Leptospirosis is rat-transmittable and can linger in the local fauna to kick off repeated outbreaks. It's thought this was the plague that took out the Wampanoag and other *Massachusetts Amerind nations OTL.
I've had that idea too, perhaps have it clear out what will become the settlement of Hop (placed in southern Newfoundland, the Maritimes, or Maine depending on which historian you ask) or another site so the Norse can have a permanent settlement which will not be attacked. But the Norse had plenty of land to settle in Greenland, it's not why they visited Vinland.
Greenland was very, very marginal for growing crops and raising animals - especially the ones the Norse were accustomed to as part of their lifestyle.
If the Greenland Norse decided to maintain a permanent presence in Vinland, in order to procure timber for the Greenland colony, maybe to supplement food production, and this permanent presence lasts until the Medieval Warm Period ends, I think it is possible that either the Greenland Norse (or some of them, in any case) evacuate Greenland for Vinland, or that the Vinland settlement is self-sufficent enough to survive once the Greenland settlements are no longer in a shape to maintain regular contact with Vinland.
That's pretty much OTL from what I've recently read.
A long while ago I briefly participated in a post 1000 AD Vinland thread that was more realistic than one might expect. I'm thinking of working one up again by myself.
Unfortunately I'm having trouble identifying ways to increase Vinland population to the point of having any lasting impact when the major European powers start active colonization of the New World.
In short, I want to do a realistic "wank", but in the waning Viking Age with opportunities in Russia, Ireland, and Scotland, how the heck can I get Vikings, or Swedes, or even Irish, Scots, and Slavs to get on a boat and move to a world light years away?
Religious persecution? Economic opportunity? A sudden incursion into Rusland from an eastern enemy?
Of course, North American tobacco that grows that far north is pretty darn rough. I don't see anyone getting addicted to it. There's a reason natives didn't use it daily, but rather ceremonially.Some native varieties of tobacco exist in NA and tobacco was a major trade good OTL. It's the most likely option I can think of seeing as how addictive products make their own markets. I can easily see Vikings getting into "breathing fire" as a pastime.
The Norsemen were pastoral people who relied heavily on a succession of successful farming years in order to survive. Norwegian settlers who inhabited the coasts of Iceland in the late ninth century brought their farming traditions with them.[6]
The settlers brought sheep, cattle, horses, and goats from Norway to supply their farms with animals.[7] Every animal served a purpose on the farm; sheep were valuable because of their ability to graze outside in the winter and they provided food and wool.[8] Cattle supplied most of the dairy products for the farm, which were stored over winter. Cattle were also eaten.[9]
Viking farmers relied heavily on the natural pastures that encompassed their farm, but also planted grain, to be harvested for bread and fodder.[10]
Farming in Iceland during the Viking Age was complemented by hunting and gathering along the coast. Coastal areas facilitated fishing, whaling, and hunting.[11] Sea birds, eggs, walrus, and lichens rounded out the Viking diet.[12]
Viking farms had a significant impact on the landscape in Iceland. Widescale erosion began in the land-taking stages of settlement. Coupled with deforestation, this had a profound effect on the landscape of Iceland
Personally, I'm still attached to the 'Erik the Red finds Vinland' POD from the old, OLD thread on this.You don't really need ANY immigration from Europe, actually.
Quebec and New England, for instance, grew at about 3%/year natural increase, which works out to doubling every 25 years or so.
Start with a thousand settlers from Iceland in the year 1000 and you could have a population of 1 BILLION Vinlanders by 1500. OK, so by that point, the rate of increase would have slowed massively, and there'd be a couple of epidemics that wiped out half the population but you could have millions, or tens of millions of people in Vinland by 1500 without a single immigrant from continental Europe, and without making a significant dent in Iceland's population.
Power of powers, people.
Of course, North American tobacco that grows that far north is pretty darn rough. I don't see anyone getting addicted to it. There's a reason natives didn't use it daily, but rather ceremonially.
Pagan norse, at that, because the christianization of Iceland was decades later, Vinland too self sufficient for Norway to economically dominate, and too far away to militarily pressure.
Unfortunate that Christians were among the first people to reach Vinland, eh?
Now let's say you handwave that he wins the English throne 1066. He still has a desire to trade with Cathay and the Indies. He decides this time to try going the other way. He could send several expeditions to Vinland, using it as a forward base to search for the Northwest passage.
That would be reverting to paganism, not remaining paganism, given the timeframe of your mini-POD.Now for a mini-mini TL.
And at the height of the medieval warm period, with their agile, shallow drafted ships and their knowledge of the arctic lands/how to survive there, and a concerted effort...they could certainly navigate the passage.
And then what?
Say they reach the mouth of the Yukon River area around 1020-1050ish ...they might find gold, either in the river itself, or at the beaches of OTL Nome, or see the natives with it. Imagine a 11th century trading post at the mouth of the Yukon... (with expeditions going southwards to explore and harvest lumber, and sea ottar pelts, and copper, etc...).
It'd be a two year journey (one summer there, overwinter, one summer back).
Surely some would decide to settle there. Livestock would be brought. Families born (either with greenland women, or with the local native women, or both).
A small, self containing population could be creative. And with local bog iron, runs of salmon, hunting, fishing, whaling, etc, mixed with farming, food would not be a problem.
Now imagine this population manages to cling on and isn't driven off by the natives (aka friendly trade relations are sustained), and starts to grow.
Two hundred years later, the mini ice age moves in. By this point, the hundred or so "settlers" have grown at a 2-4% pop rate. We could have anywhere between 5000-15000 persons. Numerous farm steads and tiny villages, and hamlets could be dotting the mouth of the Yukon and along the river itself, and possibly on the Alouetian Islands to the south.
Better yet, being so isolated and so far away from Europe, they may even remain pagan D ).
Now comes the mini ice age. They are cut off from Greenland and Europe for the next couple hundred years. (Though the odd brave bunch of souls may attempt the passage and may make it).
By the time Europeans reach this area (Russians most likely, or Spanish/English up the PNW coast), we might have a quasi Norse-Native state (or multiple states) encomposing Parts of Alaska, Eastern most Russia, and maybe bits of BC or the Yukon...
Imagine the butterflies...