Viking History

This is what we did on August 20th…

This morning we went to the L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site. This site is the first known North American Viking settlement. The Viking settlement known in Norse literature as Vinland dates back to 1000 years ago. It was founded by a group lead by Leif Eriksson.

In the 1960’s, Norwegian archaeologists, Dr. and Mrs Ingstad had been searching for the legendary site of Vinland. They visited L’Anse aux Meadows and spoke with a local fisherman named George Decker. He told them of unusual grassy mounds in the area. Twelve years of research followed and the Ingstads proved that the grassy mounds were remnants of eight 11th century Norse buildings. Remnants of early iron production were also uncovered. at L’anse aux Meadows. It is thought to be the first place in North America where ore was smelted to produce iron.

The national historic site encompasses those mounds and also had recreated buildings showing how the Vikings lived while at the site. Costumed workers re-enact many of the Viking activities and provided a lot if information. (5293).

We also visited the Norsestad Village which is a re-enactment of the Viking Village. Various crafts and games were demonstrated.

Later in the day we drove into St Anthony and toured around the town. One of the places we visited was the Grenfell Experience. St Anthony is the headquarters of the Grenfell society founded in the late 1800’s by Sir Thomas Grenfell. Dr Grenfell is credited with bringing medical care to Northern Newfoundland and Southern Labrador. He spent most of his life going from village to village caring for people and was instrumental in setting a comprehensive hospital system. He was an interesting man.

In the evening we went out to the St Anthony lighthouse. (5357). It is a popular spot to look for whales although we did not see any today. We attended a Viking feast which featured traditional Newfoundland and Viking dishes such as Jigs Dinner(salt beef with potatoes, turnips and cabbage-pretty good), cod tongue, caplin(small salted fish-yuck!), salmon and cod. The entertainment by the Viking costumed staff was really fun. They held a court and various audience members had fun bringing charges against their fellowe travelers. It was great fun and we all laughed a lot.