Re: The Swedish Corporal Punishment Ban and the Vikings.
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:36 pm
For a nickel I'd risk being hunted down and flogged by Random House for doing it, but I don't know how to set up a PayPal account. Anyhow, typing in pages 204-217 of The Discoverers ("The Wandering Vikings") is probably worth more than that and I shouldn't settle so cheap. Going quickly through parts of it this morning however suggests that the demise of the Vikings may be due to a combination of: adverse climate change (beginning 1200), Russia and England out-competing them with their furs and woolen goods, walrus ivory being increasingly seen as inferior, and a bad case of Black Death.
Here's a short section that has nothing to do with the discussion but which I copied out some time ago just because I thought it made a great story:
After that first winter came summer. It was now the Vikings made acquaintance with the Skraelings [natives: Indians or Eskimos], when a big body of men appeared out of the forest there. Their cattle were close by; the bull began to bellow and bawl his head off, which so frightened the Skraelings that they ran off with their packs, which were of grey furs and sables and skins of all kinds, and headed for Karlsefni’s house, hoping to get inside there, but Karlsefni had all the doors guarded. Neither party could understand the other’s language. Then the Skraelings unslung their bales, untied them, and proffered their wares, and above all wanted weapons in exchange. Karlsefni, though, forbade them the sale of weapons. And now he hit on this idea; he told the women to carry out milk to them, and the moment they saw the milk that was the one thing they wanted to buy, nothing else. So that was what came of the Skraelings’ trading: they carried away what they bought in their bellies, while Karlsefni and his comrades kept their bales and their furs. And with that they went away.
When the Skraelings returned, the Vikings had no plan either for trading with them or for subduing them. The Skraelings happened to covet pieces of the Vikings’ red cloth, for which they would exchange their best unblemished skins and gray fur pelts. “When the cloth began to run short they [the Vikings] cut it up so that it was no broader than a fingerbreadth, but the Skraelings gave just as much for it, or more.”
Then one day there came a sudden attack by “a great multitude of Skraeling boats.” The Skraelings stormed the Viking camp, swinging their battle staves “anti-sunwise” (there was not yet any “anti-clockwise”), yelling and showering missiles from their war slings. What most terrified the brave Vikings was the Skraelings’ primitive buzz bomb. When the Skraelings launched this ball-shaped object (probably a blown-up moose bladder), fearless Freydis, Leif Ericsson’s sister, daughter of Eric the Red, came out-of-doors and saw how the Vikings had taken to their heels. “Why are you running from wretches like these?” she cried. “Such gallant lads as you, I thought for sure you would have knocked them on the head like cattle. Why, if I had a weapon, I think I could put up a better fight than any of you!”
They might as well not have heard her. Freydis was anxious to keep up with them, but was rather slow because of her pregnancy. She was moving after them into the forest when the Skraelings attacked her. She found a dead man in her path, Thorbrand Snorrason—he had a flat stone sticking out of his head. His sword lay beside him; she picked it up and prepared to defend herself with it. The Skraelings were now making for her. She pulled out her breasts from under her shift and slapped the sword on them, at which the Skraelings took fright, and ran off to their boats and rowed away. Karlsefni’s men came up to her, praising her courage.
The Skraeling threat, reinforced by a creature they described as a hopping “uniped” who shot poisoned arrows, drove these Vikings out of Newfoundland and back to Greenland. There Freydis organized what proved to be the final Viking expedition to Vinland. Arriving slightly ahead of Freydis, two Icelandic brothers, Helgi and Finnbogi, had promptly occupied Leif’s house. When she arrived in Vinland, the brothers explained that they expected to share the house with Freydis’ crew. But she dispossessed them and taunted her husband with cowardice.
He could not endure this baiting of hers. He ordered his men to turn out immediately and take their weapons, which they did, and crossed straightway to the brothers’ house and marched in on the sleeping men, seized them and bound them, and led them outside, each man as he was bound. And Freydis had each man killed as he came out. Now all the men were killed, but the women were left, and no one would kill them. “Hand me an axe,” said Freydis. Which was done, and she turned upon the five women they had there, and left them dead. Freydis seized the brothers’ possessions, which she distributed among her crew to persuade them not to reveal her crimes.
Early the next spring in the brothers’ ship Freydis and her party sailed back to Greenland. They gave out the story that the brothers had decided to remain behind. Leif tortured three of her crew to learn the truth. He still did not have the heart to punish his own sister, but he laid a curse on her and all her offspring, which seems to have had some effect. By the year 1020 the Viking settlements, the first recorded European settlements in America, left history and entered the domain of the archaeologists.
Looks to me like the entire book is available as a free download in .pdf (with a 90 day time limit though) here: http://www.ebookee.com/The-Discoverers_146031.html
Most Viking references in it (including one to a Viking nicknamed "The Children's Man" because he refused to run little kids through with his lance) are, again, on pp. 204-217.
Steve
Here's a short section that has nothing to do with the discussion but which I copied out some time ago just because I thought it made a great story:
After that first winter came summer. It was now the Vikings made acquaintance with the Skraelings [natives: Indians or Eskimos], when a big body of men appeared out of the forest there. Their cattle were close by; the bull began to bellow and bawl his head off, which so frightened the Skraelings that they ran off with their packs, which were of grey furs and sables and skins of all kinds, and headed for Karlsefni’s house, hoping to get inside there, but Karlsefni had all the doors guarded. Neither party could understand the other’s language. Then the Skraelings unslung their bales, untied them, and proffered their wares, and above all wanted weapons in exchange. Karlsefni, though, forbade them the sale of weapons. And now he hit on this idea; he told the women to carry out milk to them, and the moment they saw the milk that was the one thing they wanted to buy, nothing else. So that was what came of the Skraelings’ trading: they carried away what they bought in their bellies, while Karlsefni and his comrades kept their bales and their furs. And with that they went away.
When the Skraelings returned, the Vikings had no plan either for trading with them or for subduing them. The Skraelings happened to covet pieces of the Vikings’ red cloth, for which they would exchange their best unblemished skins and gray fur pelts. “When the cloth began to run short they [the Vikings] cut it up so that it was no broader than a fingerbreadth, but the Skraelings gave just as much for it, or more.”
Then one day there came a sudden attack by “a great multitude of Skraeling boats.” The Skraelings stormed the Viking camp, swinging their battle staves “anti-sunwise” (there was not yet any “anti-clockwise”), yelling and showering missiles from their war slings. What most terrified the brave Vikings was the Skraelings’ primitive buzz bomb. When the Skraelings launched this ball-shaped object (probably a blown-up moose bladder), fearless Freydis, Leif Ericsson’s sister, daughter of Eric the Red, came out-of-doors and saw how the Vikings had taken to their heels. “Why are you running from wretches like these?” she cried. “Such gallant lads as you, I thought for sure you would have knocked them on the head like cattle. Why, if I had a weapon, I think I could put up a better fight than any of you!”
They might as well not have heard her. Freydis was anxious to keep up with them, but was rather slow because of her pregnancy. She was moving after them into the forest when the Skraelings attacked her. She found a dead man in her path, Thorbrand Snorrason—he had a flat stone sticking out of his head. His sword lay beside him; she picked it up and prepared to defend herself with it. The Skraelings were now making for her. She pulled out her breasts from under her shift and slapped the sword on them, at which the Skraelings took fright, and ran off to their boats and rowed away. Karlsefni’s men came up to her, praising her courage.
The Skraeling threat, reinforced by a creature they described as a hopping “uniped” who shot poisoned arrows, drove these Vikings out of Newfoundland and back to Greenland. There Freydis organized what proved to be the final Viking expedition to Vinland. Arriving slightly ahead of Freydis, two Icelandic brothers, Helgi and Finnbogi, had promptly occupied Leif’s house. When she arrived in Vinland, the brothers explained that they expected to share the house with Freydis’ crew. But she dispossessed them and taunted her husband with cowardice.
He could not endure this baiting of hers. He ordered his men to turn out immediately and take their weapons, which they did, and crossed straightway to the brothers’ house and marched in on the sleeping men, seized them and bound them, and led them outside, each man as he was bound. And Freydis had each man killed as he came out. Now all the men were killed, but the women were left, and no one would kill them. “Hand me an axe,” said Freydis. Which was done, and she turned upon the five women they had there, and left them dead. Freydis seized the brothers’ possessions, which she distributed among her crew to persuade them not to reveal her crimes.
Early the next spring in the brothers’ ship Freydis and her party sailed back to Greenland. They gave out the story that the brothers had decided to remain behind. Leif tortured three of her crew to learn the truth. He still did not have the heart to punish his own sister, but he laid a curse on her and all her offspring, which seems to have had some effect. By the year 1020 the Viking settlements, the first recorded European settlements in America, left history and entered the domain of the archaeologists.
Looks to me like the entire book is available as a free download in .pdf (with a 90 day time limit though) here: http://www.ebookee.com/The-Discoverers_146031.html
Most Viking references in it (including one to a Viking nicknamed "The Children's Man" because he refused to run little kids through with his lance) are, again, on pp. 204-217.
Steve