Vinland, the Land of Wealth and Ambition

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

My TL, at first out one of my favorite Alternate History discussions, Vinland.
Enjoy, and please excuse my poor grammar and lack of knowledge on Norse naming, and please also forgive my lack of the use of Nordic characters as I'm just going to anglicize it both to be easier on me and people who don't know how to pronounce the characters, (if there's a guide for the names Norse used for naming towns and land if someone posted a link that would be great). And if it's bad, say so I'm not going to be offended I know I'm not a good writer but writing it in a timeline style would be different I hope, in short I am open to criticism in the hope that I may in a year or so maybe do a remake with less of these errors hopefully.
That aside enjoy.

1008:
While Visiting Greenland, Thorfinn Karlsefni marries a woman named Gudrid, and it is said that it was her nagging that lead him to settle at vinland, he had Taken 60 men and 5 Women to start a Colony, when they set out due to storms ended up being carried west and ending up in Markland rather than leifs little camp at Leifsbudir. They landed in a Fjord they had tried to name Thorfinnsvik; but at the Notion it is said he laughed and said "T'was my wife who nagged me here, let it be named after her instead", though he was joking and probably intended to name it after himself, his close friends and soon everyone had messed with him by actually referring to the Fjord as Gudridsfjord, and so from then on they built a Temporary settlement at the edge of a small brook in the Fjord (OTL Mary's Harbor). However later due to Native attacks after some unrecorded misunderstandings the Colony was left building defenses and foraging for food, and due to one of the ships crashing against the rocks they couldn't evacuate everyone and if too many men left to look for Leifsbudir there would be a risk of weaker defenses, the only time they ever left was to Fish or to try and find a place close by that was more naturally defended that they could one boatload at a time evacuate people, they were able to hold off four native attacks and now has come to a standstill but there are signs of them hiding in the brush surrounding the camp.

1009-1010:

It was a Long and cold winter for the Camp at Gudridsfjord, however when ignoring the problems the Native Skraelings brought they has no trouble fishing and was easily able to make it through winter, and during early spring Thorfinn sent out a team of four to go out and see if the Skraelings were still stalking their camp, the answer came from two dragging one back that received and Arrow to the thigh. From that point on people knew that unless they left or dealt with the natives it would never end; but good luck came their way and a ship from Leifsbudir that happened to find them while exploring and helps ferry them to a small flat clearing to the east of the settlement that was on a island and was budged against the Crags, (OTL town of Battle Harbor). The Natives had no interest in the island, and probably couldn't even swim there, hostilities stopped for the most part. They had to go back to the Mainland to collect wood, and the small clearing against the crags was small for all 65 of them, their livestock, and their crops. Many left for Leifsbudir but many had stayed, the people used to living in the bleak mountains and Fjords of Greenland and Iceland found the Crags familiar and comforting. The settlement had seen enormous prosperity when someone let the goats out into the mountainous surrounding Islands, due to the small size of the Islands it was near the same as Farming, they near always came back, and they grew very fat on the grasses and became a small but prosperous community, there was Plans for retaking the original Camp but that would wait for another time.
(going to let you guys help me with the name for that town, Interactive TL best TL, also names for PEI, Nova Scotia, and lake Ontario are up for suggestion)

1011-1013:

As attacks on Leifbudir grow people began to grow desperate, even thinking of going back to Greenland; But one young man had the Idea to Burn some of the Forests and brush by swinging an ax a few times at the trunks to dry them out, and then waiting until Autumn to Burn the dying leaves. Though most of the trees did not burn down it did leave most of them dead or near dead, in any case it was said that the brush had been cleared and it was much harder to attack by surprise. Albeit native attacks still happened they were less common and put down much easier.

Meanwhile at the Gudrisfjord colony, bog Iron was being discovered and local smiths had been making new Axes, knives, spears, arrowheads, Kitchen items and the like, contact had been made with Skraelings to the south and through hand movements and basic body language, been able to communicate enough to be able to trade large amounts of Pelts for small knives. While after a month they were able to learn some words in each others language such as: deer, water, rock, rabbit, stream, tree, leaf, seal, mountain, and spear. Thorfinn Karlsefni had frustratingly tried to learn more but the Language was so different from Norse that they had much trouble pronouncing the words, it is assumed the same was true for the Skraelings.

Due to the beginning of overpopulation once again in the Gudridsfjord and the many boats getting wrecked from sea rocks trying to get to the friendly trading natives Thorfinn, now the Chieftain of the settlement decides to create another settlement to the south with men from the overpopulated colony and new arrivals from Greenland and Iceland. At the area to the south there had been a bay with a brook mouthing out on the interior end (OTL bay next to Henley Harbor). Thorfinn had named it after his father Thord, the colony of Thordstad was growing little by little and had grown rich off of the pelts the natives had given them. It was said Thorfinn had one out of every five pelts given to Leif Eriksson to fund the colonies and to finance new colonists travel to the colonies.

1014-1015:

After a few years of trial and error, the wine made from the "Grapes" in vinland (none of the men had seen actual grapes before, so they had assumed, like a normal person mistaking Palm tree fruit for coconuts) had made very fine wine, fine enough that it had been shipped to Greenland and Iceland. He used the Wine both to make profit and to advertise the wealth of the land to try and gain more colonists, specifically women. The shortage of women in the Nyrfold (a term used by later historians but not at the time) was low compared to the amount of men, there were some captured skraeling thralls to take as wives however due to them having knowledge of how to survive in the wilderness often escape at any time they can and rarely stay long enough to bear any children. One wealthy man in Iceland had sent a message to Leif's family to lend him money and in return he would buy Female slaves from Europe.

However instead of buying slaves he had with the help of some men from the Faroes raided villages along the coast of Norway and put the females into slavery, he had killed or let go of all the males. The wealthy man whose name was lost to history sent most of his borrowed fleet back to Iceland to arrange the Women to be sent to Greenland and from there Vinland, but three ships remained. One went to Denmark to buy women, Two went to England to buy even more recently captured slaves from the various wars in the region. When the women had arrived in Vinland everyone was ecstatic, there was now a 12 to 10 ratio of women to men. Albeit this was not too large as the population of the colonies was before around four hundred and seventy and with the immigration it became clear that eventually the lack of women would become a problem once again.

Leif's son Bjarny Leifsson had been exploring the coast of Vinland under his older brother Thorkell, Bjarny was Fourteen at the time but had already grown to be as tall as most men and had manned the oars, the sails however were used much more liberally due to the westerlies helping them more often than not. It was said they came across a tremendous amount of fish of the eastern coast, and three days before found an Island with what one Norwegian smith knew was high quality Iron ore (OTL bell Island). Thorkell was thinking of establishing a colony in the Area to exploit the enormous amount of fish and the Iron ore which could make very high quality Iron goods far superior to bog Iron.

1016:

In the (two) Markland settlements, the Natives stopped trading and nearly all Native attacks ceased. With a mix of curiosity and fear for losing their trading partners Thorfinn led men to the area where they Believed the skraeling village was, the skraelings always came to them to trade and had never really mentioned where their home was. After four days of searching they found a camp, everyone was sick or dying. After some communication with the less sick ones they had put together that many of the people ran away, the sickness was well known to the Icelanders; this form of influenza had killed the great Erik the Red some 13 years Prior, it wasn't just the Natives that the disease was infecting. While due to a mix of luck and avoiding the infected the Marklanders only had got off with 13 dead , mostly being the old and young.

Thorkell and his younger brother Bjarni had set off with thirty four colonists to settle near the "Iron Island" to the east of it had been large swathes of flat land, large amounts of flat land was rare in Vinland and Markland, most had been farming in only a couple square feet worth of land before having another patch on another flat-like area; so in addition to the Iron and vast fish which people were already exploiting, there would be much wheat to sell. Essentially what this meant is that whoever had control over the Area had the most influence over vinland other than the Paramount chief himself. The plan was to first start a settlement on the Island for closer access to the metal, then a second to a Peninsula pointing north where they could start farming and build a port to monopolize on the fish in the area. They had with them three important Frankish blacksmith slaves, it had cost them two ships to trade for them. Once they had landed they had immediately started cutting down trees and creating smith charcoal, a small scouting ship checking to see if the fish populations were still in check came back loaded with fish even though there was only one poorly made fishing line to see if the fish were still there; according to them most of the fish had "jumped' onto the boat and they had to shovel many off to stop the boat from sinking. When contact was trying to be made with Skaelings it was found most of them had died off from the wave of those fleeing their sick tribes eventually working their way down that far south, the few that remained had been starving and had nothing to trade. The Christians in the group had taken pity on them and pleaded with Thorkell to take them in. While Thorkell rejected it coldly and wanted to leave them to their fate (most likely due to the death of his uncle), Bjarni being a well educated Christian had referred to the story of the Parable of the Good Samaritan; this had infuriated Thorkell due to his strong belief in the old faith. Eventually a falling out occurred and Thorkell being the elder had sent Bjarny and all the Christian colonists (who made up around half of the colonists) out of the camp that was founded not 3 days prior, with the ships Bjarni took the remaining skraelings who had no idea what was going on but after a while went on the ship with them and had decided to circumnavigate Vinland as he had heard one sailor say it was an Island. With the Skraelings that survived numbering only seven beginning to understand tidbits of the Norse language, whilst sailing west once they had gone south enough, they had seen land on the Horizon and when they investigated they had found it was a small Island that was in reality not interesting at all (OTL St Paul Island). However in the distance from there was an island that the saw smoke rising above, when they arrived they had found an elongated ring of an Island with a large lagoon in the middle (OTL Magdalene Islands), the Skraelings had appeared to be a on a temporary camp there to hunt the seals and walruses that came there. While during some accident of sorts a fight broke out with three dead on the Norse side but the entire Skraeling community either killed or captured. During some rage Bjarni had their eyes cut out and toes cut off and had made them into rowers, albeit cruel this had become a very effective model that was soon accepted all over Vinland, Markland, even Greenland and Iceland.

On the central landmass of the Island he had founded Bjarnystad, there was plenty of wood, animals, grazing area, flat land for farming, and albeit not as good as the grand banks had decent fishing. He had sent a ship to inform his father (Leif Eriksson) of what Thorkell had done, and also to advertise his new colony, when Leif all the way in Greenland had heard of this had gotten very angry and immediately set sail for "Thorkellsborg" to correct his son and get him to forgive his brother, when he arrived it was said that Thorkell "Had assumed it was Bjarny here to take the title of chieftain from me" and had loosed arrows on the ships hitting Leif in the Shoulder, when the ships came ashore and they realized Bjarny wasn't there Leif was a little more than upset. Eventually Leif had gotten Thorkell to convert to Christianity and not be hostile to his brother anymore, afterwords both of the new colonies had thrived and had made wealth and grew large and prosperous. It was that same year that much land to the south and west had been explored and mapped.

(open to suggestion names for: Prince Edward Island, cape Breton Island, Anticosti, St. Lawrence river, Lake Ontario, Main/New Brunswick/ part of Quebec south of the river, Saguenay River and the lake that it starts from, and even the Magdalene Islands as a whole)

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

1017-1018

In a small ship there was a few men led by Olaf Thorgilson,most were cold and sick. They had been on a trip from Greenland to Thorkellsborg, two of their rowers had gotten to sick to row and in a storm had blown them off course and there was so much clouds they couldn't tell where the sun was which also went they had no idea which way was North. Eventually by chance they ended up on what they believed to be Heulluland. They had seen Walruses, Narwhals, seals and even a type of dolphin with a lump on its head, all over the place, after two days rowing south they had encountered some Skraelings. These skraelings however were different from skrealings usually seen by Norse, they were much farther north than they were usually found and knew nothing of the Norse from their expressions. Eventually after hand gesturing and basic body language they had figured they were on a seasonal trip to hunt the animals that came this way, after further "conversation" it was deduced that they had come from the west. They had traded iron items for things such as furs and gold nuggets that they had apparently brought from wherever they came from, the amount of gold they had was little but it had sparked great interest in the crew. The following day the crew went south and eventually landed in Leifsbudir and set upon the business they had originally intended on doing, but Olaf had ambitions of finding the source of the gold.

In the Markland a great many different farms had been established in the Area, it had started to resemble Iceland in the fact that there were a few towns but many farms, all areas that were able to support a farm twenty five miles north and south of Gudridsfjord. Thorfinn had sponsored a colonization effort to start a settlement on "Bear Island" (OTL Ile d'Anticosti). This was especially important because it was in the gulf and the closest. The most appealing virtue of all was it's very low Skraeling population, it is still unknown whether this was by chance or had to do with the Greenland plague (I'm naming it that because it killed many people in greenland OTL). The plague is what helped the Nyrfold colonies survive the unrelenting skraeling attacks, it had left nearly all of Markland devoid of non-Norse and the Northern half of Vinland had pretty much no skraelings save the ones who stayed in their villages and waited the plague out rather than run into the forests where exposure worsened the sickness, even so the ones who stayed in the villages only a tenth of them had lived. The soil on Bear Island was very sandy but the fishing was good (not as great as Thorkellsborg but enough to feed themselves), and the hunting was extremely profitable, as at first people had traded iron tools and cloth for pelts with the natives, but due to the massive die offs and what skraelings remained were very cautious around Norse or even hostile had resulted in furs becoming extremely valuable and some had taken up hunting as a way to obtain the furs, others decided to go further south or further inland to trade with natives that had not been affected by the Greenland Plague. The plague had at this point died off and newly discovered natives usually did not get sick, although the damage to populations in the affected areas had been near irreversible as skraelings were often captured, blinded, and chained to be forced as rowers.

In Thorkellsborg Thorkell had been amassing arms and been producing amour, and producing many ships. This suspicious activity was even made more severe when he had a dream that Odin had been disappointed in him for abandoning the Old gods faith, he immediately reverted to paganism and had ordered the local priest to leave, however he left the Christians in his town be due to them being a third of the population. This caused fear for Karlsefni, Bjarny, and Leif; all of which then began producing their own weapons and warships, this dire situation got even worse as Leif had gotten very sick while in Greenland. After this Thorkell had made his move, he had immediately sent his men to Leifbudir to take the town but met fierce resistance. Eventually at the cost of fourteen of his sixty seven men, however many ships had went to Markland to alert Thorfinn Karlsefni and the Greenlanders, and eventually Bjarny however he wanted to remain neutral in the "conflict", however he did heavily fortify his islands and used the bell originally used for a church to be temporarily used for an alert system and had a fast soldier transport system using the Islands interior lagoon to quickly travel men without any large waves (the Magdalene Islands are pretty much a bunch of Islands in a oval shape with a huge lagoon). Thorkell especially wanted to get revenge on his brother who in his eyes humiliated him, while the conflict would only have a few Hundred warriors fighting it would determine the next step of the history of the Nyrfold.

I'll try and continue tomorrow, sorry for the shortness but due to IRL things again I couldn't do as much as I wanted too.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

1019

The war between Thorkell and the others had temporarily ceased due to the winter weather, however there were some attempted raids on Leifsbudir from the Markland colonies due to their extremely close distance (around twenty three miles). When spring came Bjarni had a change of heart and had amassed twelve ships that had originally built for trade and exploration and set out to Vinland, not to wage war but to find and ally with the Natives who spoke the language of the ones he had rescued. His strategy was to bribe the skraeling into helping him with Iron and even land ownership, then have them attack the many settlements that swore allegiance to Thorkell (most had sworn by force), and then attack their docks by ship. He had initial success but some ships had slipped through and warned the other settlements, when Thorkell heard of this he had left his friend Arvid Akeson in charge of the Markland front. When Thorkell arrived south he had decimated Bjarny's ships but the settlements that he had invaded had been able to defend against many attacks from Thorkell, much to the surprise of the defenders the civilians had willingly helped Bjarny's forces and allies.

But the walls were breaking and Bjarnystad was the only settlements not under siege from Thorkell, it had seemed that Thorkell would win but a surprise came when a mixed fleet of colonists from the Faroes, Shetlands, Iceland, and some from Greenland and Norway who had originally intended to colonize but when hearing of the war modified their Knars for warfare. While not being very battle worthy they were able to push Arvid's forces nearly completely off the Markland coast. Meanwhile Thorkell had reclaimed three settlements and in a hurry Bjarny had pushed his ship builders into making six more ships that were more appropriate for warfare and his smiths had been working the bog Iron into mail, axes, and spears; It was known at this time the people of the Bjarnystad islands used peat for fires because all the non green wood was being used for either ship building or charcoal for smithing. The Fleet at Markland had moved south taking settlements and farms eventually Thorkellborg was under siege from Bjarny's fleet, the immigrant fleet now led by Thorfinn Karlsefni, and Bjarni's native allies accompanied by Norse warriors on the ground. Thorkell had caught an arrow in the Arm which had punctured an artery or vain (The Norse could not distinguish the two), it led to him being so weak that he had been easily captured by the ship being led by Thorfinn himself. He was bound and sent to Byarnystad for his brother to decide his fate, however it is unknown which happened to him but there are two stories: One is that he had bitten his tongue off when the ship left dock, the other is that he had nudged himself overboard to be eaten by a pack of Orcas, it has most likely been exaggerated but what is clear is that he had committed suicide in some way before seeing his brother.

Arvid is said to have surrendered and pledged allegiance to Thorfinn Karlsefni and his son Snorri, he had went to establish a settlement of fifteen people at the mouth of the Kaltdrulla river (OTL Natashquan river), in Bjarny's eyes he viewed it as a challenge to his Dominion over the mouth of the great River. He was right, a few months later he had found ships exploring the region and going to the Great River. In defense he immediately sent his Native allies who he swore land to to the mouth of the Great river to build a settlement, this was a particularly great as the many Islands at the mouth were fertile and easily defensible; from there he launched many explorations into the river and found many waterfalls in which settlements had to be built. There was a problem brewing in the Nyrfold, the population was being stretched thin and could not keep up with the Ambitious chieftains trying to expand their power. This was being fought off with immigration from Iceland and Skraelings who had been intrigued with Norse society and willingly joined settlements, however it had not removed the problem and Ambitious rulers like Thorfinn, Arvid, and Bjarny had resorted to bribing people from Iceland and Greenland to join, lack of women had begun to be a problem once more.

Olaf Thorgilson had exaggerated his claims about the north gold, eventually he put together one ship filled with light trinkets and tools to trade for furs and gold in the Helluland region, he had also planned to build small sod houses that they could stay in and come back to next time, on an Island he founded Olafsvera (Olaf's stay). He had traded small copper rings for masses of pelts and caribou meat but no gold, he had left eight men to stay at the camp while he took the ship and went west to a large Island he named Gullnaeyja (golden Island) and he had found some nuggets of gold there and apparently jewels of some kind according to the saga. He had decided to build another temporary camp there and search the Island for Skraelings to trade with but they had found none and went back to Olafsvera and for another month traded then went home to Greenland before the winter came.

Will try to make another part as soon as I can but again due to IRL things I can't do too much, mother is in the hospital and between school and visiting her can't write too much, but I don't want this thread to be a pity party so lets not talk about it.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

Good news, mother got out of the Hospital, so again please do not be against using helpfull critisism.

1020-1022

Thorfinn Karlsfni had been bitter about being at a disadvantage to Bjarny, he was cut off from the Mouth of The Great River and it would be impossible to try and colonize south as he would run into territorial issues as there were already colonies in Hnetaland ( PEI and CBI) and Saeturland (Quebec south of the river). Snorri his son was beginning to become of age and was able to read and write according to the sagas, he himself had accompanied several trips to Northern Markland and Greenland; it was there he had met Olaf Thorgilson and heard about his tales of the search for the Northwestern Gold. Snorri had asked for Olaf to show him the Heullulands (after discovering they were made of a very many Islands instead of naming everyone of them individually which wouldn't work out very well as people would likely never go back to the same ones again), Olaf agreed and they set out with the seven ships Snorri had and the one ship Olaf had in his possesion and they had set out for the Heullulands. When they had found Olafsvera they had found Skraelings living next to it waiting for the Norse to return, they had traded mainly wool clothes and small iron tools for Furs and some Food. Seven of the men and one of the ships had stayed behind, the rest had went south along a curve eventually finding a huge bay (OTL James bay, they didn't realize Hudson bay was a bay yet), it was at a river that in Snorri's words "Was so cloudy that it resembled badly made Mead" (Moose River) had established a settlement called Snorrisborg on the many Islands it bore and the land Elgurland, he had also theorized that the river may lead into the great Lake that was sighted by an explorer sent by Bjarny Leifsson the year before. He left the settlement to further explore the coast westward but only taking two ships with the others staying in Snorrisborg, they went west along the coasts and eventually left the bay, it was uneventful until they had hit another large river. It was even bigger than the Snorrisborg river and a Skraeling camp was visible and they had traded some cloth for provisions and even the gold nuggets they had in their possession for iron knives. The next day Snorri decided to row up the river and see if there was anything interesting, he had found many large lakes and eventually found one large lake, he had rejoiced as he had believed he had found the Great Lake of the Great river (OTL Lake Winnipeg) but after sailing found that it had not led to the great river but it had many large rivers flowing out of it one flowing south and another flowing in from the west where he believed to harbor great amounts of gold. They had turned back and gone back to the sea then had went north and found that they had been in a Larger bay, he had then went back to Snorrisborg and then eventually packed up and went back home to Greenland for Olaf and from there back to Markland intending to return to Snorrisborg permanently later.

In Thorkellsborg immigrants from Norway had introduced small scale Lime burning and most houses were whitewashed and the local Church had lime mortar and was said to have been taller and larger than churches in Norway and Denmark, small settlements to Islands south and west of Thorkellsborg (OTL Saint Pierre and Miquelon) had very poor clay-like soil but still was thriving from seal hunting, animal husbandry, and fishing and it's very close proximity to Thorkellsborg's and Hnetaland's farms meant no shortage of grain. Blacksmiths on the settlements there had used the clay for fire resistant material for building forges, it was noticed that when the charcoal was hot enough to melt Iron that afterwards the clay had become hard like stone. This had led to the first fired brick making in Vinland, it was not used for making houses but it was popular for making flooring and even pathways.
The new settlement at the Mouth of the great river original name is lost but the native allies who owned most of the land later nicknamed it Knawhasi, it was then Nordisized as Nawahlid (OTL Qubec city), while the chieftain of Nawahlid's original name is lost but his christian name given to him after he converted was John Kristinn, it is also said that one of his daughters was one of the Skraelings Bjarny had saved and he assumed was dead. The sagas say he was content being chieftain of the settlement and it's farm and pledged his allegiance to Bjarny Leifson, he did however supervise the building of a church that was in an unorthodox architectural style, in Bjarni's words when he had come to visit the colony on some business he had said "It was a circular wall of stones two men high with the seats surrounding it in rows and the inside was filled with dirt, then on top of the dirt was the Alter with a small wooden roof above it." It should also be noted it was that same year Vinland had gotten it's first Bishop, much to the disdain to the twenty-five percent pagan minority.

On the Bjarnystad Islands it was said that Bjarny had been very tired having to travel all over Vinland, Hnetaland (OTL Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia), and Saeturland (OTL Quebec/Ontario south of the St Lawrence river, it extends to about where new Brunswick borders nova Scotia), he had decided that with all the excess wood in the land he could have a very large boat built that would be more comfortable and used for long distance travel. What started as a slight interest grew into something more serious, the trees in Hnetaland were much bigger than the tree's in Europe so it was plausible. He had ordered the construction of a ship seven men wide and twenty eight men long, the shipbuilders had to specifically make the planks out of certain maples to get something that long and sturdy. Midway into the construction Bjarny saw how large it was and asked if it would be possible to have a second story in the middle, the shipbuilders after looking confused said it was possible and holes were cut in the middle for oars. When it was completed it was so large and the second story was able to stabilize a mast as tall as a tree and that it could not be taken down quickly so it was built that the sail could come down when needed but the mast would remain standing, it could not sail up small rivers or rivers that had to strong of a current but was great at using the winds that when in open sea would rarely need the oars at all. Bjarny had planned to sail to Iceland and use his wealth and his ship to show off the greatness of his land and himself, but he could only dock in large shoal free harbors meaning hopping to there from Greenland was impossible; he had decided that if it was jam packed with food and was accompanied by other ships it could Directly go to Iceland.

They had set off in the Late spring and had decided to not sail north for a week so as to avoid icebergs, they had stopped and resupplied in Thorkellsborg and had also carried some of the fine quality Vinlandic Wine to show to the Icelanders who knew of it from merchants already. After five days a storm had brewed that forced them southwards, they had tried going north and after it was through they had made significant progress north eventually after three months ended up on the southern coast of Ireland, all the accompany ships had been lost (two of the five had actually been able to make their way north and landed in Iceland), they had been able to make their way to Dublin and surprisingly enough the ship took little damage. From there they went straight to Iceland to tell of their Journey, most of the Icelanders were impressed by the size of his ship but they still believed he was lying, a few however didn't and came with him taking all the food they can and made the Trip for Leifsbudir. Leifsbudir was now the third largest settlement in the Nyrfold, the first being Thorkellsborg, the second being Bjarnystad, the fourth being Gudridsfjord, and the fifth being Nawahlid. The word of Bjarny's disappearance and assumed death at sea was followed only a week behind by Bjarny himself, Thorfinn Karlsefni took advantage of the situation and declared himself chief paramount of Markland, Vinland, Hnetaland, Saeturland, and Greenland. But before he could actually do anything to consolidate Bjarny had arrived and Thorfinn quickly renounced his claim, it was at that time many had praised Bjarny for his crossing of the open sea and Thorfinn was dishonored cowardly renouncing his claim that fast, while he was still in control of Markland and his son Elgurland it was clear now that he was ambitious and seen by many as cowardly.

In Saeturland merchants had seen the Skraeling way of tapping maple sap and boiling it into syrup and sugar, due to the best maple for the job was found mostly in Saeturland and Hnetaland; it was instantly popular for making pastries that were exported to Nawahlid and Bjarnystad, it was eventually popular everywhere in the Nyrfold and Bjarny had used it along with the wine and the pelts the riches of Vinland. Explorers from Saeturland also went deep into the great river and portaged over many waterfalls eventually leading to the Great lake and then they had circled it and entered what they named the Hvitur River (Fast flowing river, while being able to row up it for a couple miles they had to portage it over waterfalls and had seen a waterfall so huge and spectacular. They had on one of the Islands in the river found a skraeling village, it was not like the skraelings they were used too these ones grew a strange crop that grew very tall and had bean vines growing around it, and their houses were more advanced. The Skraelings were cautious to the Norsemen at first but had eventually nodded them into the camp where they sat and ate a meal together where the Norse ate their strange "Maize bread" which did not rise very well but was edible and was sweet, the squashes were made into pies of a kind and the Norsemen were surprised at the relative sophistication of them. The party leader Ragnar Bjornson had decided that they should stay for a while to learn their language and to use their fishing gear to feed themselves so as to not become unwelcome. After a month they begin to understand bits and pieces of their language and vise versa, what they do get through the language barrier is the vast trading systems to the south and west.

continuing in the next part,

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

Happy day after Day after Leif Eriksson day! But seriously when I heard I felt like I did wrong because it was the day celebrating Vinland but I didn't even put this up.

1023-1024

In the Nyrfold children of the first colonists are beginning to become Adults, due to the large protein diets from the fish, seal, walrus, livestock, and wild game that had been abundant. It had been said that a Child from vinland at fifteen was as tall as a man at twenty-six.

In Europe the Pelts from the Nyrfold had not been as popular as they were in Greenland and Iceland, the abundant Scandinavian and Finnish Fur trade had been cheaper due to the closer distance, however among the markets of Jorvik the nobility had seen the difference and higher quality of Nyrfold pelts and often bought them up; still however most merchants that traveled to Vinland had not monopolized on pelts but rather on Vinland wine and Walrus Ivory. There were also some cases of Skraeling flint blades popular as decorations for the wealthy in Norway, they were so popular people attempted to knap their own blades and sell them as Skraeling blades; However the art of flint knapping was near impossible to learn without an instructor.

In The Nyrfold the lack of women had once again begun to grow there were cases of Skraeling women marrying Norse men but the cases were few, it had started to become popular and almost a "tradition" for a young man to go out to trade in Europe and then either buy a slave or participate in a raid on the Baltic and then return, this had went on for a few years but then ambitious men had begun to buy many slaves and ship them to Vinland for sale. Though it was seen as lowly to take a slave as a wife and to Marry a free woman was something very prestigious and something only the wealthy were able to do as parents were able to pick the best suitors for their daughter.

In Bjarnystad, Bjarny's grand ship and undergone some renovations though the details are lost in time it is hinted there was an extra mast and that he was working on building another. He had been ambitious about using these massive ships for travelling down the coast and going farther than it had been possible before, he also did not hold smaller ships in lower regard. Bjarny knew that smaller more transportable ships were needed for exploring the Great River area and the Great Lakes (same name as OTL funnily, totally not unoriginalness on my part).

On the Hitvur river in the small Skraeling farm Ragnar Bjornsson was interested at how they grew three different plants in the same spot and later observed how the tall one would provide for the bean, the tall one that bore a fruit had been delicious when boiled, while he had never been fond of vegetables and beans the other crops were mediocre. Some of his men were getting restless and wanted to go home (mostly because they were young and hadn't been away from home for more than a few weeks), he decided that all that wanted to go would take the ship while he and three other men would stay in the Skraeling village to learn their language and explore the Area and in a few months would come back for them. He had contact with one of the traders from the West and South, he had learned a bit of the skraelings language and the trader knew the language of that particular village and they somewhat communicated but there was not very many details but that to the Northeast their was the Norse colonies and to the West there was the Great towns and cities and the trader showed him copper art pieces cold worked. Ragnar decided to take the trader back to Nawahlid with him, the trader agreed. The Skraeling trader converted and was renamed Joseph Ragnarsson who would later lead the Norse into the vast Mississippian civilization trade routes and settlements.

In Thorkellsborg the immigration had made it too populated and eventually Bjarny had ordered every man younger than twenty one to move to one of the other colonies with their possessions within the next two years. The people complained little as overpopulation had started to take it's toll and Rats were starting to become a large problem so much so that the local government had been raising cats to Roam the town. Conflicts in Scandinavia and overpopulation in Iceland had lead to much migration to Greenland and from there the Territories of Bjarny and Thorfinn, along with the overpopulation of Thorkellsborg led Bjarny Leifsson to found another colony in Hnetaland in a very large bay that had many defensible Islands, although most of the settlement was on the mainland the wealthy lived on the Islands but there were still adequate defenses on the Mainland that should handle native attacks fairly well.

In Markland Thorfinn Karlsefni was getting drunk, ever since he tried to become paramount Chief of all the Western Lands he was known for drinking and sulking in sorrow, his son Snorri had run most things in his place. On March 14 1024 Thorfinn Karlsefni had died of alcohol poisoning, Snorri had been in Elgurland at the time and when word received him he had hypothesized that Bjarny would have claimed all of the Marklands by now and instead sent ships to gather all the residents of Gudridsfjord and some of the other colonies to come to Elgurland for the Furs and Barley fields, he also exaggerated about the Northern Gold and had over six thousand immigrants to Snorrisborg. Bjarny Leifsson was in Hnetaland when he heard of Bjarny's sponsored exodus, he was genuinely surprised that the clan of Thorfinn had been that paranoid about their clan struggle which in Bjarny's eyes wasn't anything too serious when in their eye's had been a matter of life and death. In one ship Bjarny went to Snorrisborg to meet with Snorri and tell him he had no intentions of taking Markland and even gave Snorri gifts of the finest Vinlandic wine. Snorri however, in the rage of his fathers death had seen this as gloating and insulting and had viciously ordered them to leave. Bjarny had left immediately, but had decided to go ahead and annex Markland in spite of him, the locals did not mind seeing Snorri as cowardly like his father and had abandoned them. All except Arvid Akesson, who waged war for twelve days before receiving an arrow to the eye. Bjarny was now the Most powerful person West of Iceland and now was Paramount cheif of Greenland, Markland, Vinland, Hnetaland, and Saeturland; this had made him ambitious to say the least and he had dreamed of either him or one of his successors becoming King of Vinland but he had never taken any actions because most of the population being formerly Icelandic had found the Notion of Kings repulsive, he had merely reformed the Allthing into being similar to Iceland's with the exception that the Paramount Chief could overrule things proposed by the Allthing, could depose and install representatives of the Allthing, and could impose any decision he wanted; he was near exact to a King with the difference mostly only being in title. He did however let the Allthing settle disputes on it's own and only step in when he had to.

On the banks of the Hitvur River Ragnar fishing to pass the time when he sees his friends back to get him, he is now fluent in the skraeling tongue and takes back the soon to be Joseph and a few other Skraelings willing to come and see the Norse communities. With ambitions to travel to the south and west to see these cities with the Help of Joseph, he had gathered twelve men who were proficient in hunting and combat and when he reached Nawahlid had begun to Organize another expedition.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

Not sure how many people are actually reading, but apparently the Views are almost two thousand so that's good I guess, given how only a few other people are posting other than me I'm starting to doubt weather more than five people care. At any rate unless I see views not change I'm not going to stop completely.

And another thing, what are some interesting things that you would think are interesting (like Norse sailors manage to sail through the Northwest passages due to the medieval warm period and see the pacific?)

1025-1026

In Europe Olaf Haraldson had seen the growth of the king of England and Denmark, Cnut. He had grown worrisome and had seen him amassing power and he knew it was a matter of time before he would attempt to take Norway. While he could fight Cnut his only heir, Magnus would be in danger due to many in the court that had secretly wanted Cnut to come and overthrow Olaf; and if he was overthrown Cnut in his mind would have surely annihilated any opposing claim to the thrown and even if he had won against Cnut, the mutinous ones would try and take his one year old son Magnus hostage. In the face he had decided to send him somewhere out of the country, his options were to send him to the Rus but that land had too many prying eyes and who knows how many men would be out to get his son. There was however a second option that he had heard about, the Former Former king had befriended a famous Sailor Leif Eriksson many years before and wondered if his son would take him in, he also remembered that Leif's son Bjarny had been governing a rich land called Vinland. Olaf sent messengers to Bjarny Leifsson to inquire about this issue and to see what his reaction would be, Olaf said that if he had accepted he would be recognized by Norway as the Ruler of all Lands west of Iceland. When Bjarny received this his immediate response was yes and the following Spring little Magnus and his caretakers had arrived in Leifsbudir with Bjarny eagerly awaiting them. Bjarny had tried his best to appear 'kingly' in posture as to not seem like a lowly irrelevant chief to the Prince's servants and caretakers. He was very happy about this due to him only fathering two daughters and had the possibility of having the next king of Norway as a son in law.

On the Hnetaland colony now named Einarstad due to the chief that had been selected by Bjarny to lead the settlement, they had cleared much forest and had Burned near thirty square miles of land and they could divert most of their time to clearing land as imported food cost near to nothing and they had gained plenty of things to trade for food like Pelts, and all the iron tools that they had intended to trade with the Skraelings but the Skraelings had proved to be hostile, the little war had lasted only three weeks and most of the Skraeling population on the Island had been decimated. They had been raising recently imported honey bees from Europe but the hive had mostly died from transport in the cold northern waters but they were able to keep the population alive but barely.

In Nawahlid Ragnar had come to the town chief with Joseph Ragnarsson and pieces of the new crops they had discovered and the supposed towns and cities to the west, as a Skraeling John Kristinn had some knowledge of this but little more than something passed on by many mouths over large distances where details are lost in translation. At any rate he had sent a messenger to Bjarny Leifsson about this and Bjarny responded by telling John to give him provisions and men to make an even further Journey to the Western networks; That spring they set off.

In Saeturland sugar and syrup production was large and was being baked into sweet pastries so much so that the Grain supply could not keep up and had reverted to using acorn and butternut flour for making them, Bjarny had used these heavily to try and get more immigrants to Vinland but after a while he realized anyone that hadn't gone already has gotten annoyed at the attempts to bribe them from their family homes and some people in Greenland had refused to burn or build with Vinland or Markland wood and would rather use the more expensive option of using wood from Norway. Iceland however was a different story, there would always be people who in their eyes unfairly lost most of their land due to bias in the Allthing and had grown poor and were subject to the whims of the wealthy and were often treated very poorly, colonists from Vinland capitalized on this and would take away large amounts of people but after nearly ten years of doing this those who would go have already gone or aren't able to go; some just stubborn and believe they will eventually get their land back. The lack of population in the Nyrfold has led to around this time the establishment of the trans-Atlantic Slave route for farmhands and women, the slaves were usually traded for Furs, Ivory, pieces of gold or silver, Vinlandic Wine, and other miscellaneous goods like one case where the skull of a mountain Lion was traded along with a couple furs for a women. Bjarny Leifsson had made it a point to send bounds of Vinland wine and Saeturland Pastries and sugar to King Olaf and even secretly a few pounds of sugar to King Cnut of Denmark and England.

In Greenland Olaf Thorgilson led another exploratory expedition into the Hellulands, this time however he would try and see what was north of the Main island (Baffin island). When he set sail he had brought five Thralls that were once one of the Lapp peoples of Norway (the Sami) who would know Caribou hunting and various Northern survival methods. They had made it to the Northern tip of the Island but because of the currents and wind it was impossible to go any more forward, but they did explore the Island on the way back and even found a nugget of gold and had collected a small fortune in walrus Ivory and instead of going back to Greenland where no one would buy them they had decided to take it south to Leifsbudir where they could catch a decent price for it. In Leifsbudir he was met by Bjarny Leifsson and had invited him to the Hall where they had discussed both of their travels and politics. Eventually Bjarny had brought up Ragnar Bjornsson and the Vastaland skraeling trade, and of the lands to the south of Hnetaland. Olaf Thorgillson heard that Hnetaland was primarily an Island and that the Nyrfold was just a large Island like Britain but bigger, however experienced travelers knew it was no island and some from Europe knew that it could be just as big as the Continent or even bigger. Olaf then realized that while the Northern gold was a possibility, there could be large amounts of gold to the south, but he had heard that the waters to the south of Hnetaland were hard to traverse and clinging to the coast resulted in crashing against the shoals while sailing too far out would blow you too far east; But then Bjarny told him of his four "grand" ships that had a second story and could hold enough cargo and provisions that you did not have to stop at Greenland or Iceland for travel to Europe. Much to the disgust of Snorri Thorfinnson Olaf had moved his Family to the great colony in Hnetaland, Einarstad and from there had wanted to travel deep into the south with one of the Grand ships Bjarny had lent him.

In Iceland, prosecution of Pagans had been growing and religious Christians had been trying to overtake the Allthing, supported by King Olaf and the papacy. The pagans wanted more land and to escape the Christians, while the men had been stubborn and did not wish to flee as that would insult their warriors honor. However young men and sailors had left with in total in the separate voyages six hundred and eighty-five men, four hundred women, and an unknown number of children. Some had settled in Greenland, others had migrated to the mostly Christian but Tolerant Vinland, the rest had went to the mostly Pagan (although the Chieftain is Christian) Elgurland colony. Snorri Thorfinnson was particularly pleased with this as not many had wanted to Permanently settle in Elgurland, most stayed for a few months to grow grow Barely and get paid in gold (mostly gotten by trading with the Natives). With the new colonists he immediately had them clear forest to make way for more Barley crops and has them try to find more sources of Gold along the coasts and rivers. They had also met success with Walrus and seal hunting, fishing wasn't terrible, and the Sheep and Goats were thriving; while not much danger was posed to their food supply they had a few fights with some of the Skraelings, they had Skraelings they traded with but there would be some violent skraelings that they would get into fights with, but they had concentrated most of the population in Snorrisborg and built fortifications so usually not much damage was done other than sometimes some upturned crops.

In Leifsbudir and the Northern arm of vinland as a whole was nearly devoid of all Skraelings that weren't allied or assimilated, however from trading partners they heard that a large powerful Skraeling tribe that had gotten their hands on some Iron weapons and were migrating North due to some unknown reason although it is hypothesized that they either left because of food shortage or they were looking to attack and rob the Norse, the latter is assumed due to some cousin tribes joining with them. The Althing had decided that from all settlements (including those in Greenland) at least six men of fighting age to gather at Leifsbudir with as much weapons and Armour they can carry. They had gathered around seven hundred and fifty fighting men and three hundred Skraeling allies, with all these men Bjarny decided to construct an enormous wooden wall (based off of what he heard of the Danevirke) that would stretch across the Northern arm of Vinland that was around thirteen Miles long, but the actual structure was not that long because they used the many lakes as ready made borders and had small defenses built along their shores and where they made the wall there was a deep bay that made the Northern arm skinnier. The Vinlandic militia had begun to cut down the trees in the path of the site for the wall and there was no neatness to the wall in Bjarny's recorded statement "We had little time for grandness, a pile of Logs with earth rammed on the inside would do well enough to keep Skraelings from waltzing in our Lands", they had also burned the woods in front of the wall. The first attacks came during part of the construction but they had been scouts and not part of the Main force that was however approaching. When it had arrived most of the wall had been built but they had attacked the parts unfinished, they had warriors stationed at those points but they did not have any defenses and while they could repel them they were becoming exhausted and if not for their native allies who were more experienced in this kind of warfare were they able to hold off. Eventually the wall was completed but the attacks seemingly had no end, Bjarny Leifsson had caught an arrow to the thigh and had trouble walking for the rest of his life. At the end of winter hostilities ceased however they picked up again in the spring, at last however the Skaeling force had mostly disbanded and returned to their former lands while the hostilities never dropped completely they were at a steady rate not unlike attacks on other settlements and could be managed by only eighty of the men from Leifsbudir and some local Native allies. In Order to manage the wall Bjarny built a new settlement on the Eastern edge of the wall on the coastline called Skrealsigrad (place of the defeat of the skraelings) and it was filled mostly with young adults from Markland and immigrants from Iceland.

And again discuss and criticize

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

So on a scale from one to ten how would you rate this TL? What do you hate/like about it or whats unique about it?

1027

In Vinland many attempts have been made at turning Maple sap and Syrup into alcoholic beverages, while several different methods were tried at getting the right amount of concentrated sap to syrup amount usually ending up where more fluid; It was extremely strong to say the least (science note: because maple sap has such high sugar content the yeast that would convert sugar to alcohol create more to the point where yeast cant survive and some sugar is left behind leaving it very strong but sweet as well). Bjarny exported it to Iceland and Norway in the hopes it may convince people to come to the distant land, while he welcomed all colonists and many had come to colonize the land but with his vast swathe of territory it was difficult spreading them out evenly and he had considered sending ships to convince people from the Norse cities of Ireland to come to Vinland.
He had also encouraged having children and cultural acceptance of Skraelings into Norse society, it was even said it was cheaper to Hire local skraelings to do work for you in exchange for menial amounts of Iron tools and cloth than it was to own slaves in Hnetaland and parts of Saeturland. Bjarny Leifsson also passed a new controversial law that said if a Thrall converts to Christianity then exactly three years after he converts he must be either let free or allowed to buy their freedom, however if a captured slave is christian then three years after purchase must be let free and trying to sell the slave before the three years is up will receive punishment. This was probably the most controversial act of Bjarny's career and while he never enforced this law it had laid the groundwork for Vinnish Christianity's view toward slavery and its views to pagans.

In Hnetaland Olaf Thorgilson used the Grand ship to sail south, he hit a land he named Grunnland (land of soals) (OTL Main and New Hampshire), then after a few days south he came across a huge cape he called the hook (cape cod) and he named the land there Thorskurland (land of cod) (OTL Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, long island). He had ventured further south but a storm had strewn him to the east when he eventually got back to the shore he was obviously very far south, he had went to the coast in a large river when one of them men came back injured from when he was in the water as put in the sagas: "It was a gruesome sight, something had bit down hard on the mans leg and twisted it as a child would twist a piece of bread apart". This was the Norse's first encounter with Aurdreki (mud dragons), believed by some to be offspring of the great serpent Jormungand. Olaf had his men unleash arrows at it but it could not pierce the skin, the saga says: "One of the warriors had picked up a spear and threw it at the Aurdreki with such force that it had pierced the tail and nailed it to a root where it died".
Olaf had ordered the pelt from the Aurdreki to be collected and loaded onto the ship where they headed north for Bjarnystad where they would show everyone the pelt and the stories of their discoveries, however they did not make it to the Norse colonies but where pushed far east by the westerlies so far to Islands which he called the Heitteyjar (the warm Islands) (OTL the Azores). They had done small repairs on the ship and decided they were closer to Europe than to Vinland and had traveled further east, reaching the northern part of Iberia and had traded there and from there headed to Ireland, from there to Iceland, and from there back to Vinland. When he again met with Bjarny in Skraelsigrad (which the population was around seventy civilians) and they discussed the Heitteyjar and the possibilities it could have, another subject they thought about were the Aurdreki of Aurland as the land was now named. Bjarny had seen it's pelt and it's skull with its elongated snout, teeth and jaws that could easily rip a man to pieces both interested him and made him unsettled, there had been many beasts in Vinland like the Bear and various cats that could tear a man's throat out but the skeleton of the Aurdreki was something that could only be rivaled by the jaws of a Shark or Orca. The pelt and skull could be sold at an incredibly high price in Scandinavia, Olaf Thorgilson realized this and headed for Nidaros in Norway where he sold them for fifty pounds of gold and thirty pounds of silver to none other than the king of Norway Himself Olaf the second; it was said that he had fashioned the skull to the front of his ship instead of the dragon head that was sometimes used and the pelt was made into a cloak that he wore. Olaf Thorgilsson had bought ninety female slaves which he shipped to Vinland where he sold them for twice as much, he later decided to make use of this and again he bought thirty female slaves from Denmark which were captured in the Baltic and sold them in Vinland and made a Profit. He had used much of this new money to construct a new colony in a strait at Hnetaland (OTL strait near Port Hawkesbury) that cut through a large island which he populated with people he had invited with him on his trips to Europe and some of the assimilated Skraelings who were interested in Nordic culture and technology. This was a necessary point as anyone wanting to go south would have to go through the shortcut unless they had business on the east side of the strait.

In Elgurland Snorri Thorfinnson had a growing problem on his hands, other than slaves there was no immigration to Elgurland. Most people who had heard of it thought it to be cold and harsh like Heulluland, another problem he had is that he was encouraging missionaries to come and convert the pagan majority living there. The pagans have had enough of Christian missionaries from their homelands in Iceland and a few of the Missionaries had been murdered and Snorri had investigations but when the investigators had probably also been as suspect as anyone that made it extremely difficult and the murderer(s) were never found and missionaries eventually stopped coming and the Christian minority slowly but surely left Elgurland after some murders of them started to happen. Snorri had put bans on leaving but the Christians had bribed merchants to smuggle them away and while the followers of the Aesgir had welcomed this Snorri had found himself one of the few Christians in a Pagan land, naturally the Pagans were unsettled by a Christian being the one in charge but dealt with it as out of fear Snorri had not immediately taken any action to this problem.

In Saeturland it had become a norm to have acorn bread dipped in syrup for breakfast during the winter, maple Sugar had been exported to the rest of the Nyrfold and the Farms around Nawahlid had been prosperous and attempted to export their grain but the rest of the Nyrfold was as productive as they were other than Markland and Northern Vinland. They decided that with the excess grain they would import it not east, but west to the Skraeling villages. There were already plans to make farms along the rapid points of the great river and the Rapids of the Hitvur river already had a skraeling settlement in which portage could be done. Saeturland and it's enormous trees were able to produce another ten grand ships but with improved rudders and better sails, it was as long as a Normal Knarr but was stockier and much taller. Other ships had been built that had been able to explore the gulf around the river and eventually the main export of Saeturland was Sugar and ships, from Leifsbudir to Iceland Saeturland ships were prized for their quality wood and craftsmanship.

On the Bjarnystad Islands nearly all wood was cut down, the farms were productive and little to no chance of attacks from Skraelings. Walrus and seal hunting were great and there was plenty of bog Iron, however for the finer tools such as plows, armor, and weapons were made from the finer Ore from the Thorkellsborg area. The Nyrfold has become very trade based and while the term "Dark Ages" had been used to describe Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, while Historians debate if it was as dark as they say but at any rate it is agreed upon Dark Age enthusiasts that the Nyrfold was outside the Dark ages and the common man's standard of living was much higher than those in Europe, traveling by ship to visit relatives across the gulf was not uncommon and the Average male had at least once been to Europe for trading or for purchasing a female slave for a wife.

In Gudridsfjord the population was declining with three immigrations out of it for one immigration into it, it quickly became a backwater and the major export of it was colonists. However in other parts of Markland to the North a Great Fjord known as the Leifsfjord (discovered by the now deceased Leif Eriksson) it was at least as big as the Nidaros Fjord had a few settlements in them that now grow due to some skraeling migration from the west had developed a great fur trading there and they even would hunt loads of meat for small copper rings (which became the de facto currency, while Barter is still the main source of trade) and Iron knives. One of these settlements was approved by Bjarny and by extension the Allthing and was made the seat of power or Capital of Markland. It was at a key staging point to ship Timber to Greenland and to parts of Iceland.

In Greenland nearly nine out of ten people left for Vinland, only those who for some reason or another disliked the people from Vinland or wanted to take advantage of the amount of wealth that traveled from there to Iceland and the rest of Europe, but for a few years now the more competent sailors have been making the jump straight to Iceland with only the less experienced sailors coming the Greenland colonies were dying, the estate at Bratahlid was close to being a ghost town with only sixteen people living in it and the smaller farms had banded together in the two towns of Bratahlid and Herjolfnes. The Chief of Greenland Bjarny's brother was a Drunk who was content with wealth, his female slaves, and drink; he cared little for politics and only decided to settle small disputes leaving the bigger ones to his older brother Bjarny. Many ended up settling in Vinland, others bought slaves in order to keep the colony running but eventually in the year 1027 The western Greenland settlement was abandoned and there were only a couple dozen people living in Greenland.

North of the wall (now named Bjornsvirk after the commander in charge of the warriors there) new settlements bloomed, Bjarny Leifsson proposed and advocated the deforestation of all trees North of the wall and the construction of roads from Leifsbudir to Skraelsigrad and behind the Bjornsvirk linking the East and west coast of the Northern Arm, the road was planned to be built using wooden planks and as time went on paved with gravels. He didn't build the road yet due to the sheer cost it would take but he did however have thirty seven of his own slaves continuously at work cutting down trees near Leifsbudir while he constantly moved from town to town for business and to deal with any arising problems, later this same year he launched an attack on the Skraelings south of the wall but it yielded no significant advantage.

In Thorkellsborg, Bjarny Leifsson had spent no slack in the obtaining of Frankish Blacksmiths as slaves most of which were later freed but with nowhere to go eventually settled in Thorkellsborg and made a decent living as free blacksmiths creating hundreds of Axes, Spears, Swords, Mail, Plow parts, Arrowheads, Mining tools, Carpentry tools, and miscellaneous Iron or Steel Items and even a few men knowledgeable on Copper and Copper alloy working created the mass production of copper rings and necklace pieces that had become standard for trading with natives. Ragnar Bjornsson had taken a few hundred of these copper rings and necklace pieces with him when he went to the western lands.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

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.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

So in general Terms, what do you think about the TL? most people like it from what they say but what parts do you like/hate?

1030-1031

Bjarny Leifsson had around this time started shipping fish from Vinland to Iceland en mass and sell it cheaper than local fisherman's catch, his hopes were that it would put local fishermen out of business creating more poor Icelanders that would settle in Vinland. This did work in some cases but the majority of Icelanders who were somewhat richer than before Vinland was settled with so many people leaving for it that they would rather spend the extra money on fresh fish than salted fish, seeing this Bjarny then moved to Northern good imports that they could have gotten on their own which had forced a few Hunters to settle in Greenland and Vinland but the majority had been able to make by with the meat gained from hunting the animals necessary for luxury goods. Bjarny had then resorted back to bribes and recruitment but furthered it to include not just Iceland but Norway, Faroe, Orkney, and Shetland. From there he was able to round up seventy four colonists and instead of sending them far to expand the knowledge of the area he decided it was more important to cement his rule on the Island of Vinland along it's west coast and had them and another fifty six young adults from Markland and founded a colony known as Karlsfjord (OTL Corner Brook) named after the close friend Bjarny had made chief.

In Hnetaland the farms were expanding and what little was left of the Skraelings had fleed the Island, grain was so numorus that it was becoming clear that in the decades to come Hnetaland would become a center of power. Nearly half of all the new colonists from the east went to Hnetaland and the colony at the straight (now known as Olafstad) was growing. While the land was not as flat as the part of Hnetaland to the North west it still had plenty of space for growing crops, it also had small amounts of gold when you went inland, Olaf Thorgilsson however put much effort into making walls around the settlement. This proved difficult due to the rugged terrain on the outside of the town but it was eventually finished. A black rock that could be burned was found there but was not used much.

Olaf Thorgilsson had decided to once more try an expedition to the south along the coastline, this time with men experienced in hunting and repairing ships. He had set out and traveled south but the winds blew so hard that it took him Northwest where they had stayed adrift for weeks, the rain and the abundance of fish were what kept them alive. He had once more stumbled upon the Heitteyjar; taking this as a divine sign, Olaf had decided to build a small settlement there to exploit the trade such a colony would offer. He had went North to gain colonists for the Island and happened upon the Earldom of Orkney which was in Crisis from threats and raids from Norway and Denmark, he had gotten sixty five settlers from there and went to the Islands and named the settlement after his son who he also left to govern the colony, Hundistad. From there his son Hundi had made contact with the King of Leon, Bermudo III. Hundi Olafsson had opened up trade with the Galicians, one desirable Item they had was Tin. The Heitteyjar were close enough to the Grand Banks that they had large amounts of fish combined with the fact no humans lived on the Islands, they exported large amounts of salted fish to Leon for things such as Iron goods and luxury Items. Another interest in Iberia was the lands of the Muslims, not much trade happened there but due to the heretical faith of the Arabs the Norse were encouraged by the Leonese to Raid the Muslim villages and towns. This had yielded much goods and it was not long before the Straits of Bjorn were found (Named after Bjorn Ironside(also the brother of Ivar the Boneless and the son of Ragnar Lodthbrok) who centuries before broke through the Al-Andalusian blockade and launched a Large campaign across the Mediterranean and almost laid siege to Rome), while of course they couldn't break through it with their small forces and the navy there would easily overwhelm them, they saw the blockade and coveted the easy and safe passage they could have to Miklagard (Constantinople/Nova Roma). However it was rather difficult to reach the Islands from Europe with the currents and wind mostly going in the other direction, it is also hard to get to Europe from Vinland with the Polar Easterlies but it is easier to get to vinland from Europe that way. While it was not initiated until the colony of the Heitteyjar were more well established it created a ring that would start at Norway, to Shetland/Faroe, to Iceland, to Greenland/Vinland, to the Heitteyjar, to Iberia, and eventually back to Scandinavia.

Olaf Thorgilson went back to Olafstad, and surprisingly while he was gone the settlement was nearly completely killed off by Skraeling attacks. While they had eventually warded off and beat them back many of the population wanted to leave, about forty left for the Heitteyjar and twenty went further south and established a settlement at what was named Tyskvik named after the German Thrall who first sighted the land (OTL Lunenburg, Nova Scotia). The Rest of the population had stayed and in pity Bjarny Leifsson had shipped many Swords and Mail coats to the colony and even a dozen warriors from the Bjornsvirke that had stayed for two weeks before returning to Skraelsigrad.

The Bjornsvirke was holding up well, but in the summer of 1031 the Skraelings had launched a huge attack on the eastern part of the wall near Skraelsigrad. After the years of this Bjarny Leifsson had dropped his patient approach and led a small army of seventy eight warriors. The battle ended with ten casualties on the Norse side and seven captured Skraelings, who were then in the Saga's words "Put on a large Rack in front of the wall with their skin peeled off and their innards torn and showing, and it put fear into the Skraelings and Bjarny was once more Hailed a hero". Later that year with the help of Skraeling allies the Norse once and for all put an end to the Great menace, butchering nearly all of them.

In the Great City of Cahokia, the Elders and Chief had recently seen some of the Iron Pieces that were spread around that were originally Norse in Origin but had spread around. All over the the Western Trade routes the small Copper and Iron Items had spread as far south as the Bay of Mehiksco. The copper workers had tried to imitate these pieces but they could not create depth or any such sophistication, to the North East part these copper workers heard of how they heated the copper up to make it more malleable. They had not melted the copper but made it more flexible and easier to bend, but the difference in quality between the Norse smelted copper was obvious and the Skraelings had no way to imitate the Iron pieces.

In Elgurland, Snorri Thorffinsson was killed in his sleep, when news got to Bjarny's domain there was large shock among the people, both Bjarny and the Allthing were worried that a Pagan Ruler would erupt, encouraging raids on Vinland, Markland, and the rest. Surely enough a Fervent Pagan rose to the title of Paramount chieftain of Elgurland, Ake Carrsson. Ake Carrsson had demanded all the gold that had been discovered be made into statues of the Aesgir, he had also installed fierce anti-Christian policies along with the limitation with the trade to Bjany's Domain. Bjarny Leifsson had suprisingly, started a funeral ceremony for Snorri even though they had not had the body. Snorri's mother Gudrid had fled to Leifsbudir where she attempted to gather up an Army to reclaim Snorrisborg but failed and eventually committed suicide later that year. With Gudrid and her son dead, the Line of Thorffin Karlsefni had ended and it announced the Ultimate rule of the Line of Erick the Red, while Ake Carrsson had local rule in Elgurland, they had nothing to the vast riches and resources of Bjarny the great. Elgurland was poor compared to those lands, it's only redeming quaity was it's Flatness and sources of Gold . For Bjarny the lose of trade with Elgurland was not a very big problem, gold was being found all over Bjarny's domain and even some traded from skraelings.

In Norway Cnut the Great had taken Norway, Denmark, England, and parts of Sweden. In Thorkellsborg this made the former king Olaf very Livid, but as people suggested that he waited patiently for an opportunity to strike at Cnut as Scandinavia was full of Usurpers, Invaders and the like a king was never in power for too long. However when he had heard of Him taking a Journey to Rome is when he decided to make his move, he had used the wealth he brought with him and some that Bjarny Leifsson had lend him to hire mercenaries in Vinland and Iceland, even having some Skraeling warriors with him. Taking a hint from Vinnish warfare; he had used the Skraeling Mercenaries to attack and harass Nidaros so that an attack on it's defenses would have been much easier, it was a whopping success and giving free Vinnish wine to the people in a attempt to win the Nobles and the commoners approval. He had then used his Skraeling Mercanaries (who where used quite a bit due to their inate knowledge of how to operate in wooded areas) to attack and with help take numerous other towns and cities in Norway. Cnut was on his way back from Rome when he had heard of the attack, he had immediatly raised his Danish Army and set for the Osloford where he coud try and retake Norway. In the Keivian Rus, Harald Sigurdsson (Harald Hardrada) was in exile in the Keivian Rus. When he had heard his half brother had returned from his exile in an attempt to retake Norway he had gathered a small force and decided he would indirectly help his brother by raiding and taking Danish and Swedish settlements before joining up with him. When Canute later heard of this as well he was in a fit of rage and was said by the sagas: "His [vassals] were certain that he lost all reason, but were surprised when not a day later he returned to his calm and genius self".

A Battle was brewing in Scandinavia, and across the Ocean the Christians and the Pagans were growing to despise each other more and more. What happens to one will influence the other.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

1032-1035

In Thorkellsborg Bjarny had begun to entertain the Idea of invading Elgurland under the pretense of removing dishonorable usurpers and defending the Christian faith against the people there who were very anti-christian and even had Lynched what little Christians had remained. It was not long until large resentments between the two lands had grown, Bjarny Leifsson had organized five Saeturland ships to go to Elgurland and attempt to resolve hostilities or raid if this was not possible. The ships had stolen Twenty seven cows and taken eleven pounds of gold, no attempt at resolving hostilities were made by the raiding party. Half of the gold went to the party members and three quarters of the cows went to them as well, the rest had went to the Allthing but in reality the Paramount Chieftain had control over the Allthings treasury alongside the person he chose for the position of treasurer but due to the low Organization and population of Vinland he was able to control the treasury for the most part. Bjarny had used much of this new found wealth to build more "Great Ships" and to also gain more immigrants from Iceland and Faroe.

In Elgurland the response to this was an outrage, however they knew that in a war the fief of Bjarny could easily wipe Elgurland off the map just in terms of sheer manpower, mass amounts of quality armor and weapons, and ships so large that firing lines of archers could do devastating damage to their ships or even to the coast; The military of Bjarny Leifsson could even take a European army for a run on its money. The response to this was Ake Carrson enticing the production of armor and weapons, his strategy was not to Invade Bjarny by sea but by crossing through the dense forests and invade Saeturland by land.

In Norway Olaf Haraldson had begun to arrest people who he knew had supported the invasion of king Canute and promoted those who had supported him. He had heard of his brother Harald Sigurdsson aiding him by stretching Danish attention over a larger area and this made Olaf more at ease, however things were not alright as the people of Norway had mostly enjoyed being ruled over by Canute. In response Olaf had sent a message to Bjarny Leifsson and his contacts by saying according to the Sagas: "The people of my Kingdom do not respect it's rightful ruler, as I have seen you need men to cultivate the land I will send these dissidents to you if you provide transport". Bjarny had immediately Organized a great many ships to go to Norway to collect the people, however he kept half his fleet because they had raided Elgurlad not too long before and he wanted enough manpower and ships left to defend against them should they decide to attack. Olaf Haraldson had also hired men from Orkney to fight and also bought tremendous amounts of rations from Iceland, Faroe, and Shetland and forbid sacking any Norwegian towns and villages in an attempt to curry favor with the People and Nobles. Olaf had also started to use the snake poison from the "Shaking Snake" that was native to vinland and had a highly venomous poison of which there was no antidote to be found and had sometimes tipped their arrows in this venom for night raids but could not be done in mass as poisoning blades would often corrode them/give risk to harming the user of the poisoned weapon; However these were more effective than killing enemies as it had them bedridden and the enemy army would have to feed and care for them even though they were useless and could not fight.

In Denmark Canute had decided to let Olaf prance around in Norway while he dealt with his younger brother Harald, Canute was also fearful of an insurrection in England and always had a standing army there that he was afraid if he had recalled would mean he would lose England, this had meant he was alone with his medium size army against Olaf's sizable army with their elite core of Vinnish Skraelings who at this point were experts capable of going through hundreds of miles without being noticed and able to slip through enemy lines and create enough havoc to allow the main force to break the enemy forces. To counter this Canute had redesigned the formation of his army creating one that did not rely on the back and if given chaos could form back into rank easily, along with his core of veteran warriors who had no formation at all and Chaos would not be as harmful to them; No matter this could not counter the Skraeling corps that could: "Make any patch of brush or trees a small fortress and move through the densest brush with ease,". With the mountainous terrain of Norway this had led to the defense of all the passable valleys and traveling though rough terrain was a death sentence, which only left the option of the Sea.

Harald had been defeated at a small town on the eastern coast of Jutland, he had fled with only a quarter of his men and had tried to go north to Norway to meet with his brother but was stopped at a blockade which left him the only option to go east into the Baltic where he had raided settlements for paltry treasures that were barely able to feed him and his men. He had tried later than year to break through the blockade and get to the North when yet again he was forced back east however instead of going to the far east he had found the Limfjord was little defended and had easily broken through. A Large storm had thrown him west and he was not able to go North to Norway and found himself in England where he raided any and all undefended settlements he could find, even a few well defended ones were sacked. He had then used the new found wealth to travel North to Orkney where he had bought three ships and warriors to ride them. He had then decided to go east to Denmark and attack the western shore of Jutland and their settlements, primarily farms that had been promised protection from the King and Harald had sacked them and burned them to the ground to spite Canute. Harald was eventually cornered by the Danish fleet where he escaped with only six ships and their men, he then headed for Nidaros to meet with his brother. Olaf was happy he had gained such a powerful ally and that his (half) brother had been alive, Haralds forces had been incorporated into Olafs and while only being seven-teen years of age Harald was made a General of Olaf's army.

In Elgurland, news of the new arrivals that were exiled from Norway had arrived. Ake Carrsson had planned to convince them to join their side but Bjarny Leifsson had predicted they would attempt this and had them settled in Karlsfjord, Skraelsigrad, Einarstad, Bjarnystad, Leifsfjord, and many other small settlements on Vinland and some of Markland. Bjarny had used the excuse of the growing hostilities with Elgurland to enact a travel law which only permitted people who had been in the colonies for five years or more to travel for the mean time with the exception of ships leaving for fishing, this was to prevent any new (possibly pagan) arrivals from joining to ranks of the Ake Carrson. In actuality the exiled arrivals did not wish to be caught up in any conflict and only wanted to live quietly and perhaps return home to Norway if they ever got the chance, however with their entire families there and their home villages destroyed or inhabited by others there was little reason to go back there other than to spite the state of being exiled from it.

In Thorkellsborg the news of a possible war between them and Elgurland had caused an Eruption in weapons and armor production, the same in Saeturland but instead of metal it was with warships and even shields. Hnetaland had been producing large amounts of grain and other foods and ready to ship them to the other colonies; The Vinnish were prepared for war. Bjarny Leifsson had launched fifty seven warships to attack Elgurland, he had another fleet of forty three at Leifsbudir if they were needed. When they reached Snorrisborg they found it nearly abandoned with only some sick and old left, they had immediately sent out many search parties and found a camp up river that the people had been at and had palisades and was apparent they'd been there a while. They put up a fierce resistance and had buried gold under the dirt they slept and lived on, Bjarny had distributed all the gold fund then among the men and reinforced the palisades with earth and stone. Some sources say that Bjarny had killed every man women and child in the camp, other sources say he had just put them into slavery, the real answer will probably never be known. Bjarny had heard from the people there that they were marching for Saeturland, in shock Bjarny had sent half his force to Leifsbudir to warn the people and had forty five men guard the camp there, the rest that included the Skraeling corp had marched after the Pagans march. The Pagans were approximately three weeks ahead of them but due to the clear tracks of footprints in the mud it took Bjarny only two weeks to catch up with them and with what the Skraelings did when marching long distances that consuming maple sugar would restore many of the calories lost which allowed Bjarny's force to catch up to Ake Carrsson.

However when they caught up was when the Pagans had already begun to lay siege to Nawahlid not four days before. The walls of Nawahlid were river stones packed with clay and had trenches dug in front of the wall making it not too easy to assault. The Siege had gone uneventful, the Pagans had tried to wait them out as Norse warfare was never very effective against fortifications. Bjarny had engaged them in battle and while he was on the edge of defeat the soldiers inside the walls of Nawahlid had come and reinforced him. The Pagans had retreated but Bjarny's men were exhausted, so Bjarny then took command of the Nawahlid militia and chased after them while the original force took a rest. The Pagans had been forced Northwest by the Nawahlid Cavalry, it should also be noted that this is the first reference in Vinnish military history of the Glaive being used. The Pagan forces under Ake Carrsson had a few Icelandic horses but they were nothing compared to the German, Frankish, and English breeds that were bigger and faster than what little horses the Pagans had. The battle was wrapped up quickly and Ake Carrsson had been captured, however Bjarny had let the pagans lived provided they pay the Allthing (and by extension Bjarny) tribute in gold every year, to not attack or assault Christians, Priests, or Missionaries, never to produce weapons or armor, and to never build ships; as an add on he had all the shipwrights and their families forcibly moved to another parts of the "Great Fief" as it was called. The damage to Snorrisborg was great, many of the cows, goats, and chickens were stolen not to mention the gold.

The followers of the Aesgir had been ashamed, to make them more so Bjarny had erected a grand soapstone Church in the town center and purposely put it next to the puny and wooden Hof (Norse Pagan house of worship). Due to the high chance of revolt by the Pagans he had left a standing army there that was paid in gold dust, he had also decided to send free barrels of Vinnish wine in an attempt to prevent another revolt. For the first time in the History of Vinland all the Norse lands west of Iceland was controlled by one man, a few European sources refer to Bjarny not as Paramount Chieftain but as "King" as he controlled more territory than nearly all European countries. In practical terms Bjarny didn't assume the title as the former Icelanders would dislike it and more chance of revolt against him.

In Norway Olaf Haraldsson (Olaf II) had been leading campaigns against Canute but finally Canute was able to finally face him in battle near the Oslofjord, the battle went on for three hours with Olaf Haraldsson receiving a shot to the neck where he bled out and died. Harald Sigurdsson then took command of the army and surprisingly instilled enough morale to push back the Danish and win the battle, however morale plummeted when the battle was over and the Danish forces returned two days later with a boosted Morale that came from killing the enemy General and the second battle was a Danish victory, more specifically a Pyrrhic Victory where the Norwegians retreated while still having the least amount of loses in the battle and the Danish were forced to pull out of Norway. With Olaf's heir Magnus still in Vinland, Harald Sigurdsson was crowned King of Norway at only eight-teen years old and already a battle hardened warrior, he then sought to building a more efficient military by mimicking Byzantine military ideas such as training new recruits for five weeks before exposure to any combat. Harald had also used his brother's old contacts to communicate with Bjarny Leifsson across the Atlantic and Harald had gained a large portion of wealth by privately diving into the Vinnish slave trade and made such a profit that taxes were much more lax on the Norwegian people than they ever were before and soon accepted his reign over the Land. Canute with his Danish Army in ruins had no choice other than to let Harald have Norway for the moment at least, with so much of his power and much money drained he was nearly bankrupt and was forced to lay low and wait for a time when he was more flexible, Harald however was plenty flexible at the time. Harald Had sponsored many attacks on Danish farms and towns, his goal was not to invade or heavily attack Denmark but to cripple it's very foundations, he had stopped after half a months of doing this so as not to prevent giving Canute a reason to create war taxes and lead a counter-attack. This had worked in making Canute's empire weaker, the English nobles were contemplating revolt with some actually revolting but the majority staying silent waiting for a better time, the ones that did were swept up quickly by Canute's standing army in England.

Bjarny Leifsson had decided to begin minting coins for the "Vinnish Empire" as it was sometimes called, copper was abundant in Saeturland and with the masses of gold from Elgurland and the deposits in the rest of the Great Fief there was enough gold for gold coin currency, however there was little tin and little silver. The base currency was simple copper with a portrait of Erik the Red, the next coin was a copper alloy with lead that was valued of four copper base coins with a Portrait of Olaf Thorgilsson, the next was a Bronze coin made with imported tin that was from either Galacia, Brittany, or Cornwall; it's portrait was of Leif Eriksson, the next coin was the silver coin which was rare and hardly ever used that had a portrait of Ragnar Bjornsson, and the Gold Coin was a portrait of none other than Bjarny Leifsson. As one can assume these coin's portraits were made to please and curry favor with the important people at the time. The coins were hardly ever used except for large purchases such as boats, slaves, or Armor, even then barter still remained king and the coins barely ever left the large towns, another unique point about these coins is that the copper ones were not round but square.

In Saeturland the small farms around the rapids had increased in number leading it to be fully able to portage over them and allow mass exploration into the lake, Ragnar Bjornsson had decided to go to the Skraeling village he had once seen years ago along the Hitvur river along what was named Vatnidland that stretched to the first rapid of the great river along all of the coast of the great lake and to the first rapid of the Hitvur river. It was here Ragnar Bjornsson had built a new village at probably one of the biggest waterfalls of the world (OTL Niagara falls). He had put much effort into building the houses to not be practical but stylish and make in his words: "Every House a small Mansion". He named the village Storfoss after the giant waterfall and had integrated the Skraeling village he saw many years ago into his village, instead of growing grain they found it more productive to grow Gulurskera (once again, Corn/Maize). They had advertised the village not on it's resourced but of it's view, this had attracted some people but not too many, but enough to establish portage routes allowing further exploration into the great lakes.

In Hentaland nearly half the trees on the west side of the North island had been cleared / burned and most of it wasn't even being cultivated. Grain was abundant and shipped as far as Faroe due to the sheer abundance of it. But with Skraeling attacks in the other colonies and the abundance of food production it had motivated Bjarny to create a permanent semi-professional standing army in all the colonies to be coupled with the militia would allow full defense against both Skraelings and other threats like rebels or Invasion (Invasion is not really feasible at this point in time). For this army Bjarny had chosen mostly Veterans of many conflicts including the veterans of the war with Bjarny's brother Thorkell and people who fought in Norway and England, the others were Skraelings who too were veterans of the conflicts and raw recruits who were in their teens that were to be trained and used as backup on battlefields to gain experience without being in overwhelming danger.

Harald Sigurdsson had called for his nephew Magnus to return to Norway, at eleven years old Magnus had already was able to handle and fight with his fathers battle-axe (This is OTL actually). Harald had managed to drive out Canute and his son Svein, he was planning either an attack on Denmark, or if he moved most of his troops to Denmark an Invasion of England. Part of his plan was to place Magnus on the Throne of Denmark. However for the moment the plan was to lie in wait

In Greenland, Iceland, and to lesser extents Faroe, Shetland, and Europe had begun to develop a taste for sugar and syrup. The Nobles of Norway and Orkney had syrup and sugar on their meals and nearly every common man in Iceland had eaten sweet Saeturland pastries at least once in an attempt to get more people to immigrate to Vinland. It was also around this time in the Great Fief that "flat cakes" had become a common foodstuff in the winter, it was wet dough put on a pan and cooked until solid and flipped over until cooked and then with sugar or syrup put on it. It was effective at restoring calories on a cold winter day. The Mead made from the Maple was extremely strong and was mostly mixed with water, they would sometimes use the mead as a disinfectant for wounds. Gaellio-Norse Immigrants from Ireland and Scotland had introduced using flowers and other plants used for making medicinal wines and mixtures, combined with skraeling remedies they were able to create medicine that could combat: Indigestion, extreme fever, Infection, burns, poison and venom, and even a Rose wine that supposedly mixed with powdered charcoal could help Pneumonia.

In Bjarnystad the Islands had begun to overpopulate, Bjarny had sent most of the poorer people to the settlements in Hnetaland and Saeturland; he also sent a group of about thirty people to Storfoss. Around this time was when Bjarny and the Allthing had grown comfortable, wealth and food were on the table, very few enemies, and enough Land and power that would be equal to any country in Europe. This had itched at Bjarny the sagas say as he believed that trying to gain too further power quickly would result in ruin as had so many Kings in Europe had shown; Bjarny spent this time slowly cementing his rule and influence in the Allthing further while putting men loyal to him in key positions and even at the base positions. Bjarny at this time had two sons and seven daughters. His first son, Gudbrand was eleven years old and his brother Birger was nine years old. Bjarny had seen to it that they had tutors and teachers had seen they were proficient in reading Norse, speaking and reading Latin, and were educated heavily on the history of Europe on details from Charles Martel to Alexander the Great to the Roman Empire; they were also educated in the Bible and the history behind it. It is probable Bjarny imported these tutors from England or Kiev but little mention of the Tutors themselves is found.

Sorry for the lateness but things happened, anyways criticize and discuss.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

Yes, you are getting another update this soon.

1036-1037

It was this year a drought spread across Hentaland and Saeturland, however the large stocks and fish meant that while unproductive it would not have been detrimental, some had even irrigated small streams into their fields to water them. It had stopped grain shipment to Iceland and Greenland, while Iceland barely suffered at all from it the people in Greenland had survived on imported grain and fish and this had caused another migration of nearly half the remaining Greenlanders to Vinland. The paramount Chieftain Bjarny Leifsson however had them colonize Elgurland instead of Vinland, the pagans in Elgurland did not welcome the some two hundred Christian immigrants. However the Christians lived in a separate ghetto community with better living standards and more freedom than the highly regulated lives of the Pagan majority who had to make do with copper farm tools as iron or steel ones were deemed too dangerous and could be used as weapons against the "Allthing" of which the people of Elgurland had chosen representation and the common man had little or no say in the Allthing.

In Elgurland the former chieftain Ake Carrsson's son Ivar Akesson had fallen in love with a Skraeling woman, they had married and Ivar had grown close with his father in law who happened to be a important man in the Skraeling Tribe perhaps even the chief but the sagas do not say in detail. Due to the oppression of the followers of the Aesgir had faced in Elgurland the Chieftain of the Skraeling Tribe agreed to allow and escort the Pagans to new lands on the interior, however due to the military presence of the Allthing the Pagans had lied in wait for three months where they then used skraeling flint weapons to attack guards and distract their attention while some two hundred people left the town. Only a fraction of the Pagans wanted to leave, the rest wanted to stay and wait for an opportunity to rebel or to not get involved with any more violence, most of who left where grown men and some male children. When Ivar led them west with his allied Skraeling tribe he had realized there were no blacksmiths or woodcutters among them, only farmers and potters. If they wanted to start a new community these things would be necessary but when he sent some able men to try and kidnap some they found there were no blacksmiths in the whole of Elgurland as it was Bjarny Leifsson's plan to rob them of Blacksmiths and shipwrights to make them nearly unable to revolt, and the woodcutters they had were useless without metal tools. Eventually they relented and figured they would solve the problem another time and used Flint and bone for tools like the Skraelings would. They had came across a large Lake (OTL Sandy lake) where they built small farms where they grew Barley but mostly hunted and fished, they had wanted to bring sheep with them but could not and eventually started wearing clothes similar to Skraelings in design, in order to maintain a sense of being more civilized they had cut the leather into long strips and woven those into clothes that were supposed to represent higher status. While without Iron or woodcutting they still were able to live comfortable lives and very much resembled a Neolithic society. The name given to it by Ivar Akesson was Ivarstad, but due to overpopulation he had to spread the people out into five communities across the shores of the lake where moose and other animals were the main source of food, many of the men had married Skraeling women.

In Norway Harald Sigurdsson had been making alliances with people in Norway near and far, the regents of Norway Svein was unpopular so his being cast out was welcomed by most with the rest being deported. Harald had seen Canute organizing his troops more thoroughly and decided to have five of his ships and their crew attack recovering Danish farms and he was preparing to lead a small force into Sweden and take over the minting station there. Canute sent an Army of two hundred to defend the towns there but were ultimately defeated and forced back, Canute then realized the foe was to strong to beat immediately and could only be beaten in the larger picture; He sent a messenger to Harald Sigurdsson that said: "You can have Norway and Sweden, I care little for their weather and the women are Hairy". However Harald believed it was a trap and immediately had his forces ready for an attack, after a month went by he still believed it to be a ruse and led three quarters of his fleet to Jutland and had been taking Farm after Farm until the whole North half of Jutland was under is occupation. Canute was on the Island of Zealand when this happened and with Harald's confiscation of civilian ships in Denmark led to his fleet outnumbering Canute's and his army was much larger than the Danish Army. Canute could have gotten his standing army in England but that may have caused a revolt, he had two options before him: Lose Denmark or Lose England; He figured it would be extremely difficult to regain control of England again as it had taken decades for his father and him to take it when in Scandinavia kings came and went every few years so he decided he could regain Denmark at another time, he retreated to England with Danish settlers who were loyal to him and he spent his time there collecting taxes waiting for a time to strike, Harald knew this of course and did not let his guard down.

In Denmark Harald Sigurdsson had crowned his Nephew King of Denmark, even though twelve years old Magnus was already engaging in repairing relations with the Nobles and People of Denmark, however his Uncle had done most of the work regarding this and many of those who suffered from the raids were deported to Vinland as Harald had Bjarny Leifsson's fleet receive them. With so much more farm space available the remaining Nobles were more than happy to increase their personal holdings and wealth. Things were looking a little brighter for Canute as well, he was able to focus much of his attention on England and with the Danish settlers he had he was able to further cement his rule in East Anglia, with threats of the Picts from the North he had contemplated the Idea of taking the ruins of Hadrian's or the Antoine Wall and using it not only for defense but to legitimize his reign by repairing such a monument of the old Roman Empire, it is thought that he may have had plans to crown himself Roman Emperor like Charlemagne was crowned it by the pope.

In Markland nearly every fjord had some kind of small village in it, they had grown rich from selling the pelts to Iceland and the abundant wood was shipped to Greenland and some of Iceland. Barley and Wheat did not grow well but the sheep thrived, and the great amount of hunting there was had allowed the men who were born there to be much taller and stronger than most other men due to increased protein diet. Another export from Markland was ships, while not of as great quality as Saeturland ships they had specialized in ships that were excellent for shoal infested places like Markland and Northern Norway. However the habitable area was small and with every thirteen years or so it creates a wave of new immigrants that either settle further and further North or to the other colonies. One small trading village was on an Island at the Tip of Markland and was at the entrance to the Helluland sea (OTL Killiniq Island), the village specialized in repairing ships and raising sheep, it was just as cold as parts of Iceland but yet there were still trees. The population of the village was mostly of merchants and shipwrights who raised sheep on the side, a great amount of gold traveled in and out of this small village as it was crucial on the Elgurland gold trading route.

In Thorkellsborg the mines a couple miles west of it on the Iron Island were dug out so much that they were turned into living quarters for the slaves of Bjarny Leifsson who would work everyday at mining and producing Armor, Weapons, Arrowheads, Plows, Knives, and a host of other everyday tools but he was sure to have them producing metal goods everyday. The Mines on Iron Island would never run dry it seemed, the only problem is that the Norse did not have the mining technology to go deeper than they already have and most of the Iron on that level was mined out, fortunately there were many other large Iron Ore deposits around the Thorkellsborg Area.

After the drought in Hnetaland and Saeturland the fields were just as productive as before, and once more were shipments of Grain and produce sent to Greenland and some parts of Iceland, a type of beer that used no hops was becoming popular and had been exported to the other parts of the Great Fief even some to Iceland but did not make much headway there.

On the Heitteyjar some of the Gulurskera crops had arrived and they were much more efficient in terms of grow area and were more nutritious than wheat, Nyrfold beans and gourds were being grown there as well. The settlement there had thrived but had not much contact with Vinland due to most merchants seeing no reason to go there other than to go to Iberia which they could do more safely by going through the North Atlantic crossing where established routes were already in place; however the colonies had frequent trade and contact with the Kingdom of Leon and some had even learned the language and taken wives from the coastal villages there, they eventually begun to have a minority of Leonese due to the imported salted fish from the Grand banks driving some of the Leonese fishermen to ride on Norse ships and settle the islands where they intermarried with the Norse and introduced Leonese culture and technology such as small scale stone masonry and sailing technology that they had gotten from the Arabs which allowed for more liberal usage of the winds on Norse ships and less reliance on oars.

In Byzantium a Greek merchant named Leo Argyros who found out about the walrus Ivory trade went north to Norway where he found out that there was land even further west than the place where they had hunted the walrus that extended southward as far as anyone could know, he had believed that it may have been the Northeast corner of Asia given how he had been taught as a child that the world was spherical and he then contemplated the riches he could gain from opening a new sea based route to the Silk the Byzantines had wanted so much from the civilizations far to the east. He had his Norwegian merchant friend help him get to Leifsbudir on a slave ship with gold coins in tow, when he reached it he was amazed and how different it was and when he got to Thorkellsborg had met with Bjarny Leifsson and explained his travels and had asked Bjarny for support, Bjarny had granted enough that he offered him passage to the other towns in his domain. Leo then went to Olafstad to ask the great Olaf Thorgilsson to accompany him on his next journey to the lands to the south, after some persuasion with gold coins Olaf agreed and he set off that summer.

When they set off that summer Leo had been amazed at the size of the Great Ships that were capable of traversing the wild winded south seas, they had passed a great distance and seen endless forests and beaches with no sign of civilization was rare for someone used to the Greek and Anatolian coast. They had finally arrived in Aurland when they went so far south that Olaf figured it was a new land and called it Myriland (Swamp and), there had been Aurdreki here as well and Olaf made it a point to hunt many of them. They had sailed around a very large Peninsula and the coast went west where they found the mouth to a River that was even greater than the River in Nawahlid, they had seen large settlements there that had grown Gulurskera and they had traded, Olaf had heard from Ragnar Bjornsson how there was a Large river from the Great lakes that flowed south and was the biggest river in the world. They had brought repairing equipment and repaired their ship and then set off even further west, then the coast went south once more where they had seen some more complex villages and the climate was beginning to become dry instead of the humid dampness that the land had continuously been from the northern edge of Aurland.

From here the villages became more and more advanced with some using mud brick buildings for their houses, now they had been sailing so very far south that it was winter but was still warm enough to make the men sweat. the coast and then curved eastward where they saw signs of an advanced civilization but did not investigate and then they headed further where it curved north then east once more where they saw a large town that used large carved stone buildings and had welcomed the Norsemen when they had set foot on the coast, the exact town it was is unknown but there are around 5 possible cities they could have landed at. The Norse had noted at how the upper class and rich had been dressed in long colorful feathers, the Natives probably though the Norse were strange as well and they had the Norse stay in a furnished large room with sleeping mats.

The next day they had seen the expansive amounts of gold in the "Chief's" household, later that day they saw a "Sporting event" where they passed rubber balls around in some manner of rules that the Norse did not Understand, the notable part is that at the end of the "Game" there were sacrifices, Human sacrifices. The Norse were bothered by this and decided to head back the next day, but due to some misunderstandings when they left they took captives and large amounts of gold with them. When the party arrived back in Olafstad and they brought back the captives and immense amount of gold they were hailed as Heroes, when the captives learned Norse they had told of even greater riches on the Peninsula and to the northwest there was wealth there as well, this had sparked an interest into the lands to the south and in response Bjarny had more ships with the requirements needed to sail in the harsher waters built. Leo believed that this was not Asia but that it had potential none the less and had moved into Leifsbudir and had made wealth by going into the slave trade and had hoped to lead his own expedition to the south.

Wasn't able to do as much as I wanted to but I needed to get another one out as soon as I could as I might not be able to update for a week or two, and with the previous update being huge this should make up for it so comment, criticize, and discuss on the pros and cons of this TL and how entertaining it is.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

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.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

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).

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

How would you rate the TL so far since the last time I asked? Anything I can do to make it better ?

Also doing one last two-year update and the next will be longer, I'm thinking of making it five or six instead of a whopping ten.

1043-1045

When the revolt in Elgurland was heard of, Bjarny Leifsson had gone personally to Snorrisborg on ship with six hundred men leaving his two sons to govern the lands while he was gone. When the ships had arrived most of the population had fled, after questioning some of the remaining inhabitants it was found many had taken refuge in a town that was founded to the west. Bjarny had a local Skraeling reveal the location and had his ships follow a small river that supposedly led to the lake near the settlement. The scouting ships were absolutely devastated with only half the men returning back alive, the pagans had celebrated this as a victory but also increased their defenses.

Bjarny; after taking an arrow to the shoulder came to the conclusion that it would be too hard to eliminate them immediately and sought to increase the defenses of Snorrisborg, given how costly and hard it was to find let alone attack Ivarstad Bjarny Leifsson had the warriors under his command stay in Snorrisborg for defensive purposes and to extract gold in the nearby areas. Bjarny had also had his men build a large trench, wall, and other fortifications around the town, a trench so large that the river flooded into it making it a moat. The wall was made with stacked riverstones with clay, a very primitive wall but effective and thorn buches had begun to be planted all around the perimeter. The fortifications allowed it to be easily taken by large assault from the sea but for the small size and low numbers of ships and fighters not to mention the poor quality of their weapons and what little armor they had means it was virtually impregnable in theory.

Bjarny had decided that trying to defeat the Pagans in a fight immediately was impossible and decided to keep Snorrisborg as a hub for the gold mining efforts, but this however was coming into question as various gold deposits were found in the interior of the Island of Vinland and nuggets were found. Gold dust and flakes were found all over but the technology to separate them from other silt and to reliably collect them was not known to the Norse so nuggets were the only means of a resource for gold, nuggets were found in the banks of the rivers in Elgurland but the sources were beginning to dry up and people had to move further and further inland along the rivers to get the gold they had wished for. While Elgurland had been and still was a strong source of Gold it appears it's importance is slowly fading, however adventurous lads willing to exploit the supposed "Great Ice Passages" that harbored the vast gold deposits once described by Olaf Thorgilsson. One man who had ventured up many rivers into the extreme west of the passages describes how abundant Gold was and how they had easily traded wool cloth for many pounds of gold from the Skraelings.

In Thorkellsborg, Iron products were the best in the Norse world mostly due to imported Frankish blacksmiths and their most expertise knowledge of it in the known world; The quality Iron of Thorkellsborg and some other deposits around the area had proved to be useful for war supplies and every soldier under Bjarny and the Allthing's command had a full suit of mail, sword and sometimes other assortment of weapons. The new 'cavalry' had used mostly swords but like said earlier the glaive and other pole arms had begun to see use. Most weapons were made from Steel due to the amount of slaves and former slaves that were blacksmiths and with the rich farmlands to the south and their own farms it was easily supported and Thorkellsborg had become a hub for the exportation of Metals and Fish.

In Leifsbudir a portion of the population moved to Skraelsigrad due to overpopulation, Leifsbudir was starting to lose value and transitioning from the one great and powerful port to a simple shipyard town. It still had some value from trade with Europe but most merchants decided to sell their wares further south in Thorkellsborg and Saeturland. Bjarny Leifsson's attempt to have slaves clear the land of trees had an unexpected consequence; erosion. He had hoped it would turn into rich grassland for sheep like Iceland but warmer which in some parts it was but the soil on the steep mountains being held by the roots of trees were now sliding off the hills and mountains, much of the fresh water had become muddy causing an exodus in some parts of the area to other lands. Merchants and Sailors had noticed and according to the saga, "Ye know when you get to the (North) Tip of the (Isle) of Vinland by the mud of the sea water".

Along the River Nawa (Great River) the Portage point farms had begun to into grow prosperous communities that farmed the Gulurskera and wheat and were exporting the extra to the town of Nawahlid. Maple sugar which had become a large part of the economy as loads of it was being exported to Iceland, the ship building in Saeturland was enormous as well. Warships and civilian ships were being built and exported; however the new ships that were built more robust for the hard waters to the south were being built more and more. The quality of the wood was far greater than any trees in Europe and they were much more seaworthy; with the threats of Skraelings and other enemies, Bjarny Leifsson had needed large amounts of ships to transport his warriors to combat these threats and many were being built solely for this purpose.

In the Great Fief the population has nearly quadrupled with the newborn children, the population at this time was around thirty five thousand in total. The rise in population had greatly pleased the Allthing and Bjarny Leifsson and nearly all of them were loyal to the Paramount Chief, seeing him as a brave warrior who had led the fight against the men of Elgurland and the Skraelings many times. However Bjarny Leifsson was growing into his middle age and had begun to get much grey hair and hair was beginning to fall out.

Gudbrand Bjarnysson who was nineteen years old as of this point had taken thirty seven men and women to start a colony in Grunnland. Gudbrand was not favored by the populace of Vinland and despite being the older brother many were hoping and advocating for his younger brother Birger who was now seventeen to succeed his father Bjarny Leifsson as Paramount Chieftain of The Great Fief, and the public opinion was more favorable to Birger in most cases, however in Markland and the North of Vinland there was some who favored Gudbrand. Despite the possible feud the two brothers did not think much ill of each other.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

Feels weird making an update when no one has replied to the last one and it's been around two weeks so not too sure if people even care about this anymore, the views are about three hundred away from eleven thousand so I guess people are still interested.

Also first time doing a longer than two or three years update so let me know if I'm not suited to this style or if you would prefer to go back to the two or three years format, Open to criticism of course. Also the true identities of Scottish kings and the names the Norse gave to them is seriously messed up so in those regards I'm going by lots of assumptions.

1046-1051

On the great Isle of Vinland which was larger than Ireland and Iceland and almost as large as Britain there had been some ecological problems developing; Pigs. Pigs somehow had been introduced to the wild and had reverted to their pre-domesticated state and became what we know today as the Vinnish Boar, they had been attacking Norse farms and livestock and even some growing large enough to hurt children. The Skraelings had it much worse than the Norse did as they relied on the ecosystem much more and much of the wild plants they ate were being consumed by the masses of boars and other animals, naturally this lead to them hunting boar. The 'Vinnish Sausage' was probably invented around this time by Skraelings by placing strips of boar meat over a rack to be slowly cooked and smoked, at some point in time this had been adopted by the Norse.

Another problem was goats, all over Vinland and the isles around it goats were introduced to make way for exploitation by the Norse and to mark explored land. The craggy islands where the early Norse settlements started due to defend-ability were full of goats, the problem was not large on the mainland but there was a feral goat presence. This was celebrated by the Norse and with the goats being able to digest nearly every plant had made them prominent but easy prey for wolves and other predators, however on the islands where they were introduced there had not been many predators resulting in large populations of goats who are only limited every few generations by mass die off from over consumption or Capture/killed by humans: Skraeling or Norse.

The extreme Erosion caused by the deforestation had mostly ended leaving behind much grassland and sheep had thrived, so much so that loads of wool was being shipped to all over the Fief and to Iceland as well for a cheap price. Nearly half the forest North of the Bjornsvirk had been cleared and the interior of the Northern Arm and discoveries of soap stone and other workable stones were being discovered, even some small amounts of gold.

In Iceland the immigration of the poor and common man had led to the richer and more powerful families to rise in importance, Iceland was becoming nearly dictated by the rich. The rich were only getting richer with the seizure of land that was left abandoned at times when no one wished to buy the farms of the immigrants who were leaving for Vinland. They were also some of the only ones to send their ship(s) to Vinland to buy materials such as furs, ivory, precious metals, iron and steel products, wines, sugar, sometimes salted fish and grain, and sell them for higher price in Iceland. When they had traded slaves from Europe they made extreme profits, however the demand for slaves was not as large as it was before, with two generations having been born into vinland had made that Female population was about nearly half of the total population but it was slightly leaning in the Male population with immigration that had maintained female slave trade, along with needs of workers and the like.

In Iberia the Muslim powers had been in a state of turmoil for quite some time since the Caliphate of Cordoba fell into ruin and the rise of the small petty Taifas, with support from the papacy and the rest of Europe in small amounts the Christian powers were ready to attempt to reclaim the peninsula. If all had gone well then it would mean that the christian Mediterranean coast would be able to be connected to the Atlantic coast. The vikings on the Heittejyar who had enjoyed the easy life of raiding Arab settlements and the easy fish of the sea just west of them had become close allies to the Christians in the Iberian peninsula; Particularly to King of Leon and count of Castille, Ferdinand the first. Ferdinand had taken an interest into the Norsemen who inhabited the Islands, many were Christian but there was a large pagan population. Ferdinand had considered using the same strategy as the Byzantine Emperors and using them as bodyguards, however there were only three hundred men or so on the Islands; however he could have gotten mercenaries from other Norse inhabited areas. He was surely about to get into a battle with his brother Garcia Sanchez the Third of Navarre even though they had been on good relations beforehand but now things were changing.

Ferdinand had hired around two hundred Norse mercenaries for his army, and had gained several counties with his army and the Mercenaries. Due to the Norse's habits of killing nearly every Man, Women, and Child with the exception of those they wanted as slaves there had been much land to settle; Many Norse settled down there and owned large pieces of land where they had acted as militia and as a first line of defense against invasion. The Norse's treatment of Arab slaves was documented by an escaped slave as: "They had forced us to eat Pork and drink Wine, both of which were expensive treasures to them, that they had been so willing to spite the followers of Allah disturbs me. They had then forced us to wear clothing dyed in pork blood and work the fields all day and our wives and daughters pleasure them all Night. When one would not comply with their demands they had their dogs chase them down and kill them, the infidels of the yellow hair are probably the farthest from the word of Allah".

The Greenland colonies were nearly abandoned save the few farms there to take advantage of trade and the Northern goods like Ivory and such, there were also shipwrights there to fix any ship that had been pushed ashore and needed repairs. Trade was not as prosperous as it once was, now trade between Vinland and Iceland was direct with established routes and the like. This had allowed travelers to be farther away from the rocky coast of Greenland and less chance of being wrecked by Icebergs, making it a much safer route If one was experienced with it. This was hard for Greenland, another problem was Skraelings to the North had been seen migrating to the south of their original area, Greenland's main advantage over Vinland was no Skraelings to try and fight with but now an Influx of Skraelings were moving south although not necessarily hostile.

In Norway Harald Sigurdsson also known as Harald Hardrada had been working with his Nephew Magnus Olafsson and the various chieftains in the North Sea isles to work on a joint invasion of England against Canute who was now in his sixties. Canute's son Harold Harefoot was originally designed to be his Heir to the Throne of England but his other son Harthacnut was more popular among the Nobles. Harthacnut was very ambitious and was suspicious to Harold and Canute, Canute had never allowed him to lead an army or be in one which worked in keeping any rebellions at bay. One day however King Canute had caught a serious sickness and in his age was worrying as he was unable to move and could hardly speak, Harthacnut saw an opening and decided to forge an Alliance with Magnus Olafsson but not with his uncle Harald Sigurdsson.

Magnus Olafsson wielding his father's battle axe led an army of thirten thousand Danish troops to assist Harthacnut and some of the English Nobles who had sided with him. Thorfinn Sigurdsson and King Duncan of Scotland had moved their small amount of troops south, however Harthacnut's Noble Allies had taken up resistance three days march south of the center of attention near the two old Roman Walls. The main army of Canute was stationed there and was now on a double sided attack from the south and North and had eventually retreated to the south through boat to the city of Jorvik or as it was known to the English as York where Canute was resting, it was not long after the Army stationed in York that Canute the Great who had once had a North Sea Empire Ranging from Norway to England to Denmark to Sweden and even some plans of the various Isles of the North Sea: had died.

The whole of England mourned the loss, not so much as they liked the King but because he had brought some sense of stability in the many years of war before his kingship and now the Fertile Plains of England are again under attack from the Norsemen. Many Nobles saw the death of Canute and the Rise of Magnus and Harthacnut as the dawn of a new reign, the small minority of nobles who did not immediately flock to Harthacnut's side and did not support him fled the country; Some went to Normandy, some to parts of Sweden, some to the Rus, and even a few that fled to Vinland albeit they were probably the fewest.

Harald Sigurdsson also known as Harald Hardrada was probably shook by what he saw as the betrayal of his nephew and their refusal to have him in the war under the excuse of a couple bad harvests to Norway that all in all did not matter. Harald had virtually no allies aside from his vassals and advisers, so he looked for some and found a powerful man: the Duke of Normandy, William the First. William had designs of the British Isles but was waiting for an opportunity to strike, Harald had sent an envoy to William supporting a division of the Land of England. The division would Include the vast territory of Northumbria/Jorvik and the land west of it go to Harald while the rest of England would go to William and that Harald would support a conquest by William to Ireland and/or Wales if they are allowed to loot whatever treasures they can obtain whilst in the war. William agreed but only on accounts of some minor land exchanges and such.

Harthacnut had planned to have himself crowned as King of England of course but Magnus Olafsson did not help him try and take the crown out of the goodness of his heart; Magnus Olafsson had demanded gold and silver in return. While the outcome of the war was clear it was not yet over, when Magnus had moved troops around for some reason or another Harthacnut had interpreted it as him attempting to subdue him and take the crown of England for himself. Harthacnut then summoned Magnus to a meeting where he was captured and held hostage where his second in command was ordered to sail the Danish Armies back to Denmark or else the kings life was forfeit.

The second of the command of the Danish army Eric Halvorsson had not received the full message; He had been informed of the Kings capture but not of the threat posed by Harthacnut. He had sent word to King Duncan the first of Scotland who immediately called his small yet effective army who easily breached the former Roman walls. Thorfinn Sigurdsson the Earl of Orkney had led his troops south along the western coast of Britain. To these threats Harthacnut had in a panic Magnus Olafsson executed by blood eagle, to those not familiar with the blood eagle it was a popular form of execution among the Norse in which a man is laid on his back and the rib cage is busted open from the backside and the lungs pulled out to resemble wings.

This however meant that the second in command was now not held back by anything, he had marched his troops to meet Harthacnut in battle. The battle was said to last over six hours with the Danish army initially having the upper hand but the Army under Harthacnut was able to push them back into retreat but not after taking many loses themselves. It had resulted in a stalemate with Harthacnut having most of his powers between the two old Roman Walls while Eric Halvorsson was in de facto control in most of England with the farther away Earls keeping to themselves independently.

With the death of Magnus Olafsson, Harald Sigurdsson who was his half uncle (His mother was Magnus' grandmother but share no other ancestry), had laid claim to the Throne of Denmark and the territories in Sweden under the Danish crown. Magnus' only son Konstantin who was named after the Roman emperor Constantine (Similar to how Magnus Olafsson was named after one of Charlemagne's names), was forced to flee with his mother being only four years old from Denmark seeking the western land his father and grandfather sought refuge. However Konstantin was on a separate ship from his mother and on the way from Denmark to Fareo the ship she had been on had sunk. When Konstantin Magnussson had arrived in Vinland the somewhat aged Bjarny Leifsson had greeted Konstantin the same way he had greeted Magnus.

With nearly no close caretakers and what little servants remained were little more than maids and bodyguards, Bjarny had decided that Konstantine would be educated under and brought up as the adopted by his son Birger. This was partly because Bjarny was too busy and old, the other part being Birger had not yet fathered a son but being only twenty one this wasn't too surprising. It was now somewhat obvious that Bjarny had decided that Birger would be the one to succeed him and Gudbrand was not fond of this, he and others had petitioned Bjarny about dividing the land after his death but according to sagas Bjarny's response was: "Nay. Division of the land given to us, the Line of Eric and Leif will only bring disaster and disgrace among our name. I spent much money for you to learn the ways and history of the men of the south (probably referring to the non-Scandinavian Europe), I know little but what I know is that all things great come to an end from division." The line of "All things great come to an end from Division" had become a philosophical center point for the Vinnish people later in history.

In Markland it was observed that around this time there were some successful results of domesticating Muskoxen by keeping them with Cattle as while they are more closely related to goats and sheep, their social habits are similar. The wool from them was notably different but held no practical use.

In the Frelsiland (formerly a part of Hnetaland)(OTL Prince Edward Island), so much land was being cleared and nearly all deer had been hunted in large portions of the island. The Town of Einarstad was growing and the extremely flat land led for the construction of large spacious houses. The house of the Chieftain was certainly large, it had used cobbled stone walls with mortar and had two floors supported by wooden beams, the Church was just as grand with cobbled stone and lime plaster. The Bishop of Vinland was said to report to the church that: "The Lord is most certainly pleased with the efforts the former pagans have put into the house of God, Rivaling churches in the rest of the Dane world." (Many Europeans refereed to all Norsemen in general as Danes).

The new settlements in Frelsiland were expanding greatly too, the large lagoons that numbered so many provided calm waters full of fish and fertile flat farmland. With nearly the entire island slaughtering or assimilating the Skraelings there was little threat and with it's close proximity to Bjarnystad Islands allowed for large immigration from the over populated isles, Frelsiland had exported so much crops that Grain became so common and lost it's value so much that shipments to Iceland were plausible. The grain stores were so numerous and large that they could consume grain for years on the stores.

On the coasts of the Great Fief a new class was emerging, Merchants who took part in the fur trade and other things had lived permanently on their ships with their families who would camp on the coast for the night. The majority of the people doing this were either assimilated Skraelings or part Skraelings, the rest were mainly Slaves from various other countries who gained their freedom and started families but had trouble assimilating into Norse society or didn't even want to. Most of the slaves came from the Baltic, Ireland, England, Germany and the Dutch regions but there were some slaves from Norse countries as well. Many of these former slaves married Skraelings and adopted parts of their culture.

The Norse communities welcomed these sea caravans as they allowed much more abundant trade items and more frequent contact with the many communities. Some of these Sea caravans had multiple ships but would at times get separated, they had been known to go as far south as Thorskurland but rarely traveled too far away from communities which they were dependent on for trade and ship/tool repairs.

These people's camps are a boon to Archaeologists as they leave behind many crucial details on Norse culture at the time, they even have many signature artworks reminiscent of the countries they came from including ivory and soapstone carvings that integrate native Skraeling arts as well. Some even gained enough wealth to travel back to their home countries, others went back and came back with others but most of these sea caravans clung to the coast for the most part and did not risk long sea voyages with no land in sight.

In Saeturland the red oak had made fine ships and each wood had it's own advantages to ships, new techniques had made where the Hulls of ships would have two layers. Ships had an inner layer of wood that would be extremely thin but would make it safer for longer voyages and enable larger ships to be less likely to capsize and more stable. It also came with making the ships more sturdy by fitting the thin inner planks tightly before the ship is ever set into water allowing the outer planks to expand when in water to create a more secure structure.

In Hnetaland the town of Olafstad had trouble with growing crops but the fishing and hunting were enough to get by, on the eastern Island of Hnetaland it was discovered to contain large Lakes on the interior. The lakes were rich in Salmon and many wanted to start colonies there, there was good farmland as well but for the moment no one was willing to do it yet.

It was also around this time that Ragnar Bjornsson had died, interest in the western lands had begun to die with people looking for adventure south along the sea coast. However there was one explorer, Thorgil Ragnarsson the son of Ragnar Bjornsson who wanted to live up to his fathers reputation by leading seventy men with cargo over a long distance to the larger cities he had heard about. The sagas say he wanted to succeed his father as chieftain of Storfoss but wasn't able to, he had left with some ships to transport him to the villages his father had visited years before but this time he would go south along the large river there with portaged boats and go much further.

He had done some small business in the towns his father had been to but he traveled on the boats far to the south, unlike his father he had no guide and had merely visited the settlements and was only able to come across those close to the river. By the end of the year 1051 he had reached a point where the river converged with many other rivers leading to a much larger river, the settlements he came across all said that the river led to an ocean to the south, Thorgil Ragnarsson had wanted to keep going but the rivers freezing over forced him to make camp and wait until spring.

In Norway Harald Sigurdsson had an empire almost as Large as Cnut's when it was in it's prime, the one thing missing was the fertile plains of England. He had faced little resistance to his reign at first in Denmark but there were signs of disloyalty. The records are blurred but somehow he had gotten into a conflict with the Jomsvikings which he won and burnt Jomsborg to the ground, he had agreed to let the men live if they had converted to Christianity and made a pilgrimage to Rome; Only five of them accepted with the rest either dying in battle or refusal to convert.

With the destruction of the Jomsvikings and the former Jomsvikings that left the order years before to join Magnus Olafsson's army and converted had no place in Scandinavia had went to Faroe where they were cast out by the chieftains there. It is unknown how many they numbered but probably numbered somewhere around fifty or forty men. They had then turned south to Orkney but they were asked to leave due to a bad year leaving food tight, desperate they turned to the land to the west they had heard about while in Faroe.

They had gone to Iceland for resupply when they found the Wine and Ivory traders from Leifsbudir and had traveled back with them where they had integrated into the warriors of the Paramount Chieftain who had traveled frequently to enforce the law and beat back any Skraeling attacks.

In Nawahlid, there had been large amounts of construction for houses and new walls. The houses were often times made from cobbled limestone due to a few large fires over the years, they were constructed much like the houses on Isles were wood was largely unavailable but the difference being is they were covered in a plaster and had a primitive type of mortar. The Walls were built using large river stones, they were at first built out of wood but Skraelings had a tendency to burn down wooden structures in warfare. The stones were unworked and had been primitively been piled on the other, it was reinforced with dirt packed into the crevices from a Large trench in front of the wall.

In Thorkellsborg Bjarny Leifsson had some of his personal slaves build simple roads between some of the other settlements a few miles from the town, they were built similar in style to the way roads in Norway were built. These new roads would be important for the trade of the poorer people who could not afford frequent usage of ships, it had also allowed for easier transportation of wood into the town for construction and burning.

But yes, Comment and share your thoughts.
Side note; Will Bavarian Raven ever finish his tl?

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

This time I'll do a three year update mostly because it took a looong time to make the last one so funnily enough this may be faster and more desirable, the past updates were around two years and this one is three so it's a small compromise.

Nearly twelve thousand views so thats good I guess. This update won't be as jam packed but not every year can be a bustling year and with the stuff I'm going to cram into the next update it would have ruined it to put some of it into here, already working on it so it should be only a few days.

Anyways I'm glad everyone enjoys it, also a side note: does anyone know if Evil is going to keep going on his Vinland TL or has his studies grown to numerous and he given up?

1052-1054

The Norse were not well known for their Metal working expertise, however in the early years of colonization many Frankish smiths were brought in as slaves. Many had gained freedom and taken apprentices who taught the more advanced and refined skill leading to much more quality Iron products, combined with the quality ore around Thorkellsborg led to some of the Finest metal products in the Norse World. The Iron mines on the Islands near Thorkellsborg began to dry up and new settlements were being built around the area exploiting new Iron sources, the mines were productive and techniques for supports in the mines were imported from Europe most likely from Italian or German slaves.

On the great Island of Vinland most of the population had lived on the coast, but small fishing settlements on lakes in the interior had sprung up that had acted as places for the Fur and Gold trade. These settlements also thrived greatly off of hunting and as a result of this had begun to mingle with the Skraeling population who was at this time well aware of Norse presence and were either Allied or subjugated. The small settlements were a great boon to the greater trade of the Great Fief as small amounts of Gold being sent allowed for minting and trade with Iceland.

Thorgil Ragnarsson was finally able to lift his men from their winter camp and set further south they had came across a few settlements but they were not as impressive as the ones they had seen earlier until they came across a large one which appeared to have wealth. Thorgil Ragnarsson had launched an attack on the Town bringing back bits of Gold, stone carvings, and pelts. Thorgil then took the food they raided and sailed further south encountering a much larger river where they sailed much further south and with their weapons had decided to raid and pillage many of the settlements they came across.

They had eventually came across the Southern sea many of the Skraelings had spoken of, much of the men wanted to head home but the current of the large river would not allow it. Thorgil Ragnarsson had decided the only way home was along the coast, encountering the Aurdreki described by other explorers and eventually making his way to Olafstad and from there returned home extremely rich.

In England, the land was an easy Target; The Normans and Norwegians were planning to attack and the Former Danish army led by Eric Halvorsson was in shambles, the small army of Harthacnut even more so. In the Spring a Scottish Army laid siege on Harthacnut's territory. King Duncan was relying on Thorfinn Sigurdsson to reinforce him; Thorfinn had other plans however, given his lineage giving him a claim to the Throne of Scotland and Duncan being a usurper had given him right to Invade Scotland with support of the men of Orkney.

The Army of Eric Halvorsson was beginning to ease when the first Norman attack from the south came, the attacks of the Norwegians followed soon after. Eric Halvorsson had died in battle and the men had retreated leaving the Normans and Norwegians to fights off the Paltry English militia. As expected the Normans and Norwegians now were having territorial disputes on the land, given how the Norwegian Army had to have some force back in Scandinavia to enforce rule in it's new territories in Denmark and Sweden so Harald decided to temporarily give the Normans what they wanted with having a chunk of England to himself.

Harthacnut had managed to beat the Scottish back to Scotland after they heard of the Orknyean invasion, he had remained in his territory out of fear of The Norwegians attacking of which were actually exhausted. Harthacnut was safe for the moment.

The Scots did not take kindly to a half Norse laying claim to the Throne but with no stationed army was swept up easily, he however took advice from the old King Canute who used every opportunity to appear Scottish in customs, fashion, and demeanor; and after a short time it began to pay off with people recognizing his Scottish descent. When Duncan had returned he found around thirty percent of the court had turned to Thorfinn's side and he had most of the country under control using the Scottish tactics of using their mountainous land against them. It is even a theory that he had enlisted native Scots for use in his army as the amount of soldiers increased but there was no recorded reason why and it could have perhaps been reinforcement from Orkney.

King Duncan was wounded in battle and forced to flee to the Holy Roman Empire, but not after destroying nearly five hundred enemy troops. Thorfinn who was now aged, had founded a new Dynasty in the Scottish monarchy, it is argued that he reestablished the dynasty of king Malcolm but it is debatable to this day. He had in acted some Major reforms which gave many Scottish nobles more power which gained him support and was firmly in place and was Crowned King of Scotland.

These years were not very active in the Nyrfold, Bjarny Leifsson was growing older and the competition between his two sons was growing. The next few years would be bloody on both sides of the Atlantic and out of them New powers would emerge.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

I feel as if I go to in-depth with the events in Europe and not focusing on Vinland as much, tell me if I should go more in depth with Europe (which would probably cause hair tearing out but still doable) or I should just summary up Europe with some details regarding Norse countries now and again?
Also not as big as I originally thought (also some real life things going on so that;s a factor) it was going to be but very important details and buildup is going on.

1056-1059

In Nawahlid the city was starting to resemble a city like that in Northern Europe, there were no finely cut stone buildings but it looked like the cities of Scandinavia and the Rus where the majority of houses were small and plain but the more important houses were built to look magnificent by Norse standards. The production of Lime was an important part of living in this Area on the Great Fief and was used very extensively as it was a very wet region and the effort to maintain wooden houses was much harder to the many people who immigrated from Islands who used stone and peat housing such as in Iceland and Shetland and preferred to use the abundant Limestone in the area. It was not just Nawahlid that had done this but nearly all settlements along the River.

In Frelsiland, enormous amounts of forest was cleared and the crop yield was significantly greater given how most of the wood was burned into the soil fertilizing it further. The population exploded with the Influx of a new generation of immigrants from Europe, the first stone masons that were slaves from Gaul had built some structures there but were limited due to the lack of stone quarries and the Island not being a good source for quality stone, some of the Masons had eventually made their way to Saeturland where they were slightly more successful.

In Scotland, Thorfinn Sigurdsson had consolidated his power and in small wars had taken the Isles of Mann and the others surrounding Scotland. He had ambitions to take Ireland and England and was gaining support in Scotland, the Men of the Shetlands and Faroe were also afraid of invasion but he did not have a Casus Belli to do so.

On the Bjarnystad Islands, the carrying capacity of the Islands were beginning to stretch and Bjarny Leifsson had convinced many of the residents to immigrate to other places such as Saeturland, Frelsiland, Hnetaland, even to small settlements in Grunnland and Thorskurland.

Gudbrand Bjarnysson had led the establishment of several settlements and was competant in many things, but he was reportedly not well in settling disputes and in modern times is theorized on his supposed behavior that he may have had a form of Autism due to his social misunderstandings but nothing is proven. His brother Birger however was fair at disputes but was poor with leading relations with Skraelings and often sparked conflicts.

In 1058 Bjarny Leifsson had caught a sickness and was on deaths door, his last request was to have his two sons co-rule and to swear an oath not to depose or divide territory among each other. They took the oath and had on Bjarny Leifssons request, establish their hold on the Allthing further. Bjarny Leifsson had died a month after, his death led many minor chieftains to revolt and declare themselves independent. For an entire year and a half the Army was sent to Crush all the rebellions, when the well equipped army came to their door some rebels fled into the wilderness and all records of them ceased, presumably either killed by Skraelings or married into Skraeling tribes. After the Final rebellions were squashed, the two brothers had decided to give the name of the Land under their dominion an official title: Leifrvalde, as a reference to their Grandfather the original founder of the Vinland colonies.

In the Northern Hemisphere of the Atlantic a storm had brewed that had killed thousands of livestock and devastated the Northern Isles. Greenland was nearly entirely abandoned after it were it not for the low population being able to survive completely off of hunting and small imports, Faroe and Shetland lost much, and Iceland was sent into extreme famine, the new co-rulers of Leifrvalde had decided this could be a chance to legitimatize themselves to Europe by providing supplies and Aid to the battered Iceland. Gudbrand Bjarnysson had sent Barrels of grain to the people while Birger had sent salted venison and dried beef. This had nearly taken out half of the Allthing of Leifrvalde's treasury, albeit the hardly used it as most things needed would be done by the Paramount Chief(s)'s own slaves, farms, ect. The people of Iceland had grown to respect the two Chieftains, but their aid was not enough to secure the people in Iceland and many were forced to come back to Leifrvalde with the ships sent with aid.

In England the Normans had been crushing any signs of discontent in the English, the Norwegians did the same. The Normans had sent a small fleet to capture the Isle of Mann and another fleet to attack the Scots, the army in Mann was able to hold off the Normans in the Northern half of the Island but the southern half was taken and the Normans built their signature Motte and Bailey forts. The Norse were not skilled at attacking forts and the sheer number of the new forts being built had meant the Normans were firmly planted on the Island. The army in Scotland was able to defeat the Normans entirely and sent them retreating, Thorfinn Sigurdsson had then sent small fleets to England fighting many Norman units along the northwest coast before and sending half of the fleets to aid the forces on Mann. The Mann forces were only able to defeat the forts by starving them out but with the Larger Norman forces forcing them to be a quick mobile army had made waiting them out difficult and tried to assault the walls of the forts with mostly failures. However with the arrival of Thorfinn Sigurdsson they were able to beat the Norman armies and starve the forts out and reclaim the Island. The defeat in the attempt to take Mann had humiliated William I. The Scots were not able to attack Norman territory because of the need to defend against the forces of Harald Hardrada.

In Elgurland, the exploitation of gold was not very large on the Elgur river; however on it's tributaries and other rivers in the region gold was heavily collected. Elgurland was not very warm compared to the other lands in Leifrvalde but it was very flat and the amount of livestock that could be raised was enormous. They had taken advantage of this along with the rich hunting and fishing to start small stations along many rivers to exploit the gold and Furs in the land. Immigration to Elgurland was little other than temporary colonists who came to exploit some gold them leave for other lands, but the population slowly increased with the birthing of children who usually stayed in the land.

On Bear Island (OTL Anticosti) the population was small and didn't farm in the slightest, resorting to fishing and hunting as their means of food as well as trading the furs they gained through hunting for grain. The Island was an ideal place for naval ports and repair and was a central trade area for the trade between all the territories. Of course it did not have a large permanent population but was frequented on a daily basis by tradesmen.

In Hnetaland a new settlement was founded, at a great inlet Ketilfjord was founded (OTL Halifax). The chieftain Ketil (father's name was lost to history), was a wealthy landowner in Iceland but after the winters had decimated his wealth he had used what he had left to start a colony in Liefrvalde. The colony was based mainly off of the lifestyle one would expect in Iceland but with wooden houses and farming of wheat but mainly sheep, goat, and fish were the main sources of labor but a fair amount of meat was brought in by Hunting and trade with the Skraelings had thrived.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

Been awhile since the last update but hope you people enjoy it.

It's almost time for the time OTL the viking age was coming to an end, will it survive or will it end the same way? Work your brains because it's going to get heated and with the death of the leader of Leifrvalde (Name for the "allthing" and government of all the land colonized, named after his death).

1060-1065

Harald Sigurdsson also known as Harald Hardrada, was attempting to receive as much funds possible to employ the armies needed to keep Sweden and Denmark under pacification. He was having trouble holding his empire together and his ambitions of launching a large scale invasion of the Norman territories seemed far fetched. He had desperately looked for a means of large capital and was able to gain some funds from the church and had raised a large Army with the funds, but it was not enough to take on the Normans or Harthacnut. However the recent colds to the North had weakened Iceland and had demanded tribute from the Icelandic Allthing where the Allthing had blatantly refused and according to the Norwegians gave the messenger a Blood Eagle, however modern historians generally agree this was probably perpetrated by the Norwegian crown to justify an invasion of Iceland.

With the harvest gathered in England Harald Hardrada had sent thirty-one ships with around a thousand and a half warriors to Iceland to enforce the tribute and offer 'protection' to the Allthing. When the Norwegian ships were fired upon by arrows Harald Hardrada had decided to take the Allthing under his control. Many of the wealthy who had taken a rise in land ownership due to large amounts of the populace migrating to Vinland had led to a unofficial 'noble' class rising in Iceland ever since Leifrvalde became popular with the growth increasing dramatically since the horrid winters that left the North bare, Harald had gotten some of them to join his cause and willingly become his vassals.

With the support of many of the wealthy houses he was able to conquer Iceland barely needing to fight given most land was owned by the wealthy and had belonged to them and their servants. While the free Icelandic Identity was in decline, it was not entirely wiped clean. The Free men of Iceland, led by Ulf Rolfsson had led around one thousand poorly equipped and had used hit and run tactics against the Norwegian army but chased into a valley where half the force was divided as half was able to escape but the other half had faced the Norwegian army head on. Ulf Rolfsson himself led the battle against the Norwegians, the battle surprisingly waged on for five hours before the Norwegians killed every man in the battle including Ulf Rolfsson. His son Arne Ulfsson had led the women and children of the soldiers and the half that had retreated onto the collective boats they had and believing the war lost had led the civilians out of Iceland to Greenland where some immigrated south to Vinland; However many had stayed in Greenland and rebuilt the old settlements there. The co-Paramount Chiefs of Leifrvalde had welcomed the immigration and made Arne Ulfsson Chieftain of Greenland as there hadn't been a paramount chieftain of Greenland in decades and was left primarily to self rule.

The Norwegian king was surprisingly pleased with the result given how he would have either killed or exiled the families of the men who fought against him anyways. He was however worried about the exiles in Greenland attacking Iceland again, given how his attention was needed in England and Scandinavia he could not risk attacking Greenland and possibly get into a fight with the remaining forces there and the large possibility of them being supported by the large and well equipped army of Leifrvalde. With his army sent back to Norway, Harald had gotten his Icelandic supporters to root out any discontent and exile them to Greenland. He had also bestowed upon the wealthy who had supported him Nobility ranks equal to those in Scandinavia and had local men be used for the local garrisons.

The colonies of Greenland had been nearly abandoned but with the refugee influx it had sprung back to life with many of the abandoned settlements being reestablished. It was around this time that the first Skraelings had made landing in Greenland, oddly enough they were well aware of the existence of the Norse and had several Iron and Wool Items on them. They had come because they wanted to reach land that they believed the Norse were coming from due to famine in their homes in the Hellulands. They lived peacefully with the Norse and Greenland begun to grow back into a major Economic center with exporting many Ivory and Furs to Iceland, the rest of the Leifrvalde, and to some extent Europe.

The opinions of Leifrvalde and the Paramount Chiefs among the former Icelanders were indifferent with a slight amount of distrust and bother due to the Allthing of Leifrvalde being much like the Icelandic Allthing for the most part but the Paramount Chief(s) could overrule any decision if they pleased. While they did not revolt openly they had desired to be independent but due to much of the men being killed in Iceland they did not have the numbers let alone large amounts of fighting age males in said population. Gudbrand and Birger Bjarnysson knew this and considered allowing them independence because while Greenland was making an economical comeback it was nothing compared to the Hustle and Bustle of Saeturland, Frelsiland, Hnetaland, and Vinland.

In Nawahlid the City walls were being expanded and had now used a primitive type of Cement that was made from Lime, crushed stone, and sand. It was built very roughly and simply, using wooden frames it was poured with large amounts of stones and filling the gaps for each level of stones making up only around fifteen percent of the Walls mass. It took many years to do this and at this point in time was still going on. The defenses of Nawahlid was the best in Leifrvalde and given it's importance as a center of trade it was starting to become one of the wealthiest towns only second to Thorkellsborg. Due to the usage of Lime products in the town it was called ' The City of lime ' by the Merchants. Attempts were made to build bridges across the river but they had failed.

In Grunnland colonists had settled on an Island and butchered all the natives on it, they founded Bjartestad (otl Matinicus Island). There were ten other Islands in the archipelago that they colonized to some extant, they had mostly let loose sheep and goats on the grassy crag Islands like many other places in the Nyrfold as to mark Norse presence. The colony had thrived with trade and was growing Large amounts of grain but had to defend the coastline against some Skraeling attacks but otherwise had little other problems.

In Iberia the Norse who had helped the "Emperor" of Spain, Ferdinand the first who had recently gained the title from the papacy; had settled in conquered territory. The Emperor had gotten many Norse to fight under his banner as with the Christianization of Scandinavia was leading to less raids on Christian targets and given the distance of non-Christians (Baltic's are an Exception) this led traditional viking raids mostly absent but with the Emperor of Spain offering employment many had gone the distance to live in more fertile lands and raid large amounts of treasure. With Norse Pirates being the spearhead force Lisbona was attacked and it's walls breached followed by the main Spanish force who then completely took the city and the surrounding county. The Emperor had no vassals who he wanted to govern the new Province but the leader of the Norse force was named Rollo Olafsson, the name Rollo historically is known for the first duke of Normandy and was a Norseman.

Thinking it was a wise choice as Rollo Olafsson was very hungry for the spoils of war and given how the new province was on the edge of Christian lands such qualities were favored and he was skilled at warfare along with being a devout convert. Ferdinand had allowed him the title of count and gifted him half the spoils of the conquest personally and had the rest of the spoils given to his men with the exception of half the looted food stores which were needed to feed the Spanish army. As a first order, Rollo had purged all Muslims but allowed some mercy to the small population of Druze and Jews in the area. With large swathes of Muslims killed and large amounts of land up for settlement many of the Norse fighters had gotten their families to cultivate the abandoned farms. Rollo had also sent his men to constantly harass the already unstable and failing Taifas, his goal was to secure the Strait of Gibraltar and to gain the Enormous wealth that came from such. While he was a typical viking that enjoyed war and battle but he also took interest in the stone masonry of the Spanish and the Taifas, he had taken interest and copied Norman Motte and Bailey forts but using rudimentary stone working and used it to establish rule over inland territories.

The Spanish along the coast had gotten very good relation with Norse trade partners who had traded looted items and the ones who had colonized the Islands to the west had brought in large amounts of fish and bought mainly salt. Sometimes items from a Land even further west than the Islands had made their way to their markets, but going from the Hietteyjar to Leifrvalde was a very hard journey and only those experienced in the journey had any hope of jumping across the Atlantic. However the Great ships built from the enormous trees of Saeturland were being used to traverse the deeper waters of the Mid-Atlantic and only those large ships were capable of storing enough cargo and food supplies to make it across the Atlantic and profitable let alone actually surviving the trip. The Norse who lived in the area had adopted Basque and Arab ship techniques and they were more suitable for Atlantic crossings and after a period of years it slowly spread to Leifrvalde but not so much to Scandinavia given the inefficiency the additions would bring in Northern waters.

In The Taifas fear was rampant in the nobility, many were trying to secure safe havens to the south and west because sooner or later they believed the Spanish would take them; The new wave of Brutality of the Norse did not ease their minds either. While they had been warring with each other trying to reunite the great Al-Andalus that had fallen decades before they had now stopped in an uneasy cease-fire. They had allied with other Taifas but they never allied as a whole, even if they did the Emperor Ferdinand could convince the Frankish or the Pope for assistance if they were to cause a notable threat. Even if that were not true the manner of warfare and psychological warfare the Norse introduced that the Spanish were picking up on had been very detrimental to the troops; raise an army in seven villages to attack, instead of defending the enemy avoids most engagements and attack civilians directly. The Spanish had done this but the Norse were known to attack the specific places the nearest army's home and even demand tribute for the captured civilian's lives who were often times family of the soldiers. However many times the Norse did not find it practical to do such and saw it better to Pillage and Burn leaving only ashed in their wake. This of course led the course of battle to be mostly on the defensive for the Arabs, they had requested support from the south but other than meager grain supplies and weapons there was no help at this point in time.

Saeturland was thriving at this point in time, food was abundant and buisness was booming with the finest ship building in the Norse world. The copper miners went deeper and deeper inland to get their hands on copper, with this copper it became the center for minting most coins. Coins as currency were becoming more common as they were being minted more and more often, they were beginning to become accepted in Iceland and large Merchants in Norway. Other than ship building and coinage, there was another economic boom Saeturland had that is the reason for it's name: Maple syrup. Maple Syrup and Sugar of Saeturland were the only source of it and attempting it with maples in Europe were inefficient and very bitter but were mixed with the imported sugar and syrup to overcome the problem of bitterness. It was primarily eaten by Nobles and wealthy on Holidays and days of celebration, other than that it was too expensive to ship oversea for most people.

Salt was something the people of Leifrvalde did not have much of, they mostly went without and got it from Animal tissue or imported it. However on the North side of the Bjarnystad Islands salt was discovered, demand was high for salt and instantly the trade that was already existent in Bjarnystad skyrocketed and salt mining opened, however given it was an Island it took massive work to maintain the small mines which increased the price. Eventually it began to flood and while it was fought off there was always water and men would have to dive with a tool to get chunks of rock salt and bring it out, many men's eyes were heavily damaged after being induced to the heavy amounts of salt in the water induced to their eyes when going underwater.

In England Harthacnut died in his sleep and it was later theorized it was poison, to support this theory Thorfinn Sigurdsson begun his march just after a few hours he had gotten sick and died. With no heirs the forces under Harthacnut surrendered to Thorfinn Sigurdsson but some defected to William of Normandy or Harald Hardrada. With this the Scottish crown was at it's most powerful point in history yet, with more fertile lands to cultivate the crown could support a larger army.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

Ah, there is nothing like using coin flips to decide major results in a story. Adds to the randomness and unpredictability maybe. Also again please le tme know what you think and be sure to check out Bavarian Raven's Vinland TL I hear soon he's gonna have it up and running again.

Also I did not think at the start of this TL that I would be getting into Arab politics so not sure if people are a fan of that but whatever.


1066-1070

All over Harald Hardrada's empire he was employing men into his army, he had funded this by a large surge in his Treasury because he has installed taxes on wood exports to Iceland and had a monopoly on the exports of wood there. Along with deporting the poorer families to Iceland due to all the freed space with the large Migrations had allowed his own private lands and estates could make money. He had taken large amounts of men from Iceland to fight in his army and left a small amount in Iceland to keep the peace. Harald had also taken the Shetlands as it was a vital base for contact with Iceland and also a base for invading the Faroes and Scotland if he had wanted.

Harald had set his eyes not on Scotland though, fighting in the Highlands would mean certain defeat and it would take enormous strategy to take it; His eyes were on the rest of England. Harald Hardrada had taken Nine Thousand men and Marched into the land of William, count of Normandy but he had recently taken the title of King. Williams Army was much larger than Harald's, but Harald's army was different as most of the men in the ranks were native Anglo-Saxons and had made better use of the terrain. The Battle was a Norwegian success but the Normans had barely had any casualties, however the Norman armies Morale was lowered and the battles afterwards lowered their numbers to half it's original size.

The Norwegian King Harald Hardrada had been tormenting the Normans and beaten them back, the Normans had a technological advantage with some units utilizing the Crossbow. Harald had seen the potential these weapons had and had scavenged them and had some new ones produced by local smiths. Along with bows of Yew and Ash Harald had the advantage with ranged units and the Normans not being able to fight the Norwegian/English army King William had instead dissolved an Eighth of his army and used the funds that would otherwise have paid and fed said portion of the army and offered it to King Thorfinn of Scotland if he would attack Norwegian English territory. Thorfinn Sigurdsson had agreed and attacked but withdrew after taking enough treasure to satisfy him but it led to the Norwegians offering peace with the Normans with nearly a third of Norman England to now be under control of the Norwegian Crown. While many would have been outraged at this William only considered it a temporary setback and believed he would take all of England.

In Nawahlid, the farms inside it's walls was enough to feed itself and did not need to import food other than particular comfort foods. The walls were being built higher and higher and large swathes of forest were being cleared to expand it's farms and along the Nawa River's Tributaries near the city small settlements were being built to sustain the farms and due to the terrains features many knew one day the city would be able to become as large as Jorvik or even bigger. The former slaves from the Netherlands area had built levees to keep flooding out and many small drainage canals that had led into containment ponds or directly into the river. Around this time fired brick became popular, it was incredibly suited to both cool and hot weather as it sucked heat in the summer making it much cooler and kept heat in during winter it also was much cheaper than the amount of Lime plaster they were producing to stop fires. The first Towers were being built in the Nyrfold and Leifrvalde as temples to the Christian god were built out of brick and mortar. The Introduction of fired clay bricks allowed wall construction to be much faster and stronger and primitive rain aqueducts were being built to supply often used wells with more water supply.

In Thorkellsborg the people were thriving, they had more than enough to eat and indulged in many things commoners on the other side of the Atlantic would dream of; but the population was slowly declining. Many had sought out a better living in Nawahlid or to lands to the south and some who had worked in collection of Iron ore had moved to the many new iron mining based settlements only a couple miles from the town of Thorkellsborg resulting in a form of population balkanization with it becoming more and more spread out, here too Fired clay brick was becoming popular and roads were being built out of brick with no mortar used to connect the various farms and mines. However the town of Thorkellsborg was still an essential place for the fishing of the grand banks and was still one of the most prominent markets in Leifrvalde.

The two co-Paramount Chiefs ruled competently, they had made errors every once and a while and most were content with their rule; most but not all. Many of the immigrants from Iceland wished to rebuild their free democratic Icelandic identity in the new land. Knowing this Gudbrand Bjarnysson had came to the conclusion with his brother Birger that it would be wise to, and according to the sagas says "Blocking a river will only cause a large lake to form that will drown everything in it's built up fury, one must divert the flow to more favorable paths". The Paramount Chiefs of Leifrvalde tried to restore the democratic Allthing in Greenland but Arne Ulfsson did not wish to submit to a democratic Allthing, so instead they had given the declining colonies of Elgurland up and allowed it to be independent and run in a more democratic fashion like old Iceland. However the Men who wished for a more Icelandic democracy also wanted the rich fertile Lands of Leifrvalde, however this is where the cunning of Birger Bjarnysson showed; at refusing the offer the men had lost face and with using rights of discovery on the side of the Paramount Chieftains and with the spread of false rumors were able to arrest some of the "Freedom Seekers" as they called themselves. However they were not executed, they were force fed large amounts of wine and interrogated into releasing the identities of other Freedom Seekers, it was then announced publicly in all major towns the information of the men giving up their comrades and to further their guilt were given farms.

Not all Freedom Seekers were rooted out though, they existed underground and met up to discuss what they would do. They considered things such as assassination of the two Paramount Chiefs, bringing their families and finding an even more fertile land to the south was discussed, but one of the most radical was not to go to new places but to bring Iceland back under their control. The underground network was divided into three essential beliefs but worked together, one was to reclaim Iceland, another to relocate somewhere far to the south, and another was to fight and take the Paramount Chiefs' heads. Eventually they decided that relocation was the most likely to not fail as the other two would require large conflicts. According to the Sagas Eighty Seven families had traveled south along with some sheep and crop seed. They had repair tools on them and acted like a mobile village and settled on an Island many weeks travel south on a large Island and called the new village Hviturfjaran which translates to "White Beaches" (otl Abaco Islands). They settled down reportedly due to the nice weather. At that point in time it was the southernmost Norse community and for paltry Iron items they were able to get the natives to work their farms for them but obtained a large amount of food through fishing and trading but the new Thing had banned communication and trade with Leifrvalde to the North.

In Iberia, Rollo Olafsson, Count of Lisbona had been raiding and conquering which pleased his lord Ferdinand the First. While Rollo was considered a hero to the Christian Spanish he killed almost a million innocent Muslims, he invested large amounts of time and money to the religious genocide, he did however allow the Saqaliba who were former slaves from east Europe to Convert to Christianity and also allowed those who surrendered a chance to convert. The Taifas were begining to form an uneasy alliance, they requested support again and again from the south and east but to no avail. However a man known as Ibrahim ibn Tanja had rallied some capital from Algiers and was able to rally men from all over the land to him and managed to defeat Rollo Olafsson in battle and reclaimed two counties from him but was unable to pierce any further due to defensive positions; Ibrahim was hailed a hero in the Islamic Iberia and all the Taifas supported him and he had dreamed of not only reclaiming Iberia, but to lead a fight into the land of the Franks as well.

In Elgurland, new settlements were being built to facilitate the gold mining and cattle. The fur trade was prosperous as furs you could not get anywhere else were in Elgurland. The hunting industry was high and the Norse there barely ate grain as livestock was abundant and the meat that came along with the fur trade had fed the communities for the most part. The population was gradually making a rise again due to birth rates and with the influx of settlers looking for some of the Northern Gold legend, some of these people explored the Hellulands thoroughly looking for the gold and mapping out passages to go further and further west along the arctic sea. Some actually did find gold in the Hellulands and others had found skraelings who were willing to trade what sparse pieces of gold they had for simple metal or cloth trinkets or tools. However sightings of a new type of Skraeling in the Hellulands was beginning to appear, the translators did not even remotely know any of their language and their technology was different from the other arctic Skraelings, they had amounts of gold on them and the Norse knew they had came from the west and this had spurred the evolution of the "Northern Gold" legend into the "Northwestern Gold" Legend.

In Greenland, Skraelings had come and the Norse attempted to assimilate them. It was going well until in a community in the western settlement due to a misunderstanding had led the Skraelings to kill all the Norse in the community, the neighboring villages counter-attacked and were able to kill all the Skraeling warriors and forced the women and children into slavery. The new Greenlanders also had adopted massive seal and walrus hunts, the Ivory trade was becoming prominent again and the Greenish were producing Hnefatafl sets out of Ivory and other goods as well and exporting them both south and east.

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

A shorter update, more of an update on a few things I hadn't picked up on in a while but it is preceding some big events. So yeah, very soon a new larger update should come unless some real life things go down which due to things might have a chance of happening.

1071-1075

Nawahlid was growing from being a town to a city, it had five churches, two Hofs, and one Synagogue as a small amount of Jewish money lenders migrated there due to the Norse being slightly more religiously tolerant than Europe was and wanting to get away from the poverty in Europe. The local Church authorities were not pleased with heathen temples being in the same city with Churches, however some priests found it advantageous to share the city as the low unimpressive Hofs were trash compared to the multiple story churches and had gained converts through it. The city walls that were built out of brick and mortar had living quarters inside and up against the inner side of the wall, at first as barracks but then civilians. The Allthing had mostly been in Thorkellsborg or Bjarnystad, but now there was serious talk about moving it to Nawahlid and in 1073 it did.

The defenses of Nawahlid were undoubtedly the best in the Norse world with the exception of English defenses. The first bridge across the River Nawa, built out of wood and supports using the force of the river to reinforce the structure, basing off that model two other bridges were built. The city was growing and growing but the demand for Lime was also growing but using wood for burning Limestone was inefficient and while wood was initially abundant and clearing left farmland most of the wood available was cut and wood was being imported to Nawahlid from up the river. Peat was soon incorporated as a fuel but did not get the desired amount, in eastern Hnetaland the coal there was used for smithing but was too far away to import; Lime production was then forcibly limited to two months out of a year by the Allthing (surprisingly not by the Paramount Chiefs).

In Leifsbudir most had moved away, it's main export used to be sheep products but now the production of Wine was what was important. Vinnish Grapes are not like a European grape but was a berry from Vinland that the discoverers who had mostly only seen barren Greenland and Iceland had never seen real grapes before and assumed, a once wild berry vine was now being cultivated and something about the temperature and soil made it restricted to the Leifsbudir area. The grapes were sometimes fed to the sheep in order to make a sweeter meat, the grapes also had a use in creating a dye for clothing.

In Storfoss the population has been slowly growing, some people willing to explore the lakes had come through but most interest was down the coastline but even that was in decline as interest in exploration had died down for the masses. For plentiful harvests you could go anywhere but only in Storfss did Gulurskera (Corn/maize) grow in large quantities, over the decades the size of the grains grew bigger and the yield was greater than wheat. The people there even shipped it North along the river Nawa to Nawahlid and the various portage settlements. Sometimes wealthy people had visited it to view the large waterfall it was based on, however it's level of development wasn't as large as the cities to the east.

In England the Norwegians and the Normans had a truce and were still reeling from their losses in the war, it was this time that the Normans annexed what little left of Wales had resisted them. The Scottish under Thorfinn Sigurdsson had been amassing a fleet and two hundred and fifty men set out to attempt to take Norwegian ruled Iceland, however a storm had forced the fleet to return and the Norwegians took notice of this and had troops deployed to Iceland so the Scots had been forced to stay put.

In Leifrvalde, one of the two paramount chiefs Gudbrand Bjarnysson took an arrow to the throat after a conflict with Skraelings. His brother Birger Bjarnysson decided to call in for reinforcements and completely purge the area of all skraeling life. But Birger was growing old and he had only daughters, it was severely hinted at this time he was suffering from erectile dysfunction or the like that prevented him from producing more children. At thirty-two years old and his three daughters not being wed yet it was high time he found an heir, for his sixteen year old daughter he had a man known as Bjorn Thordsson who was twenty seven years old who he had chosen as his designated successor. Bjorn was pagan and had been baptized just before the wedding. Bjorn had been in many battles against Skraelings and was an expert seamen, however only two weeks after the marriage and he had caught a sickness and died.