I wonder if this'll lead to an Andean political climate where metal is actually used for practical reasons, rather than just...being considered a decorative thing, because their first metals were purely decorative.
Vinland, the Land of Wealth and Ambition
- Status
Yes they have somewhat for a while now, however technology won't allow them to do much more than trade and such so. In a few centuries however things will definitely change, though at that time the Vinnish would have established themselves fairly well so even if smallpox does hurt their populations they wouldn't get wiped off the map so easily.
Well considering they barely made any contact with Meso America so contact with the Norse let alone recreate their technology would be illogical for a century or two.
See, the Andes DID develop metal smelting though, they produced arsenical bronze throughout this whole period.
They just...in spite of metal's practical uses, insisted on considering it purely decorative, and shunned metals based on appearance.
Sort of, the nobility has signs of using bronze for tools as a status Icon but was seen by the common man as a much more expensive alternative for the cheap and widely available stone. If they had gone unconquered for a few hundred years they might have discovered the Tin in Bolivia and start up a real Bronze age or at the very least enter the Chalcolithic A.K.A. the copper age. Arsenic Bronze is not very good for humans as touching it too frequently can harm health and using it for eating utensils is straight up lethal, tin Bronze was much safer and more useful if more expensive due to the rarity of tin.
And heck even the Meso Americans eventually found out that Gold can melt given how you can melt gold in a camp fire, even tribes in Venezuela and the South american northern coast of the Caribbean had made a popular metal that was an alloy of gold and copper, forgot it's name but the Spanish had a hard time separating the gold from the copper.
13
And another one although it is not as long as the last two I hope everybody finds it enjoyable. And let me say I'm glad so many people actually follow this TL as I thought no one would even know of it so I'm glad for that.
1038-1040
In Leon, Ferdinand the First had been made King of Leon and Castile for a year now and had his coronation on June twenty second 1038, he was known for not making too many notable things until later in his reign but one thing he was known for was encouraging trade with the Norse of the Heitteyjar of which the Iberians knew little details of other than there were great quantities of fish near the Islands and Norse that were inhabiting it had come to trade with them and had sometimes raided the heathens to the south of which the Nobles of Christian Iberia encouraged. Ferdinand had encouraged the Norse trading in their large amounts of fish and put small taxes on the imported fish in the large towns and used the money from the taxes to help pay and maintain his army. He had wanted to use the Norsemen as mercenaries but they were too few in number to be a noteworthy force and most of them were not interested in fighting other than raids on Arab settlements for a quick but small amount of wealth gained.
In Nawahlid, the first Lime Kiln was recorded in Vinnish history (although in the viking age powerful warlords would have their houses white washed and early churches in Denmark and Norway had lime mortar so they existed but were hardly ever mentioned so this was not too large a feat) it was small about a man high made from fired clay and was used mostly for the whitewashing of houses and granaries as the lime acted as a fungicide and was efficient at keeping bacteria and mold from growing, the lime was also used for lime mortar for the church and some cobbled stone buildings which were mostly the houses of the rich or had served some other purpose.
Saeturland's biggest exports had been ships, grain, and maple products. However a new export was coming to the larger economy of the Great Fief: Copper, copper was the essential for the minting of coins and the creation of trading items. The sediment was rich in copper and the mountains further inland had rich visible veins of copper which were exploited with small pickaxes and ground into powder to then be smelted a few times to remove the impurities. Copper from Saeturland was being exported to all the large towns in the Great Fief and was being minted in Bjarnystad and Leifsbudir, it was even said in the sagas that there was even a profession arising that was devoted to collecting and processing copper into ingots which would be shipped around to other towns to be produced into usable materials.
In England, King Canute had been building more ships for his fleet and had funded it by personally investing in the Vinnish slave trade which many rulers in Northern Europe had been doing in order to make large sums of income quickly. He did not wish to immediately retake Norway or Denmark, however the Earldom of Orkney posed an easy target and the relationship with the Earl Thorfinn the Mighty and his Grandfather King of the Scots Malcolm the second who Canute was bitter with. He had begun minor repairs on the ancient Hadrian's Wall and had secured it with three and a half thousand Norse troops and five hundred English native soldiers, the rest he led by ship to Orkney and the exact number is not known but English sources say they were well over two-thousand. He had Kalf Arnesson lead half the men to battle in Orkney with promises of becoming the Earl should they take the Islands.
The battles had been going well for Canute at first, many settlements would surrender due to the sheer size and force of the Englo-Norse army and some had even joined Canute's army. When Thorfinn Sigurdsson had heard of this he had contacted his Grandfather King Malcolm the second in order to borrow an Army from him as his was small compared to Canute's, only to find Malcolm had nearly every man he could spare that wasn't defending the Scottish shores on the March to Hadrian's wall. Thorfinn had managed to get seventy men from him which in the eyes of Canute barely made a difference, but Thorfinn who was revered as a brilliant tactician by Historians had used the Christian story of Gideon in which he used as few soldiers as possible as his strategic guideline.
As Canute's army was camping in a village on the coast of the Island of Hoy during the night after a victory, the small army defending the place had been beaten easily but what they did not know is that a Larger army was on the interior mountains waiting. At around midnight the sagas say that: "Thorfinn and his men carried goat horns and small brass bells, they had sneaked through the night and he said to his men 'Be silent and do as I do', they went to the Invader's camp and shouted 'A Victory for the Lord and Thorfinn', and then half blew their horns and rang their bells while the others charged and after blowing the horns for a hundred moments they too charged leaving five men to continuously blow the horns and ring the bells while the Invaders were decimated". After the attack only three quarters of the men were able to escape with only half of their supplies, devastated Canute went back to England sacking Scottish towns along the way and helped relieve the troops at Hadrian's wall and pushed the Scottish forces North eventually reclaiming the Antonine wall and made on hand repairs to the wall and sued for peace with Malcolm to let all the land south of the wall come under English rule. Malcolm did not even take a minute to consider the treaty and immediately tried to retake the land south of it. Eventually Canute was able to advance even further North and eventually made peace with Malcolm but with him paying a tribute of twelve pounds of silver as well as the land south of the Antonine wall.
Canute would have campaigned further but he feared any more warring and Harald Sigurdsson would take advantage of the situation to claim England. Canute tried to give his English vassals the land between the walls but they declined out of fear of invasion so he had given the land to Kalf Arnesson given how they could not take the Islands. Kalf was a formidable warrior and leader, but besides being a near living stereotype of a Norse Warrior he was in the eyes of the people living in his land as a reasonable lord who had gone out of his way to make life easier for the common man; whether he did this out of the good in his heart or he wanted to stop any possible rebellions is unknown and another theory is that Canute had suggested him to do this so as to Legitimize his rule over newly conquered lands so that if he had wished to take Scotland than it would have less chance of revolt. At this time Canute pondered about taking Wales or Ireland but due to the threat of Harald Sigurdsson he did not take anymore action around this time.
In Iceland, with twenty seven percent of the population left for Vinland there were more plentiful lands at first but with immigration to Iceland from Shetland and Faroe mostly by extended family of the people in Iceland to exploit the new rich freed land and sometimes for the trading opportunities. For every three people that left Iceland two would arrive, the Island was once more beginning to reach it's maximum support of population, this had caused immigration to Vinland of course but much of the people still there had more or less become stubborn to the Idea of staying in their Homes and the only ones leaving were the new arrivals. A winter storm however would change this, a storm had killed twelve percent of all the sheep in Iceland, Bjarny Leifsson of course took advantage of this by escorting many refugees to Vinland and had them further populate Karlsfjord, Leifsfjord, Olafstad, Nawahlid, many small settlements all over his Domain, and even sent some to Storfoss. Bjarny Leifsson's power from this grew even further and he further put more investments into his Army and Fleet, his army was well maintained and had some of the best Armor in the western world to the point where swords would sometimes break on their gauntlets.
In Elgurland, finding of gold nearly stopped for these years due to so little being found. At this Bjany Leifsson made their economy deal more with Pelts and Cows so as to keep the people from starving. He had also lifted some policies in Elgurland by allowing them to have Iron tools and ship wrights once more, however the ship wrights were only allowed to repair ships and not build any new ones. The pagan majority in the town began to grow restless, they were thinking of revolt but knew they would have to have something up their sleeve otherwise they would be put down immediately. They had pleaded with Bjarny Leifsson to lessen their agony and Bjarny consented allowing them to live prosperous lives but still under his chain.
In Markland, the Leifsfjord towns had begun to grow significant with its population due to it having such a good location for exporting Furs to Iceland, especially the beaver furs from Elgurland. The Geography of it's surrounding landscape highly resembled the Nidaros Fjord and while it was great for sheep, wheat, and barley it could support little else in terms of agriculture, It was still as good at agriculture as most of Norway and it only seemed poor in comparison to the warm lands to the south. It was a hub of Ivory trade from the North that was sent to the south, with the Walrus population around the Bjanystad Islands and the Gulf of the River Nawa ( as it's name was starting to become known as after the city of Nawahlid at it's mouth, at this time it was before and is known as the great river) being depleted incredibly quickly over the past twenty years as hunters seek out their breeding grounds and through volleys of arrows can decimate large numbers of them quickly, however Walrus populations to the North still thrive.
1038-1040
In Leon, Ferdinand the First had been made King of Leon and Castile for a year now and had his coronation on June twenty second 1038, he was known for not making too many notable things until later in his reign but one thing he was known for was encouraging trade with the Norse of the Heitteyjar of which the Iberians knew little details of other than there were great quantities of fish near the Islands and Norse that were inhabiting it had come to trade with them and had sometimes raided the heathens to the south of which the Nobles of Christian Iberia encouraged. Ferdinand had encouraged the Norse trading in their large amounts of fish and put small taxes on the imported fish in the large towns and used the money from the taxes to help pay and maintain his army. He had wanted to use the Norsemen as mercenaries but they were too few in number to be a noteworthy force and most of them were not interested in fighting other than raids on Arab settlements for a quick but small amount of wealth gained.
In Nawahlid, the first Lime Kiln was recorded in Vinnish history (although in the viking age powerful warlords would have their houses white washed and early churches in Denmark and Norway had lime mortar so they existed but were hardly ever mentioned so this was not too large a feat) it was small about a man high made from fired clay and was used mostly for the whitewashing of houses and granaries as the lime acted as a fungicide and was efficient at keeping bacteria and mold from growing, the lime was also used for lime mortar for the church and some cobbled stone buildings which were mostly the houses of the rich or had served some other purpose.
Saeturland's biggest exports had been ships, grain, and maple products. However a new export was coming to the larger economy of the Great Fief: Copper, copper was the essential for the minting of coins and the creation of trading items. The sediment was rich in copper and the mountains further inland had rich visible veins of copper which were exploited with small pickaxes and ground into powder to then be smelted a few times to remove the impurities. Copper from Saeturland was being exported to all the large towns in the Great Fief and was being minted in Bjarnystad and Leifsbudir, it was even said in the sagas that there was even a profession arising that was devoted to collecting and processing copper into ingots which would be shipped around to other towns to be produced into usable materials.
In England, King Canute had been building more ships for his fleet and had funded it by personally investing in the Vinnish slave trade which many rulers in Northern Europe had been doing in order to make large sums of income quickly. He did not wish to immediately retake Norway or Denmark, however the Earldom of Orkney posed an easy target and the relationship with the Earl Thorfinn the Mighty and his Grandfather King of the Scots Malcolm the second who Canute was bitter with. He had begun minor repairs on the ancient Hadrian's Wall and had secured it with three and a half thousand Norse troops and five hundred English native soldiers, the rest he led by ship to Orkney and the exact number is not known but English sources say they were well over two-thousand. He had Kalf Arnesson lead half the men to battle in Orkney with promises of becoming the Earl should they take the Islands.
The battles had been going well for Canute at first, many settlements would surrender due to the sheer size and force of the Englo-Norse army and some had even joined Canute's army. When Thorfinn Sigurdsson had heard of this he had contacted his Grandfather King Malcolm the second in order to borrow an Army from him as his was small compared to Canute's, only to find Malcolm had nearly every man he could spare that wasn't defending the Scottish shores on the March to Hadrian's wall. Thorfinn had managed to get seventy men from him which in the eyes of Canute barely made a difference, but Thorfinn who was revered as a brilliant tactician by Historians had used the Christian story of Gideon in which he used as few soldiers as possible as his strategic guideline.
As Canute's army was camping in a village on the coast of the Island of Hoy during the night after a victory, the small army defending the place had been beaten easily but what they did not know is that a Larger army was on the interior mountains waiting. At around midnight the sagas say that: "Thorfinn and his men carried goat horns and small brass bells, they had sneaked through the night and he said to his men 'Be silent and do as I do', they went to the Invader's camp and shouted 'A Victory for the Lord and Thorfinn', and then half blew their horns and rang their bells while the others charged and after blowing the horns for a hundred moments they too charged leaving five men to continuously blow the horns and ring the bells while the Invaders were decimated". After the attack only three quarters of the men were able to escape with only half of their supplies, devastated Canute went back to England sacking Scottish towns along the way and helped relieve the troops at Hadrian's wall and pushed the Scottish forces North eventually reclaiming the Antonine wall and made on hand repairs to the wall and sued for peace with Malcolm to let all the land south of the wall come under English rule. Malcolm did not even take a minute to consider the treaty and immediately tried to retake the land south of it. Eventually Canute was able to advance even further North and eventually made peace with Malcolm but with him paying a tribute of twelve pounds of silver as well as the land south of the Antonine wall.
Canute would have campaigned further but he feared any more warring and Harald Sigurdsson would take advantage of the situation to claim England. Canute tried to give his English vassals the land between the walls but they declined out of fear of invasion so he had given the land to Kalf Arnesson given how they could not take the Islands. Kalf was a formidable warrior and leader, but besides being a near living stereotype of a Norse Warrior he was in the eyes of the people living in his land as a reasonable lord who had gone out of his way to make life easier for the common man; whether he did this out of the good in his heart or he wanted to stop any possible rebellions is unknown and another theory is that Canute had suggested him to do this so as to Legitimize his rule over newly conquered lands so that if he had wished to take Scotland than it would have less chance of revolt. At this time Canute pondered about taking Wales or Ireland but due to the threat of Harald Sigurdsson he did not take anymore action around this time.
In Iceland, with twenty seven percent of the population left for Vinland there were more plentiful lands at first but with immigration to Iceland from Shetland and Faroe mostly by extended family of the people in Iceland to exploit the new rich freed land and sometimes for the trading opportunities. For every three people that left Iceland two would arrive, the Island was once more beginning to reach it's maximum support of population, this had caused immigration to Vinland of course but much of the people still there had more or less become stubborn to the Idea of staying in their Homes and the only ones leaving were the new arrivals. A winter storm however would change this, a storm had killed twelve percent of all the sheep in Iceland, Bjarny Leifsson of course took advantage of this by escorting many refugees to Vinland and had them further populate Karlsfjord, Leifsfjord, Olafstad, Nawahlid, many small settlements all over his Domain, and even sent some to Storfoss. Bjarny Leifsson's power from this grew even further and he further put more investments into his Army and Fleet, his army was well maintained and had some of the best Armor in the western world to the point where swords would sometimes break on their gauntlets.
In Elgurland, finding of gold nearly stopped for these years due to so little being found. At this Bjany Leifsson made their economy deal more with Pelts and Cows so as to keep the people from starving. He had also lifted some policies in Elgurland by allowing them to have Iron tools and ship wrights once more, however the ship wrights were only allowed to repair ships and not build any new ones. The pagan majority in the town began to grow restless, they were thinking of revolt but knew they would have to have something up their sleeve otherwise they would be put down immediately. They had pleaded with Bjarny Leifsson to lessen their agony and Bjarny consented allowing them to live prosperous lives but still under his chain.
In Markland, the Leifsfjord towns had begun to grow significant with its population due to it having such a good location for exporting Furs to Iceland, especially the beaver furs from Elgurland. The Geography of it's surrounding landscape highly resembled the Nidaros Fjord and while it was great for sheep, wheat, and barley it could support little else in terms of agriculture, It was still as good at agriculture as most of Norway and it only seemed poor in comparison to the warm lands to the south. It was a hub of Ivory trade from the North that was sent to the south, with the Walrus population around the Bjanystad Islands and the Gulf of the River Nawa ( as it's name was starting to become known as after the city of Nawahlid at it's mouth, at this time it was before and is known as the great river) being depleted incredibly quickly over the past twenty years as hunters seek out their breeding grounds and through volleys of arrows can decimate large numbers of them quickly, however Walrus populations to the North still thrive.
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So Anglo-Scottosh border is at the Antonine rather than Hadrian's wall?
I wonder how long this will last.
I wonder how long this will last.
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Eh, small territorial shifts like that happen all the time in the middle ages. With Canute's large military I doubt the Scottish can mount an offensive, however they could make a large defense against further incursions but like OTL the Scottish can't straight up Invade England and not come out butchered due to sheer size difference.
I'm at an odds as of right now,
I want to cover the next centuries and have the Tl go all the way up to the 1600's but I can't do that for two or three years per update, I'm thinking of changing the style up a bit and have it be ten years a post with less details but more story overall.
I just don't know, I mean I suppose I could go at the same pace but it would take ten years to get to the end but at that point it's just an Online book.
So thoughts? I am really unsure about how to proceed from here, well I do in terms if I keep things the same but I'm just unsure on how to change the TL and if that would make it terrible.
I want to cover the next centuries and have the Tl go all the way up to the 1600's but I can't do that for two or three years per update, I'm thinking of changing the style up a bit and have it be ten years a post with less details but more story overall.
I just don't know, I mean I suppose I could go at the same pace but it would take ten years to get to the end but at that point it's just an Online book.
So thoughts? I am really unsure about how to proceed from here, well I do in terms if I keep things the same but I'm just unsure on how to change the TL and if that would make it terrible.
The pagans, through a series of portages in the northern waters, manage to go around the Alaskan peninsula and end up in the pacific northwest, henceforth known as the Rigninglands (Raining Lands)?
Uff Da the optimist
Donor
I vote for the 10 years format. Now that you've covered why, how and where the first settlers have ended up, increasing the number of years pr update is warranted. This allows for "killing your darlings" and giving you freedom to choose which of the stories developing in your TL you'd like to tell!
Also I really want to see what the future looks like
I said the Northwest passage thing in an earlier post and with such a discussion about it going on it just seems wrong to include it in the TL if you get where I'm coming from. While they don't go all they way to Alaska they get pretty far in there for Hunting and gold searching, in later years they may however find the pacific Via land.
I vote for the 10 years format. Now that you've covered why, how and where the first settlers have ended up, increasing the number of years pr update is warranted. This allows for "killing your darlings" and giving you freedom to choose which of the stories developing in your TL you'd like to tell!
Also I really want to see what the future looks like
Perhaps, I have another part I'm working o thats the same as the ones before but I might begin to ease into a ten year part. Maybe go back to two years for big events.
14
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).
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).
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Uff Da the optimist
Donor
With the extra wealth from Vinland being traded to Europe, mostly through the Norse countries, is this making said countries more powerful than OTL by economics?
I've been thinking about what other migrations might occur, and the thought of hordes of people fleeing the Mongol invasions hit me! That could be very interesting to see if it will change the demographics some or even completely into a new one!
Not to mention the Black Plague, if it's not affected by butterflies. Imagine fleeing Europe and the plague only to bring it(by accident) to unsuspecting folk in Vinland!
Cool part about Elgurland and the great escape, but perhaps best in this chapter was the gruesome retelling of how to deal with piracy, viking style!
Blood Eagle is pretty horrible I can imagine!!
I've been thinking about what other migrations might occur, and the thought of hordes of people fleeing the Mongol invasions hit me! That could be very interesting to see if it will change the demographics some or even completely into a new one!
Not to mention the Black Plague, if it's not affected by butterflies. Imagine fleeing Europe and the plague only to bring it(by accident) to unsuspecting folk in Vinland!
Cool part about Elgurland and the great escape, but perhaps best in this chapter was the gruesome retelling of how to deal with piracy, viking style!
Blood Eagle is pretty horrible I can imagine!!
Well given how they stick to the coast most of the time it will take a while before they can even get that far south again, as for south America they might discover it but not see anything too interesting.
Well given how for now at least the trade is small and revolves around Ivory, Gold, and Slaves mostly it won't make too big a difference.
Well about the Mongol hordes, the Kievian Rus and Byzantine Empire might have butterflies in them that cause the Mongolian invasion to go very differently.
And the black plague already existed at this time however it was isolated in a few parts of the world but wil most likely still happen
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