The Skraelings

*"And then they saw them. It was a hunting party of seven men, and dogs too." -Hekja and Hikki first seeing the Skraelings*

## The Skraelings

An interpretation of the Vinland Skraelings

### Affiliation

Vinland/North America (Most likely modern day USA and Canada)

## Biographical information

### Date of birth

~939 for the oldest Skraelings (based on the average life expectancy)

## Physical description

### Height

Shorter than vikings but otherwise unknown

## Appearances

### Appears in

They Came On Viking Ships By Jackie French

### Debut

The Skraelings, Chapter 34, Page 208

The Skraelings (Native Americans) are a tribe of people located in Vinland. They seem to be a semi-advanced society, Knowing how to make furs, food, clothing, fire and even knew how to tame dogs but were still in the stone age as they still use stone spears and arrows. The Skraelings serve as trading partners with Freydis' colony, But turn against them due to Finnbogi's colony's aggression to their people.

### Appearance

Unlike the Norsemen, The Skraelings are depicted to have brown eyes and their hair was black. They were noticeably shorter than the Vikings/Norsemen and also had a darker skin tone than them. Their hair was styled in a unique was too; it was shaved to make it look like a crest on top and they put feathers behind their ears. Both Skraeling men and women bore markings on their body (most likely an aincent form of tattooing) . Most Skraeling men wore softly fringed skins around their waist or tied above their chest with no shoes. The women wore leather skirts and some wore necklaces of pearls. The Skraeling children did not wear anything.

During battle, They wielded bows with stone tipped arrows. They preferred to sneak attack, which is evident in chapter 38 "the attack". They also had the capability to set arrows on fire to destroy basic wooden structures.

### Personality

The Skraelings seem to not resort to violence unless provoked. This is evident in chapter 35, The Skraelings arrive. They did not draw their weapons when they arrived, but instead offered to Trade furs even though the Skraelings had a language barrier between the Vikings. The trading partnership went for a long time, with the Skraelings trading furs and various other Vinland native items, while the Vikings (After refusing to trade their iron weapons) traded cheeses and milk. Hekja also described them as looking like strong warriors upon first seeing them, which turned out to be true when the Skraelings stopped at nothing when they attempted to destroy the Viking settlement most likely in an attempt to get their people back because Finnbogi started kidnaping their women to become slaves. Even after admitting defeat, the Skraelings kept trying to destroy Freydis' camp, and even adapted to the wooden walls surrounding the camp by setting their arrows on fire to break the walls. This shows the the Skraelings were a determined and vengeful tribe. The Skraeling attacks only proved successful some time after Hekja left Vinland, As stated by a man at the final chapter "A song for Freydis." He said that the Vinland colony was left in ruins, but also said that Freydis and the Vinland settlers have likely escaped.

### Relations

As previously mentioned, The Skraelings served as trading partners with Freydis' colony, but they also took a liking to Snoori The Skald, who sometimes joined in on their hunting parties. They also had tamed dogs, which also join their hunting parties (Possibly to assist in them killing larger animals they are known to eat eg. wild deer). There is also evidence that the Skraelings have previously encountered another tribe/group of non-Skraeling people, as it says when the Skraelings, first arrived, the Skraeling chief already expected a language barrier.

### Lifestyle

Based on what we see in the book, their day to day life, seems similar to the Greenlanders/Vikings. The men seem to go out to hunt in hunting parties, sometimes with dogs, and the women stay at their compound out take care of the children. It is also possible that the women also took care of the sunflowers, maize (corn) and gourds that the Skraelings grew, but they could also be relying on the weather to grow their crops. Their diet most likely consisted of corn, cooked fish and meats such as deer, possibly sunflower seeds, possibly Vinland grapes, and possibly wild rice. We do not know how the Skraelings get their pearls, but it is possible that some Skraelings might be pearl hunters, and go diving to get pearls. Not much else is known about how the Skraelings lived.

### Trivia

1. The Skraelings where based on the native Americans.
2. The word Skraeling meant little men or barbarians for Norsemen in real life.
3. The Skraelings were based on the British account of native Americans