| It is such a rich irony that at the first great | | | | shields, laden with battle gear, all to their doom |
| meeting of humanity moving east and west up | | | | from these arrows from the sky. Yet that |
| out of Africa did first meet, as we know, in east | | | | mighty battle was over in the afternoon. The |
| Canada. On the northern tip of the island portion | | | | Viking outcasts from Iceland put up with these |
| of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador is | | | | "skralings" as they called the native peoples for |
| the place of legend, proven in 1960 as the place | | | | two or three years. The locals would harass and |
| where the Vikings did actually land and build mud | | | | jump up from hiding places and soon arrows in |
| houses and survey the area and try to make | | | | Vikings in fields in this milder land than Iceland, |
| new lives for themselves. That this was a natural | | | | forced them to retreat home. |
| western exploration and continuation of Viking | | | | Back in Iceland, they had to plead for acceptance. |
| outcasts from Norway, often expelled for some | | | | One of the women born at this site, truly the first |
| murder or crime. | | | | European child born in the new world, went on to |
| These outcasts could always find other common | | | | become a Christian nun, and moved back from |
| outcasts to man a crew. I have seen those Viking | | | | the New World, to Iceland, and eventually to |
| ships in Oslo museums and they are not that | | | | serve her life out at the Vatican in Rome. So it |
| large, yet so beautifully crafted. These have been | | | | was known in Rome by 1020-1040 that there |
| excavated from mudflats in nearby fjords, almost | | | | was a new world, and yet in all the annals of |
| perfectly preserved after one thousand years. | | | | history that fact has been obscured. So, it may |
| And it is this irony, that when the Vikings arrived | | | | have taken another five hundred years, but it |
| on the coasts of the new world, they found their | | | | was a curious few adventurers in ships who |
| Roman era swords and battle axes were no | | | | waited to go west again. |
| match for the bows and arrows of the local | | | | But now they had that great gift from the east |
| peoples who had worked their way over from | | | | that the Asians did not bring 30,000 year ago, gun |
| Asia during the land connection bridge during the | | | | powder. Now, they could show the difference |
| ice ages of 30,000 years ago. | | | | between tribal jewelry and civilization, with a bang. |
| And when you think of it, the defeat of the | | | | And that is how the west was won. And those |
| Vikings in the New World happened in a manner | | | | Skralings that beat back the Vikings? The last one |
| not unlike how three hundred years later, at the | | | | died, an old woman, about 1900; they had been |
| mighty battle of Agincourt in France, English | | | | shot for sport for centuries, since 1497. |
| arrows rained down on French with swords, | | | | |