Lanse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada is the site of a recreated Viking settlement. It could have also meant “weak” or “sickly” or even “false friend”. The Vikings dubbed their enemies Skraelings, which means either “barbarian” or “foreigner” in the old Norse tongue. The small band of Europeans continued to fight the locals for the duration of their stay. “Here is the arrow, and this wound will cause my death.” Eight natives were reportedly killed in the engagement.
An arrow flew between the edge of the ship and the shield into my armpit,” one contemporary account records the Viking leader as saying. In an early encounter, Eiriksson himself was struck by an arrow. Yet almost as soon as the Norsemen hauled their long boats onto the beaches, fighting broke out with the local natives. The 50-member party eventually set up a fortified camp on the large island. Thorvald, the son of Erik the Red and brother of Lief Eiriksson, landed in the New World sometime around 985 CE. Nearly 350 colonists were killed in the ensuing battle.Īnd while the attack ushered in 300 years of almost ceaseless violence between the white settlers and natives, it wasn’t the first occasion in which Europeans met North American aboriginals on the battlefield. More than five centuries prior to Columbus’ voyage of discovery, a party of Vikings under the leadership of Thorvald Eiriksson established small a colony in modern day Newfoundland. MANY POINT TO the Jamestown Massacre of 1622 as the first clash between European settlers and native North Americans.Ī harbinger of centuries of bloodshed yet to come, the incident saw a group of unarmed Powhatan warriors infiltrate the wooden palisade of England’s struggling Virginia colony only to launch a surprise attack on the settlers using what tools and weapons the raiders could lay their hands on. “Almost as soon as the Norsemen hauled their long boats onto the beaches, fighting broke out with the local natives.” It would be the first time Europeans would fight against Aboriginals. Shortly after arriving, the Norse warriors were clashing with local tribes. Vikings settled in North America in the 10th and 11th Centuries.
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