdsson also known as Harald Hardrada was contemplating Invading Canute's England. He had forged alliances with Thorfinn of Orkney and his Grandfather the King of the Scots, he had wanted to Invade but the size of Canute's army would stomp them to death as he had the defensive advantage and an invading army must nearly always outnumber the defending army. Harald had tried spreading propaganda that Canute was going to take Shetland and Faroe in an attempt to gain more allies, perhaps Canute actually was planning this but this had succeeded in getting people from the Isles to distrust Canute and Olaf gained many smaller allies due to this.
As a small note the area known as Markland was too large in Bjarny's eyes, he decreed that the land of Markland west of the Kaltdrulla river (OTl Natashquan river) be renamed Greniland, and the border of Greniland to Saeturland be at the Fita River (OTL Rivière Manicouagan). Names of the land was a problem in the Nyrfold, as descriptions of the land were very similar sometimes many would mistake Markland for Vinland or Hnetaland for Saeturland as the "borders" around the lands were very ambiguous and it made taxing problematic. Taxes however were not very large and were virtually non-existent as the Allthing (and by Allthing I mean the paramount Chief) had it's own personal Lands and Thralls that it could cover most of it's own costs.
The Slave trade in Vinland at this time was beginning to die down, still existent but because of much of the slaves being set free and still working much of the time. Large landowners didn't even care much about freeing their slaves as most of the time they would stay and work the fields, there was however still a large demand for female slaves which kept the chain of slaves alive.
In Denmark the seventeen year old man Magnus Olafsson had become a fine strategist, in this year he had met a former Jomsviking Hjalmar Kjellsson. The story of Hjalmar Kjellsson was that of a typical jomsviking, according to the sagas he was in one account given a vision from the Christian god and in another account he was wounded in battle where his comrades thought him dead where a Christian family nursed him back to health. Both stories say that he was somehow separated from the army and when he returned to Jomsborg (The home territory of the Jomsvikings) and had gotten his "Brothers" (it is unkown if they were actual kin of his or close friends) to convert to Christianity. The Chief of Jomsborg (it is unknown if it was an aged Sigvaldi Haraldsson or another chief) had exiled the converts out of the Jomsvikings, the sagas also imply Hjalmar Kjellsson was a high ranking Officer in the Jomsvikings and that there were enough people loyal to him to not outright execute him. When he left with two ships filled with fifty six men some of which did not convert but were loyal to Hjalmar and left with him.Hjalmar Kjellsson took refuge with Magnus Olafsson and joined his army, leading many of the former Jomsvikings as the elite core of his army.
Bjarny Leifsson's sons Gudbrand who was now sixteen years old and was an experienced seamen and had been to Iceland three times, his brother Birger was fourteen years old who mostly dwelled in Thorkellsborg and had been gaining connections with powerful trans-Atlantic merchants and powerful chiefs in his fathers domain as well as chiefs in Iceland and some from other parts of Scandinavia, he had traveled to Iceland two times. Bjarny Leifsson was beginning to grow old and he was worried that his sons who were both ambitious would fight each other over the title of paramount chief but the brothers were on relatively good terms with one another and were born from the same mother. However the older brother Gudbrand had designs on the Great Fief and Birger who was only fourteen years of age had plans on the grander view of Vinland but did not openly say he wished to eventually usurp the title of Paramount chief from his brother but it was implied, although some historians argue he wanted to strengthen Vinland in Foreign relations and influence.
Gudbrand who was a great seaman had visited Thorskurland and Grunnland hoping to start small colonies along the coast to take advantage of the warmer climate and to act as stations so explorers and merchants could travel farther to the south where they could also restock and repair their ships. Birger had a larger interest in political affairs and had campaigned to have the north Island of Hnetaland (OTL Prince Edward Island) be renamed, and other places as well because due to the naming of the land being based off of descriptions and many lands having similar descriptions the regions borders would be unorganized and in shambles. He had convinced his father to rename the North Island of Hnetaland Frelsiland (Land of free men, could also be interpreted as land where land is free). Birger Bjarnysson had also found that a narrow strip of land that had been between the south east part of Hnetaland and the north west part (OTL border between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) and had supported the Idea of founding a portage route to minimize the time to sail around the large peninsula.
In Elgurland the people were unhappy and what would be called "The Hoe Revolt" given how they had no weapons and mostly used farming equipment and with the help of local Skraelings where able to push out the Allthings stationed warriors, at a large cost. The losses on the Pagans were half of their manpower when they had only killed fifteen enemies, and when the soldiers retreated they took most of the valuable belongings there were with them. The pagans were then offered by Ivar Akesson's contacts that were secretly still going in and out of Snorrisborg to come to the Ivarstad, many who were in fear of a larger force coming back to face them left and those who were fed up with being the servants of the Christians had left and brought back blacksmithing to the Ivarstad but were unable to bring enough sheep with them to secure a diverse gene pool. Ivarstad had changed little and was a hunting and fishing oriented society that fished from the lake and rivers and men would spend weeks at a time on hunting trips. Barley was being grown in Ivarstad but it was not the main source of food given how hard it was with so much wildlife eating and trampling the crops, hunting became popular mostly to hunt said animals. Iron production which was reintroduced to Ivarstad was a highly guarded secret from the Skraelings and the Pagans had traded immense amounts of goods for Iron tools with them.
In Storfoss the town was growing and Gulurskera was a very efficient crop albeit the Norse had to adopt Skraeling techniques to growing it given how different it was to European crops, the stalks were used for a different kind of hay and instead of thatched roofing which presented fire hazard they had used a primitive type fired clay shingle that local natives had introduced. Ragnar Bjornsson the chief had made further expeditions into the Second Great Lake finding that it led into another river that led into a lake (Lake St Clair) that was linked to a river that led to a Third Great Lake (lake Huron). Natives of the western trade networks had eventually heard of the Norse settlement in the area and traders had come from as far as three hundred miles away in order to trade for the elusive Iron that they had no clue on how it was produced and as many other Norse settlements the secrets of producing Iron and Steel were hidden from the Skraelings. One day that year a Skraeling was caught stealing Iron tools, they rode him down on horses and killed him and from that day on the Nose held onto their iron and wouldn't let Skraelings near them without their eyes on them; other than that incident it appears through the sagas that things went back to normal after that.
In the Heitteyjar, the Norse there had begun to grow rich on the raids in North Africa and their wealth had convinced many former vikings to colonize the Islands. The Christian Kingdoms had supported it and even allowed Norse to repair their ships and resupply in their territory. With the raids on the coast the navy of the Serks (Norse name for the Arabs/Muslims) had tried to stop Norse raids and with their Mediterranean vessels had tried to invade the Islands the ships were not able to handle the weather and had to sail back to shore. At some point in the year the King of Leon, Ferdinand the First had made a deal with the some Hundred and fifty Norse warriors living on the Islands to accompany four hundred Leonese Soldiers dressed as Norse in order to place all the blame on the Norse. The plan had also three weeks of attacking near Lisbona (Lisbon), in which the real target was a nighttime attack through the Straights of Gibraltar and raids on the relatively defenseless eastern coast of Iberia where gold was for the taking. The attack was Partly successful with only nine ships being able to get through the blockade, they had still raided the eastern coast of Iberia but with the Straight blockaded again and waiting for them they had decided to return through the land of the Grikk and the Rus pillaging across North Africa where when they came into Miklagard (Nova Roma/Constantinople) the Emperor had personally met them and applauded them for the Raids on the Heathens, after which some had stayed in Miklagard and Joined the Varangian guard while the rest went through the mighty rivers of the Rus through Kiev and into the Baltic where they took the long journey back to Iberia and the Islands.
In the Great Fief nearly everyone could make wealth if they worked at it and were smart enough, unlike the rest of the Norse world Piracy was non-existent as there was no real need and it was more costly than anything gained, until this period. Nothing major but small villages of fifteen people up and vanishing had made the Chieftain Bjarny Leifsson upset and had the Allthing's warriors sent to every village hiding in wait and through this he had captured fifty seven pirates and through questioning that probably included torture had found out where they had taken captive all the valuables and people and when they had discovered that nearly all the males young and old were killed and the women had been raped some even in pregnancy had made the soldiers who were mostly born in the Peaceful Vinland (Note: it was peaceful in that Pirates and the like weren't there but Skraelings and the wars with the Pagans and other small scale civil wars would make it seem just as warlike as the rest of the Norse World but attacks on your fellow countrymen was still a somewhat unknown aspect for the Vinnish). Bjarny had the Pirates rounded up and taken to all major towns where by the Market they were publicly tortured for many weeks and the acts committed upon them were: eye gouging, mutilation of genitalia, using metal tools to rip the Jaw off from the Skull, pouring of Molten Iron into the Rectum, the tradition Viking Blood eagle, one account of being cut all over the body and from a rope was tossed in the ocean where a crowd witnessed the blood attracting a shark which ended with much gore, and the last known form of execution was five men after being whipped for days were forced into a large wooden box and buried alive. Suffice it to say this had convinced the commoners of Vinland not to resort to Piracy, something Historians can gather from this is that Bjarny Leifsson was somewhat fair to his enemies in war but to Pirates, Skraelings, and other Criminals he was very harsh; funny too because priests would record him at different places in his domain as both "Fair and Merciful" and as "Merciless and Unforgiving" after what would be named "The Great Executions".
Again discuss, comment, and share your thoughts. If you want something interesting to be included in the TL you can PM me due to if it's in the comments it will spoil, but keep it within reason and rational events (example: Norse ships sail around Africa and raid Indians and Chinese where a viking then attacks China and names himself Emperor! yeah not stupid things like that this soon anyways).