Did the Vikings Take Scottish Slaves to North America?
Channel: Celtic History Decoded
Date: 2023-06-15

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Did the Vikings Take Scottish Slaves to North America?

Chapters:
0:00 The Context
3:31 The Story 
5:15 The End 

Did the Vikings take slaves from Scotland on one of their voyages to North America, and yes you heard me right, North America. This book is the Vinland Sagas, with Vinland being term the Viking used to refer to a Norse settlement in North America. The Vinland Sagas contains two main sagas – The Saga of the Greenlanders and Erik the Red’s saga – which were written in the 13th century, a few centuries after the voyages themselves. They are packed with stories of Viking expeditions to North America, which at least included visited L'Anse aux Meadows, a Viking settlement on the northern tip of Newfoundland, an island just off the east coast of Canada. 

In Erik the Red’s Saga, there is a story of two Scottish slaves accompanying and scouting for an Icelandic explorer called Thorfinn Karlsefni, on one of his expeditions to Vinland and the surrounding area. The story, which I will recite in a minute, will mention Leif, who is Leif Erikson, a Norse explorer who himself went on a separate expedition to Vinland, and Erik, meaning Erik the Red, a Norse explorer who is known as the first European to settle Greenland. The story will also mention King Olaf Tryggvason, the King of Norway from 995 to 1000.

Some place names will also be mentioned, and although there may be some margin for error, they generally refer to the area around Newfoundland, the Gulf of St Lawrence and Nova Scotia today. This map in the back of book is the area I just mentioned flipped on its side, and shows where Furdistrandir (or Wonder Beaches) was, seemingly the coast of Nova Scotia. 

Sources:

The Vinland Sagas (2008: Penguin Classics) 

Leif Erikson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leif_Erikson 

Erik the Red https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_the_Red 

Thorfinn Karlsefni https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorfinn_Karlsefni 

Olaf Tryggvason https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaf_Tryggvason