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#l'anse aux meadows
krjpalmer · 8 months
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drunkphotography · 2 months
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lieutkenny · 2 months
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you think Norway and Canada would get along?
fun fact: norwegian viking settlers from Iceland were the first europeans to travel to Canada (L'anse aux Meadows)🇨🇦
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Personally I think they would get along great. They have formed an uncle/nephew relationship throughout the years, and have quarterly meet ups. Ice fishing, hiking, the occasional sparing season.
Norway enjoys doting over someone and Canada craves the attention.
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Hi!
I’m writing a fanfic in which the characters go to various mythical places. I want to have them go to Alomkik, a place in Abernaki mythology. However, information online seems to be scarce about it, and I’m well aware that Native and First Nation mythology has historically been butchered for entertainment. Not asking you to do research for me (obviously not! That’s my job!) but do you have any advice? I really want to do this respectfully or not at all.
Characters Visits Place from First Nations Myth
Here's the bottom line: unless you are yourself First Nations, I would not even attempt this. Not only do you risk cultural appropriation, but the fact that there is so little information available about this location... and the fact that it's associated with a legendary bird spirit, concerns me that Alomkik may have spiritual and/or deep cultural significance and firmly off the table for use by people who are not First Nations. Additionally, the lack of information available would force you to have to fill in the gaps, and I'm sure you can see the issue with someone who is not First Nations, and who is not rooted in Abenaki culture, filling in the gaps of Abenaki spiritual mythology.
Other things to consider: since you mention this is fan-fiction, if the source material has used or commonly uses places from Indigenous cultures, it's possible there are people from those cultures on the writing staff. It's also possible they just don't care and are blatantly appropriating from those cultures, but that doesn't mean you should or that it's okay for you to do it, too. Instead, if you need a mythical location in that same general area (what is now Central Maine), you could make up a fictional colonial settlement that disappeared (like the Roanoke Colony in what is now North Carolina) and give it some interesting mythical legend. Alternatively, you could create a myth around a fictional Viking settlement... Vikings are known to have settled an area 700 miles away (L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland and Labrador) and some scholars believe it's possible the Vikings could have explored what is now inland Quebec via the St. Lawrence River, and as far south as Manhattan Island. That gives you plenty of realistic leeway to have a Viking settlement in inland Maine... though, you may need to look at the viability of available rivers for conveying boats far enough inland for your needs. Or, you could maybe create a legend where a particular member of a Viking exploratory group splinters with the main group and takes a small number of people as far up river as they can go, then further inland on foot until they arrive at the necessary destination. Another option would be the... dare I say it... Knights Templar... who are popularly believed to have traveled to North America to hide treasures taken from the Holy Land. My point is, there are lots of opportunities to crate an interesting mythological location using European folktales, myths, and legends rather than appropriating from Indigenous culture.
Happy writing!
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scapegrace74-blog · 7 months
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I've got a 4 hour layover on my flight home, so I'm editing photos to kill the time. These were all taken during the last 24 hours of my trip.
The thing that looks like a Viking longhouse is, in fact, a recreated Viking longhouse. Not sure how well known this is outside of Canada, but l'Anse aux Meadows on the very northern tip of the island of Newfoundland is the only verified Norse settlement on the North American continent. It was excavated in the 1960s and caused quite a stir when it became apparent that Christopher Columbus and his crew were not the first Europeans to set foot on the continent. Leif Erikson and his crew beat them by about 500 years, landing in Newfoundland around 1000 and staying until at least 1021.
September 24 - 25, 2023
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blueiskewl · 1 year
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600-Year-Old English Gold Coin Found in Newfoundland
The discovery of a rare gold coin on the south coast of Newfoundland, Canada, may challenge traditional historical narratives about the timing of European contact in the region, as it predates explorer John Cabot's arrival on the island by at least 70 years.
In a press release last week, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador said that the English coin was found during the summer of 2022 by Edward Hynes, a local amateur historian, who reported it to officials as required under the province's Historic Resources Act. The 600-year-old coin predates the first documented European contact with North America since the Vikings, in a region with a 9,000-year-old history of human settlement and rich Indigenous traditions.
After consultation with Paul Berry, a former curator of the Bank of Canada's Currency Museum, the coin was identified as a Henry VI quarter noble, minted in London between 1422 and 1427. In the 1400s, the coin would have represented a significant sum of money, valued at 1 shilling 8 pence, or around 81 Canadian dollars ($61) today.
Prior to this discovery, a coin minted in the 1490s and found in 2021 at the province's Cupids Cove Plantation Provincial Historic Site was considered the oldest English coin ever found in Canada.
As Berry says that the coin was likely out of circulation when it was lost, there is much speculation about exactly how the gold quarter noble coin made its way to Newfoundland and Labrador. The precise location of the discovery is being kept secret to discourage treasure hunters.
The discovery of the coin underscores the intriguing archaeological record in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada's easternmost province. Stories of Viking arrival are contained in Icelandic sagas, citing visits by Leif Erikson over 1,000 years ago, and archaeological evidence of a Norse settlement, which was found in L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, and declared a Unesco World Heritage site in 1978.
Other unconfirmed accounts of European contact include tales from England's Channel Islands about a ship being blown off course in the late 15th century into a strange land full of fish; historical Portuguese maps depicting Terra do Bacalhau (or, the land of codfish); and the "Voyage of Saint Brendan," a legendary account of an early 6th-century sea voyage by an Irish abbot.
In 1583, Newfoundland became England's first possession in North America and the establishment of fishing operations on the outer coastline of the island cut off access to traditional food sources for the indigenous population.
"There's been some knowledge of a pre-16th century European presence here for a while, you know, excluding Norse and so on," Brake told CBC. "The possibility of perhaps a pre-16th century occupation would be pretty amazing and highly significant in this part of the world."
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autumnhues · 5 months
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Oh little one, you didn't think they would stay forever, did you?
[I hc Matthew to be Vinland, and was "born" when the vikings touched Newfoundland at what's now L'Anse aux Meadows - the vikings left rather suddenly, and left the strange child behind, unknowing that he was going to remain there, alone, for many years to come...]
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ladyauroracantgohome · 2 months
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L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, Newfoundland my pic from 2017
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ancientorigins · 1 year
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L’Anse aux Meadows has provided us with proof that the Norse were the first Europeans to land in North America, some five centuries before the Spanish, a claim that was not believed for centuries.
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what sort of relationship does Iceland have with Canada & America? From wiki it tells me that Canada’s the big destination, but it’s paltry to the number of Katya’s people. I also think America was among the first to recognize Icelandic independence after one of the world wars? So, just what are those relationships like? if there even are relationships.
Okay, so to prelude this, I was very very interested in medieval Scandinavia and had an extremely cringy phase of being a practitioner of Scandinavian reconstructions of Norse Paganism and most of my knowledge comes from the Icelandic Saga's or Íslendingasögur and other related interests I carried before it became even more tightly linked with neo-nazism and other absolutely disgusting racist tendencies as was especially relevant to me in Canada and the US but elsewhere as well. So my knowledge does lean into their world before Alfred even exists. Also, I have only minimally interacted with the side of the fandom of the Scandinavians so I'm not overly familiar with what takes are out there so if I contradict fandom or anything else, I didn't mean to. That said, lets go a-viking to Vinland I fucken guess.
With Matt, I'd say there's some importance with the Icelandic immigration. For example, skyr as a dairy product was available and known to Canadians and made in Canada for generations before it was in the US. There's tons of Icelandic-Canadians in Winnipeg/Manitoba. There's also a lot of awareness of Iceland and its ties to Vinland/L'Anse aux Meadows. Also the odd headline about Iceland using Canada's currency when the banking issues went bad. Egill has probably seen the dual nature of Matt as Arthur's favourite knife and his more subdued version. So, barring further research into the Canadian occupation of 1940-1941 I think there's a level of trust there? Certainly familiarity. A random fun-fact is how heavily the initial Norwegian settlers just blazed through the existing trees on Iceland. I can see Egill with distant memories of the sacred ash tree Mímameiðr or Yggdrasill putting a hand out to the great Canadian old growths with a bit of reverence. He might quote the saga's to Matt and Alfred. Ber er hver að baki nema sér bróður eigi. Your back is vulnerable without a brother. Quite literally for both of them.
As for Alfred and Egill, Iceland is important in a way that far outsizes its population or immigration. It's geo-thermal capacities means its the cheapest and most secure data centre in the western world. The same location that brought Iceland into the Scandinavian world a thousand years ago is the same one that makes it invaluable to NATO and more generally to North American and North Atlantic security. Egill can do whatever the fuck he wants, including not having a functional military beyond a 200-odd person civilian coast guard and Alfred can't say shit. My step mom is 2nd gen and her parents have a very very mixed opinion of the US. They admire it, enjoy our hardworking culture and open friendliness in contrast to how closed off Íslendingar themselves are. They both remember the controversy about being in NATO. So I think Egill would recognize dark things in Alfred even as much as they enjoy each other's company. Egill would roll his eyes when Alfred asks yet again about elves but Alfred, a child of the witch-years might seriously give him pause when he asks about Egill's fylgjur. I can see them being fond of each other. I do think there is something of an uneasy relationship there. The great superpower and the valuable and respected but still tiny island country it's dependent on. Also their relationships with Arthur and Sigurd might be a point of commonality. The colony who broke free and became an empire and the colony who was born a commonwealth and then retaken into Norwegian and later Danish and Swedish monarchy would make for a very interesting duo.
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Vikings in 11th century Maine? The Maine Penny
In 1957 a group of amateur archeologists excavated a long abandoned Native American site (Goddard Site) near Brooklyn Maine. During the excavation they uncovered around 30,000 artifacts including pieces of pottery, bone, stone, and wooden tools. Among the finds was a silver coin which was discovered by a man named Guy Mellgren. After analysis by a series of experts it was determined that the coin was minted in Norway during the reign of King Olaf Kyrre, who reigned between 1067 and 1093 AD. This of course raises a huge question; how did it get to Brooklyn, Maine? The coin itself is undisputed and regarded as authentic. The only question is how did it arrive from Norway to North America. There are two possibilities.
First, the coin traveled across the Atlantic ocean, carried by intrepid Vikings seeking new lands or lucrative trade. This is certainly not implossible as it's been proven that Viking peoples had colonized Greenland, had at least one outpost in New Foundland, Canada (L'Anse aux Meadows), and most likely Viking explorers, merchants, and adventurers probably explored around Canada and the east coast of the United States. So the coin could have either been traded directly with Native Americans in Maine, or traded with other tribes, then traded amongst various tribes until it made it's way to Maine. Either could be plausible as the site had artifacts that originate from all over North America, including items from the Dorset culture who lived in the Arctic zones of Northern Canada. The topic of Pre-Columbian Native American trade in North America is a fascinating topic on it's own but alas this is a tumblr post so I will keep things brief by stating that goods moved across North America between various peoples with regularity.
The second possibility is that we are all being bamboozled. Guy Mellgren was a coin collector and an auctioneer of antiquities. So it would not have been difficult to obtain the coin, at which point he could have claimed to have "discovered it" at the Goddard Site. That or someone else planted it for him to discover. Faking Viking artifacts in America is a long American tradition dating back to the 1800's and still occurs to this day. See the Kensington Stone for one of the most egregious examples. Could it be that the Maine Penny is likewise a hoax?
What clouds the situation the most is that when I say they were amateur archaeologists, I mean that they were very amateur. They documented almost nothing of the 30,000 artifacts they found. No in situ photography, no maps, no drawings, nothing. Essentially they just went out and dug up stuff. Thus it's impossible to get to the truth of the matter, and the story of the Maine Penny will probably remain a mystery. Today the coin as well as the 30,000 artifacts uncovered at the Goddard Site are housed at the Maine State Museum.
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“You are the one we’ve been looking for.” Leif said to him one day, raising the child to rest upon his wide, towering shoulders as they stared out across the sea together. “Where we come from, it's very crowded and war and plague hits its shores too often. And the homesteads we have made for ourselves on the islands across the sea, just north-east of here—” the man then pointed in said direction, as if Vínland could see it, if he just looked hard enough. “There is unbearable cold and not much in terms of resources. But you, you have everything we could ever need. Fish and wood; food to harvest and beasts to hunt and tame. I could see our people being very happy here.” he concluded, voice almost wistful.
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And then they weren’t happy there whomp whomp.
Some fanart of my own fanfic, bc I continue to be an egomaniac. The fic explores Canada and America’s early-early days as New World colonies. I’ve always liked to picture Matt as the older brother, with his “birth” coinciding with the Viking settlement of Vínland.
The background is from google (as I stink at bgs), but I edited the sky and light and stuff. It’s L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, the landing site + settlement of Leif Erickson and his crew in 1000 AD.
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grizzstudio · 14 days
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Evidence of Vikings as the first Europeans to settle in Canada in ancient times
This article explores archaeological evidence that has been discovered of early Norse Viking settlements in Canada. Archaeologists uncovered the remains of a Viking settlement dating back to around 1000AD at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. This is considered the most compelling proof that Vikings were the first Europeans to reach Canada and North America. The article also outlines aspects of the Viking way of life when they lived and farmed in Canada for a brief period, including crop cultivation, livestock herding, building construction and household items. Place names found in areas formerly inhabited by the Vikings provide additional clues of their presence. While their colonies did not last more than a few generations due to climatic changes and conflicts with indigenous populations, the Vikings remarkably managed to cross the Atlantic Ocean many centuries before other major European explorations. Their voyage demonstrated for the first time that land could be found across the ocean, inspiring later navigators. Therefore, the Vikings hold an important place as the earliest known settlers of Canada, though their stay was short-lived.
Reference source : When Vikings Ruled Canadian Lands: Discovering Traces of the Early Norse Colonies
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Have you ever worked on the L'Anse aux Meadows site, or done any research/reading on Vinland?
I'm especially wondering your thoughts as it implies that European settlement (in Canada at least) predates the British and French colonies.
That, and Finland wanted you to call him Papa.
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"Finland? ... Mr. Timo never had overseas colonies. You could try n' argue that Mr. Jan and Mr. Björn had hands in my raising with Nieuw-Nederland and Nya Sverige. But those were founded after Arthur's denizens founded Jamestown, with those two colonies being chartered in 1614 and founded in 1638, respectively. An' there's so much more I could say about 'em, but then we'd be ignorin' the fact that even Mr. Antonio's people were consistently here in what would become me way, way before Lord Father and Francis. St. Augustine, Florida, was founded in 1565, and that was after several failed Spanish attempts in Florida and the East Coast. That earliest attempt was San Miguel de Guadalupe in 1526, in what'd become South Carolina in the modern day.
"An' I can't speak for Mattie - and I shouldn't, but he's busy - but apart from the Norse settlement of L'Anse aux Meadows, I think the Spanish and Portuguese Empires were the first to claim Canadian land as theirs. Fighting over mainly Newfoundland? In 1497 and 1501-1502. To set up fishing outposts and other such things. I think, I think. Oh, where's Matt when I need 'im? And then the French came in a lil' later and had a few failed attempts at permanent settlement in 1541, 1598, and 1600, before finding success a couple years down the road.
"But I digress! Y'all both asked about pre-Columbian settlement by the Vikings. Gonna be upfront and hella personal with y'all...I've never worked on it. I'd love to, but at the same time, it ain't my main focus. So I usually gotta keep my eyes averted from the whole Viking settlement mystery. I'm more concerned with sites that fall in the several thousand years old ranges, or more. But gosh dang, if I wouldn't love to read more about Vinland. It's just little far north for me, and I'd need to worry about travelin' and all that. But yeah, my knowledge of pre-Columbian human activity in the Americas is concerned with the migrations over the Kelp Highway, the Pacific, and the hypothesized route over Beringia. You could tack on the Solutrean hypothesis too but...hmmm.
"One crucial thing to remember about L'Anse is that it's the only undisputed site of pre-Columbian European contact in all of the Americas. Otherwise, the slew of theories that surround it are all debated and should be taken with a grain of salt. There's a whole lot of murky, unclear evidence, or simply none at all. But L'Anse has produced over 800 artifacts that can be traced to Norse origins, so it's hard to deny that! And the sod-and-wood frame structures? That's damn cool! Now I really wanna know more, sitting here reading some basics. Maybe...well, I'm not sure, but maybe I could do some more research for us and make a future post with more about L'Anse aux Meadows and the Vinland mythos!"
((Don't mind the fact that I forgot to color his glasses. I was literally so excited to give a history lesson that it slipped my mind. Edit: Fixed!!))
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warsofasoiaf · 10 months
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I’m learning more and more about how prevalent disease was in sweeping through pre-contact Native American civilizations, long before any actual interactions with Europeans. My question is why this didn’t happen with the now verified interactions between the natives and the Norse several hundred years prior? Surely they carried the same diseases, and I know their contact was very contained, but do you think it was just luck?
Sorry for mg English-not my first language.
No, it was actually the fact that contact was so limited, that the Norse population that colonized and explored North America was so small, that diseases didn't spread. 200 people or so, who settle for about one decade, is very difficult to spread disease with such limited population. If we take the Icelandic sagas as a judge, there were only one or two instances of contact, which makes it difficult to spread disease with so few instances of contact. Both taken together, it's not surprising that Old World diseases did not spread to New World populations via L'Anse aux Meadows.
Thanks for the question, Anon.
SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King
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hi wqa I need ur help!
I want to write how my characters travel from place to place in search of an object, sailing through different places etc. my problem is with the geography bc I want the places they visit to differ greatly in culture and even races that u won’t find in the MCs home. idk if I should make different countries/continents for each or if making them part of the same country but it’s really large works as well- but if they’re from the same country idk how to make it so the different locations don’t talk to or even interact with each other. i also want to make the characters go on boat for the most of it since it’s an important plot point but if I make it all too far a way I feel it’s too hard to build a map cuz itd just be chunks of land spread everywhere :(
Pls help :(((
and thank u
Character Exposed to New Cultures on Boat Journey
So, I just want to clarify... different cultures don't have to be completely isolated from one another in order for your MC not to have been exposed to them.
Think about it... right now, there are very few cultures that are even somewhat isolated. People from different cultures travel, immigrate, are portrayed in media, meet friends on the internet... yet you probably haven't been exposed to 1/100th of the different cultures that are out there.
Cultures can exist largely within their own bubbles while still interacting with other cultures. Interaction with other cultures doesn't mean the cultures melt together.
Also, distance does matter. In the year 1000, the Timicua of Florida's west coast would never have known about or interacted with the Norse Vikings who arrived at that time in Newfoundland and briefly settled the village of L'Anse aux Meadows. Both were probably unaware of the Toltec culture in Mexico, even though the Timicuas and Toltecs were only separated by the Gulf of Mexico and a few hundred land miles. All three of these cultures were certainly unaware of the Dorset Culture, the Paleo-Eskimo descendant group living at that time in what is now Nunavut, Canada. These cultures never interacted because the distance and geography between them was too great, and because none of them happened to get on a boat and sail to where the other was.
So, my point is, all of these cultures can be on one continent in your story. And the distance between them doesn't even have to be that huge. Cultures separated by great distances usually only traded or interacted if they were seafaring, connected by a waterway (such as a lake or river), or part of a larger trade network. You don't have to connect the cultures in your story in that way if you don't want to. You might actually have some of those cultures connected to each other, creating smaller trade/interaction networks that just don't reach as far as where your character is from.
You can also look to geography for help. Cultures can be cut off from other cultures for lots of reasons. They could be on an island or island chain that they don't leave. They could be cut off by a treacherous mountain range. They could be in a lush mountain valley surrounded by harsh desert. They could be on a peninsula or archipelago made temperate by a warm ocean current, but bordered in the north by a thousand miles of snow and ice.
Finally, there are some cultures who choose to keep the outside world at bay. They choose not to trade with or interact with other cultures, and protect a wide buffer zone between them and outsiders to keep their culture untouched.
Ideally, you'll probably want to choose a different reason for each culture they encounter. Some are isolated by choice, some due to distance and lack of interest or ability to traverse that distance, some due to geographical restrictions.
I hope that helps!
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