Introduction: Throughout time there have been occasions when foreign ones have ventured into the lands of the Americas. We have histories of some and legends of others. My opinion is that there have been others, perhaps many others, whose stories have not been recorded or otherwise passed down. Consider that the mixing of foreign blood with Native American blood may have happened centuries before Columbus. In my own pondering I have pieced together the following information which I find invites interesting possibilities:
Western explorations from Norway and Denmark started around 780 A.D. Two medieval chronicles tell of visits to the Orkney, Shetland and Faroe Islands. There is a mid-ninth century tale of a Norwegian called NADDODUR who, while attempting to sail from Norway to the Faroe Islands, was blown off course. He is credited by some to have accidentally discovered Iceland (only he called it Snowland).
Around 981 ERIC THE RED sailed to Iceland from Norway. While in Iceland, he was charged with manslaughter and banished for three years. He knew to stay would mean death; and so it is said that he sailed west in search of land his friend, Gunnbjorn ULFSSON, claimed to have once seen. ERIC landed at Greenland and established the first colony at Brattalid in Ericsfiord. Accompanying him was Heriulf BARDSON who settled at Heriulfsnes, Biarne.
Leif ERICSON, first son of ERIC THE RED, reached the North American mainland around the year 1000 and called it Vinland. Saga literature tell of natives (called Skraeling) coming to the Vinland settlement seeking to trade animal hides for strips of red cloth. Conflicts arose between the Norse and the natives; and eventually the Vinland settlement was abandoned. Thorwald ERICSON, brother of Leif, returned to Vinland and the neighboring islands in 1003 on a more detailed mission of discovery. He went east and then north, sailing into "a large inlet where he found natives," ... "dusky people of small stature like the Esquimaux of Greenland. They were in canoes and were timid and harmless …" "The Northmen caught them and cruelly put them to death, excepting one who escaped to the hills ... The angry Indians (returned) went silently … and surprised T. ERICSON … A sharp fight ensued in which arrows flew thick and fast. T. ERICSON was mortally wounded; but his companions escaped unhurt."
Archaeologists uncovered the remains of a settlement at L'anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, which was dated and tied to the ERICSON colonists. Excavations identified the outlines of eight sod-walled structures. According to the Canadian Museum of Civilization, "More recent archaeological work has revealed over 300 years of sporadic contact between the Greenlandic Norse and various ... Native American peoples, concentrated primarily in the Canadian Arctic." There are ruins at Newport, Rhode Island, which are also thought to be tied to the ERICSON group. A mysterious stone tower exists there with massive cylindrical walls resting on seven columns. No one, not even the Native Americans, seem to know from where it came.
In the year 1030 another Icelandic navigator named Gudleif GUDLAUGSON attempted to make a trading voyage to Ireland but was blown far into the southwest. After many days he anchored in a safe harbor but was taken prisoner by dark-colored people who came from the woods in great numbers. The captors took GUDLAUGSON into the forest where he was met by a white chieftain who spoke to him in Icelandic. He released GUDLAUGSON & his men but told them to leave quickly because the dark people were cruel to strangers. Although the chieftain refused to give his name, he is thought to be Bjorn ASBRANDSSON or Bjorn the Bard. ASBRANDSSON had previously "become involved in an intrigue" with a married woman named THURID of Froda back in Iceland. ASBRANDSSON eventually sailed away (in 998); and "nothing was heard of this ship for a long time afterwards."
And now, before his departure, a gold ring was given to GUDLAUGSON by the mysterious, Icelandic-speaking chieftain, along with a "goodly sword" which GUDLAUGSON brought back to Iceland. It was from these treasures that the folks of Iceland identified the chieftain as the missing ASBRANDSSON. There is more to this story and other stories; but my intent is to give an example of possible early mixing of European and Native American bloods.
Sheila Gibson ~ SpiritHawk
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Copyright © 2003 Ethereal World ~ 09 Sep 2003 10:00:00 GMT