Gotland A large province in ancient Sweden. Now divided into East and West Gotland.
Great Blueland Africa, so called because the Africans were considered "blue men."
Great Swithiod Russia. (Swithiod the Lesser was Sweden.)
Haukadale District of relatively lush farmland in Iceland, near Breidafjord. Eirik the Red got land there when he married Thjodhild Jorundsdottir, but he was outlawed from it when he killed his neighbor Valthjof
Helluland "Slab-Land" or "Flint-Land." Between Greenland and Markland. Probably Baffin Island.
Herjolfsness Promontory in south Greenland, at the extremity of the East Bygd, where ships often stopped to trade. Bjarni Herjolfsson, perhaps the first discoverer of Vinland, Hved there; the place was named after his father, who was the first Norse settler. Gudrid Thorbjornsdottir and her father were guested there by a farmer called Thorkel.
Holm [Icelandic] Island.
Huidserken See Blauserk.
Igaliko [Greenlandic] "The deserted cooking-place." Sardonic Inuit place-name for Gardar, where Freydis and Thorvard used to live in a mansion, and later there stood a Norse cathedral. (Modern spelling: Igaliku.)
Jsderen Birthplace of Eirik the Red, in Norway.
Jokull [Icelandic] Glacier (as in Sncefellsjokull, Myklajokull).
Jotunheim The kingdom of the Frost Giants (Jotuns). Thought to be an icy land in the distant north, connecting Greenland to Norway.
Kapasillit Small village in Greenland, just across the fjord from Nuuk.
Mafshaak [Canadian Inuktitut] A hole in the ice, treacherously concealed by snowdrifts.
Markland "Forest-Land" or "Wood-Land." The Greenlanders continued to visit it for timber after the route to Vinland was abandoned. Between Helluland and Vinland. Possibly Newfoundland or Nova Scotia, but most plausibly (to me) Labrador.
Midgaard "Middle-World." Of the nine Norse worlds, this one is the most important to us, for we dwell on it. It is encircled by the Mare Oceanum, in which dwells LOKl's child, the Serpent of Midgaard, a great horror so long that it must swallow its own tail. To the north He Jotunheim and Niflheim; to the south lie Muspelheim and Aasgaard (Asaheim; Asia); the location of the other worlds, and even some of their names, is conjectural.
Mukla Jokel The Great Mountain: Eirik the Red's name for Blue-Shirt; now known as Gunnbjorn's Peak (12,500 ft). (It has alternatively been suggested that Blue-Shirt was the glacier peak of Ingolsfjeld. However, I prefer the notion of Gunnbjorn's Peak, that being the highest in all Greenland. This commanding mountain was not climbed until 1935.) The spelHng used here, by the way, is probably an old translator's error, so I have religiously kept it. (Variant: Mykla Jokull.)
Muspelheim The Kingdom of Fire, which in Norse mythology lay southward of Ginnunga Gap. Muspelheim's sparks became the stars. One of the signs of the world's end will be when LOKI appears upon the sea, piloting a skiff crewed by men from Muspelheim.
Niflheim The Kingdom of Ice, which in Norse mythology lay northward of Ginnunga Gap. The realm of the dead, ruled by the goddess Hel.
Nuuk Capital city of Greenland. (Danish name: Godthaab.)
Ostrebug; Vestrebug [Danish; Pmistranslated] The East and West Settlements of the lost Greenland colony. (Variants: Ostreby; Vestreby.)
Slab-Land Helluland (also translated "Flint-Land"). Between Greenland and Markland. Probably Baffin Island.
Slith "The Frightful." The stream of poisonous cold that flows between Jotunheim and Hel.
Snsefellsness (Snowfells Ness) A glacier-topped volcano in Iceland at the western extremity of the peninsula that comprises the southern boundary of Breidafjord. Eirik the Red sailed west using Snaefellsness as a landmark behind him, and Blue-Shirt in Greenland as a landmark ahead. The glacier itself was called Snaefellsjokull.
Upsal or Uppsala Old Norse kingdom in Sweden. The god Frey is supposed to have built a great temple there shortly after ODIN died. King On ruled there and sacrificed nine of his sons to ODIN in the sacred grove there; King Ingjald the Evil-Worker was fed the wolf's-heart there. Human sacrifice was abolished in Upsal sometime between AD 860 and 1060.
Valhalla [Norse] The hall of ODIN, where slain warriors would be received. There the dead men would do battle in tournaments by day; at night they would be feasted, their mead-cups filled by lovely maidens. At the end of the world they would defend ODIN valiantly, if hopelessly, against the brood of LOKI.
Vanaheim [Norse] "The country of the Don River people was called Vanaland, or Vanaheim," says Snorri in the Heimskringla; "and that river divides the three parts of the world, of which the easternmost part is called Asia and the west Europe." The Vanaheim people had a war with Odin's folk in Aasgaard (Asia) and finally made a truce with them. Snorri claims that the god Frey was from Vanaheim. When King Swegde was seeking ODIN he took a wife from Vanaheim named Vana. The country seems to have been fertile in witches.
Vinland "Vine-Land" or "Wine-Land." North America. The Norse thought of it as a promontory, and I have imagined it as being the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland.
Well of Weird The pool whose water nourishes the roots of sacred Yggdrasil. All knowledge comes to him who drinks deep of it. ODIN gave up an eye for one taste of it.
Yggdrasil [Norse; Hterally, "Terror's Horse," because YGG (Odin) hanged Himself from it] The great World-Tree of myth. It supports the universe. Humankind hves beneath one of its nine roots.
Eddas The meaning of the word "Edda" is conjectural. There are two of these compilations of lore (although the copies contain some different material). They are variously known as Elder and Younger, or Poetic and Prose, or Saemund's and Snorri's after their collectors. The Snorri of the latter is indeed Snorri Sturlusson, the author of the Heimskringla. Aside from some ballads, the Eddas are our main source for Norse mythology.
Flateyjarbok "The Book of Flatey." Vellum compilation of various Norse sagas, histories and myths, written for Jon Finnsson in 1382. See the introductory textual note for further details. (NOTE: The Flateyjarbok contains Grxnlendinga Saga but not Eirik's Saga. In this novel I have sometimes pretended that it does, that the Flateyjarbok is a sort of celestial Macropedia that contains everything we know about Vinland and the Norse Greenlanders. As it stands, the range of material in the Flateyjarbok is impressive enough.)
Heimskringla "The World-Circle." The great history of the Norse Kings written by Snorri Sturlusson in 1235. Not identical in content with the Flateyjarbok, although there is a good deal of overlap - as in, for instance, the Greater Saga of Olaf Trygvesson, which includes Grxnlendinga Saga.
Kenning A phrase taken from story and popular allusion to characterize something. Thus, the ocean might be called "swan-field," and a ship could be called "ski of the swan-field." I have used and invented many kennings in The Ice-Shirt. R. Harbison calls them "certainly more stimulating to current readers than [to] the first hearers."
Landnamabok The Icelandic Book of Settlements. A chronicle of who colonized which districts of Iceland.
Vinland Sagas This appellation most often refers to Grxnlendinga Saga and Eirik's Saga. The story that they tell, of the attempted colonization of Vinland, is not exactly consistent from text to text. For instance, Grs^nlendinga Saga describes how Freydis murdered Helgi and Finnbogi with all their entourage; Eirik's Saga mentions these events not at all, but tells instead how Freydis saved the colony by whacking her breasts with the flat of her sword, thus throwing the attacking Skraelings into terror. I feel somewhat abashed that I have thought to harmonize all these glorious contradictions, but hopefully I missed a few.
V QemraC GCossary
A-mo! A-mo! [Greenlandic] The cry of the demon Amortortak. The meaning
is conjectural. Anegiuchak [Alaskan Inuktitut] A sunken dwelHng of a square shape, sometimes
cut in the ice and sometimes in sod. Angakok; Angagkoq [Greenlandic] Shaman.
Aoobulogeak' [Micmac] The wind goes down with the sun. (Rand's orthography.) Appa [Greenlandic] Edible sea-bird (probably guillemot).
Amap angutinup [Greenlandic] A woman's sex appeal to men. (The all-purpose
word is pilerinartoq.) Bonder (sing. Bonder or Bonde) [Norse] Freeholders of land. In the Heimskringla,
for instance, Harald Fairhair's concubine Gyda is described as being "brought up
as a foster child in the house of a great bonde in Valders." Thorgunna's body
was laid out for the night in the house of a bonder in Iceland, there being no
inns at the time. In old Norway the bonder were often at odds with their Kings;
many of them rose up against King Olaf Trygvesson when he set out to impose
Christianity upon the land. Carle (fem. Carline) [Norse] Thrall. Drumlin A hill of glacial deposit drift. Ell [Norse] Unit of measurement. About eighteen inches. (NOTE: Not to be confused
with Enghsh, Scottish or Flemish ells.) E'pit [Micmac] Woman. (S.T. Rand: Abit.) Esker A glacial stream deposit. Fey [Norse] Subject to supernatural presentiments or precognitions. A fey person
might see his own double, as Gudrid did; he might see the future, as Thorbjorg
the Prophetess did; most commonly he sensed the approach of his own or another's
death. Frilla [Norse] "Concubine," said the Victorian translators. But a modern scholar
says, "Whore." Galdr [Norse] Singing-witchcraft. It was this that Gudrid would have been taught
by her foster-mother Halldis. (Variant: Guldr.) Goi! [Greenlandic] An invocation of an Inuit shaman. Holm [Icelandic] Island.
Holmgang [Icelandic] A duel to the death, usually fought upon a small island. The
combat area was marked off by birch rods. Hus-freyja [Norie] Housewife. Inuk [Greenlandic, Alaskan, Canadian and Soviet Inuktitut] The singular of Inuit
(literally, "the people" - what Eskimos call themselves). Inukhuit [Canadian Inuktitut] Stone "scarecrows" in the hkenesses of men, built
to frighten caribou. Inuktitut [Inuktitut] The language of the Inuit. Greenlandic is a dialect of
Inuktitut. Jarl [Norse] Earl. (The Victorian translations of the Heimskringla which call King
Hakon "King Hakon Jarl" do so, as do I, to distinguish him from King Hakon
the Good before him, but there is no such oxymoron of titles in the original.) Ji'nm [Micmac] Man. (S.T. Rand: Cheenum.) Kamiks [Greenlandic] "An Enghsh adaptation of Kamik, the singular for skin-boots
{Kamiit in plural)." - Nuka Moller. Keskooskwa [Micmac] To creep upon bears. (Only Rand's orthography available.) Kespi-a'tuksit [Micmac] Here ends this story. (S.T. Rand: Kespeadooksit.) Kestijui'skw [Micmac] Bondmaid. (S.T. Rand: Kestejooeesqua.) Knarr [Norse] Small open boat, in which the Northmen often traveled great
distances. Kuskimtulnakunuhkwode [Micmac] To have a hundred feet; to be a centipede
(first conjugation). (Only Rand's orthography available.) Kvedulfr [Norse] "Wolf of evening"; a berserker. Kwe! [Micmac] "Greetings!" (S.T. Rand: Kwa!) Lmu'ji'jmanaqsi [Micmac] Willow tree. (Literally, "Little Dog Bush": willows are
an introduced species anyhow in the Canadian Maritimes; where Rand got this
from is a mystery.) (S.T. Rand: Uliimoojejumdndkse.) Mafshaak [Canadian Inuktitut] A hole in the ice, treacherously concealed by
snowdrifts. Maktawaakwa [Micmac] Blackness.
Maktokokunumase [Micmac] To paint something of one's own black. Medooebook' [Micmac] Hard winter. Melasol [Icelandic] Variety of Arctic poppy with yellow milksap and yellow
flowers. Mimtugopkatpusasik [Micmac] War-Club. (Only Rand's orthography available.) Mooskobe [Micmac] Womb. (Only Rand's orthography available.) Muskunamu'k [Micmac] Blue. Literally, "It is in kind with the sky." (S.T. Rand:
Mooskoonanamook.) Micmac is a holophrastic language.* Hence the next three
entries:
* S.T. Rand points out in his dictionary (p. iv) that "the conjugation of a single Micmac verb would make a large book. It would have to contain dihout fifteen thousand forms."
• Muskunamu'ksuti [Micmac] Blueness. (S.T. Rand: Mooskoonamooksoode.)
• Muskunamu'kwesik [Micmac] Bluish. (S.T. Rand: Mooskoonamoogwasik.)
• Muskunik [Micmac] Blue cloth. (S.T. Rand: Mooskoonek.) Nanoq [Greenlandic] Polar bear; ice-bear.
Orer [Norse] An eighth-ounce, as in "twelve orers of silver," the minimum customary bride-price at the time when Eirik the Red married Thjodhild.
Pell [Norse] Costly velvet-like lining for garments.
Puisi [Greenlandic] Seal.
Puoin (plur. Puoninaq) [Micmac] Witch or warlock; shaman. (A synonym is Puoini'skq, which the more phonetic if less fashionable Rand spells Boooineskwa.)
Qajaasat [Greenlandic] Medicinal herb known to the Greenland Inuit (Ledum Groenlandicum).
Qangattarsa! [Greenlandic] Let us fly up!
Sark; Serk [Norse] Shirt.
Sava [Greenlandic] Sheep.
Seid [Norse] Necromancy.
Skald (also Scald) [Norse] A poet. Skalds tended to choose as their subjects contemporary events, the exploits of heroes, etc. In ordinary circumstances they could be counted on to eulogize the Kings to which they were attached. Skalds recited their work at pubHc gatherings. Skaldic verse followed a rigid pattern of stresses, alliteration, etc., and the use of kennings. In the Heimskringla Snorri Sturlusson relied on skaldic verse as sources for his history of the Norse Kings. He wrote well in the skaldic manner himself, as exemplified in the Prose Edda.
Skobrodar [Nor5e] Spikes fastened to the shoe-soles for travel on ice.
Stefanssol [Icelandic] Variety of Arctic poppy with white milksap and white or pinkish flowers.
Steindorssol [Icelandic] Variety of Arctic poppy with white milksap and yellow flowers.
Tegebook' [Micmac] Cold winter.
Thing [Icelandic] Civil meeting in Iceland, when proclamations were heard and men brought suit. In the tenth century, the Thing (or Althing, as it was also known) convened on the tenth Thor's Day of summer.
Tuckamore [Newfoundlandic] Stunted, wind-twisted tree.
Tuttu [Greenlandic] Reindeer.
Ulnegun [Micmac] Blue broadcloth. (Post-Contact, of course.)
Ulu; Ulo [Greenlandic, Inuktitut] Woman's slate knife.
Unaak [Alaskan Inuktitut] A long spiked pole used for testing the thickness of the ice.
Weapontake [Norse] In the annual Thing of medieval Iceland, when lawsuits were decided, weapons were prohibited until the assembly dispersed, which time was thus called weapontake.
Wobaluse [Micmac] To whiten oneself.
H Cbronology of tbe Tirst % of Uiitlaitd
Note
M
any of the earlier dates in this Chronology are so provisional as to be only slightly better than useless. In particular, the reigns of the Norse Kings seem to have worm-holes in their significant digits. The Icelanders recorded them differently in their Annals than the Danes or the Norwegians, for they added an intercalary week to their calendar. Many of the dates in the Heimskringla are speculative; still more so are the dates proposed by archeologists. Various scholarly works on the Vikings written in the past hundred years often clash about dates; so I have interpolated here as best as I could, always devoutly hoping to provide you with knowledge adequate to the demands of any cocktail party.
I
The Age of tfte Icc-Sfurt
-?■?
??
30,000 BC
??10,000 BC ?2000 BC
P2000BC
P1700 BC
•?7
?1000-?500 BC
?500 BC-AD 1000
Elder Brother and Younger Brother begin the Inuit race.
The Sun and the Moon go into the sky.
Kluskap helps the Micmac in Vinland.
Odin leaves Aasgard (Asia?) and leads the gods to settle in Scandinavia.
Demon Amortortak invoked by north Greenland Inuit.
Siberian hunters cross the Bering Strait land-bridge to the northern Yukon.
Bering Strait land-bridge submerged.
Arctic Small Tool culture present in Alaska,
Canada, Greenland.
Independence I culture present in northern Greenland, Ellesmere Island, Devon Island, Cornwallis Island. "The overwhelming picture," writes an anthropologist, "is one of meagreness . . .
Pre-Dorset culture present in Low Arctic.
Independence II culture supplants Independence I.
Dorset culture dominates the Arctic.
The Ice-Shirt
?150 ?200
?300
?400 ?500
?860
?874 ?890
?900
Frey begins the Yngling Dynasty.
King Swegde, grandson of Frey and ruler of Sweden, seeks Odin; tricked into entering enchanted rock.
King Dag the Wise, who speaks the language of birds, dies in battle over a sparrow.
Kings Alric and Eric kill each other with their bridles.
King On prolongs his life by sacrificing nine of his sons to Odin.
Harald befriends a Lapp and succeeds Halfdan.
Harald crushes his last enemies in the Battle of Hafrsfjord and becomes supreme in Norway.
Irish anchorites begin living in the Faroe Islands.
First accurately dated Viking raid on Lindisfarne.
Vikings raid the Hebrides.
Vikings conquer the Faroes.
Viking raids on England.
Vikings plunder Hamburg, conquer Paris.
The Viking Naddour sights Iceland.
Ingolf settles Iceland.
Ulf Crow's son Gunnbjorn sights the skerries offcast Greenland.
A CHRONOLOGY OF THE FIRST AGE OF VINLAND
389
?900-?1200
?900 ?910 ?915
?930
930-1030 ?934
Harald marries a Lappish witch, Snaefrid; beHeves her hving for three years after her death.
Harald's favorite son, Eric Bloody-Axe comes of age at twelve and marries the Lappish witch Gunhild.
The Ice-Shirt Page 42