Good Vinland PODs?

There’s nothing wrong with the idea, the problem is that Iceland is a really bad fit. The irony is that the mild climate make it bad for any Amerindian group to settle (as sea ice make fishing and hunting of sea mammals easier [1] and Iceland lack sea ice). Honestly the Dorset culture developing a proto-Inuit tool kit and settling southern Greenland would be better model.

[1] Arctic human populations more or less filling the same ecological niche as polar bears.
All fair points.
It's a reasonable place to reach, but not a reasonable place to stay unless you change your ways.

I think for the premise I'm aiming for, it depends on that changing of ways. Megafauna and sea-ice hunting sounds both a little more migratory and a little less density-friendly. To have a population sufficient in number or well-off-ness to really pique Norse attention in the "we really have to commit resources to raiding wherever these people came from" way might depend on that.

People once from around Alaska also became people around Brazil, and changed their ways. Maybe Iceland is a more sudden lifestyle shift, but a feasible one with the right prodding.
 
1) The Norse were the sort of people who killed strangers just to see what colour their blood was. Assume eventual bad relationships with any natives.

2) If the Norse in Labrador had excess fish and seals (and I assume that you are talking about them) they are more likely to trade such stuff with Greenland in return for more iron along with European imports. If you are talking more generally more fish means less seal in the diet.

3) The Norse may not in theory need the deep forests, However, if they cut them down they can create pasture for cattle, sheep and goats and they can trade the timber with Greenland for the stuff in 2 along with animals to graze the pasture. Greenland was timber poor and milk products are part of the ideal Norse cuisine.

A successful Norse Markland is not good for any natives.
1. That's a stereotype. Plenty of strangers (i.e. people from Iceland, Norway, and Denmark) set foot in medieval Greenland and traded with the locals, sometimes to the obvious disadvantage of the locals, and didn't catch an axe to the head. The Norse were perfectly capable of engaging in long-term trading relations (i.e. with the Sami or the people of Bjarmaland) that did not result in the sort of total war seen in Greenland or the Indian wars of 17th century colonial America.

2. I'd think it the other way around. Greenland has few trade goods beside luxury goods (before the 15th century when the codfish industry could easily have been expanded there), but does have high demand for quality timber and iron. So I think Markland would export iron and timber to Greenland and import excess European goods or maybe quality livestock (probably animals rare in Greenland like horses and pigs). Trade with the natives makes more sense. It replicates the interactions individual bands of Innu and Naskapi had with each other (interior bands would trade reindeer skins and meat for fish and seals), is mutually beneficial, and gives easy access to a good with some value (as leather, although that's not really valuable as export).

I suspect the natives could also be used to obtain walrus ivory (walrus would have not been common south of the Arctic circle in Labrador), polar bear pelts, and gyrfalcon feathers (also valuable trade goods Greenland sent back to Norway) which would further reduce Norse-Indian conflicts because the Norse would not be hunting in their territory. This also means less dangerous sea voyages for the men of the colonies, so they could focus on managing their farms, building ships, and crafting goods to sell to the Indians.

3. That would not occur for decades or more. Greenland is a small market (no more than 3,000 people), and there might be political issues with selling timber in Iceland (since it competes with Norwegian merchants). By the time the Norse would need to truly expand their territory, they would have the population base necessary to win an Indian war. Potentially they'd always be militarised than the Greenlanders because they have more iron and the Indians are always a presence unlike in Greenland where the Inuit were invaders--Greenland was a peaceful land where most violence was either fights between individuals or dealing with dangerous polar bears.

Also compare the area of the unglaciated areas of southern Greenland to Labrador. Just a fraction of coastal fjordland in Labrador offers more land to the Norse than Greenland, and in many cases higher quality land due to the existance of sheltered areas where groves of trees grow.

I'd say we can't really know how Norse-Beothuk relations would have evolved over time. But it is definitely a mistake to assume that it was a template for how things would have gone elsewhere, and most certainly Norse-Inuit relations are not a template given they occurred in a very unique context which is impossible to replicate elsewhere.
Then consider that on the journey to America, they basically island-hopped. Iceland sucks. Greenland sucks even more. Helluland sucks most. Markland, if we assume it's Labrador, sucks less than Iceland, but is full of angry strangers. Finally you get to Vinland which might be Newfoundland or more south and discover that it's also pretty meh, and also full of angry strangers.

That's a lot of coast to cover, and in order to establish a colony, you'd have to establish them in all those places mentioned above that are barely worth considering. And don't forget, no swanky navigational tools the Portuguese first used centuries later. It would simply be comically expensive and a logistical nightmare. Nobody would agree to this.
Iceland doesn't suck by Norse standards. It's got a bunch of great land to raise cattle and sheep, used to have a decent amount of forest, and is far from any powerful king. The typical medieval Norseman mostly just wanted a big farm, a good wife, a lot of children, and to be left alone by wars and oppressive rulers. Even Greenland isn't so bad, since in some valleys it was possible to grow barley in some years during the 11th and 12th centuries. We should assume the same for most of Labrador south of the Arctic circle, and certainly for the southernmost parts which are akin to Iceland.

And the Norse also had very good navigational tools. They used sun compasses that could determine the direction of the sun on all but the most overcast days (or nights), which is helpful since at high latitudes the nights are very short in the summer. They could roughly determine latitude and compare it to the latitude of known ports.
 
1. That's a stereotype. Plenty of strangers (i.e. people from Iceland, Norway, and Denmark) set foot in medieval Greenland and traded with the locals, sometimes to the obvious disadvantage of the locals, and didn't catch an axe to the head. The Norse were perfectly capable of engaging in long-term trading relations (i.e. with the Sami or the people of Bjarmaland) that did not result in the sort of total war seen in Greenland or the Indian wars of 17th century colonial America.

2. I'd think it the other way around. Greenland has few trade goods beside luxury goods (before the 15th century when the codfish industry could easily have been expanded there), but does have high demand for quality timber and iron. So I think Markland would export iron and timber to Greenland and import excess European goods or maybe quality livestock (probably animals rare in Greenland like horses and pigs). Trade with the natives makes more sense. It replicates the interactions individual bands of Innu and Naskapi had with each other (interior bands would trade reindeer skins and meat for fish and seals), is mutually beneficial, and gives easy access to a good with some value (as leather, although that's not really valuable as export).

I suspect the natives could also be used to obtain walrus ivory (walrus would have not been common south of the Arctic circle in Labrador), polar bear pelts, and gyrfalcon feathers (also valuable trade goods Greenland sent back to Norway) which would further reduce Norse-Indian conflicts because the Norse would not be hunting in their territory. This also means less dangerous sea voyages for the men of the colonies, so they could focus on managing their farms, building ships, and crafting goods to sell to the Indians.

3. That would not occur for decades or more. Greenland is a small market (no more than 3,000 people), and there might be political issues with selling timber in Iceland (since it competes with Norwegian merchants). By the time the Norse would need to truly expand their territory, they would have the population base necessary to win an Indian war. Potentially they'd always be militarised than the Greenlanders because they have more iron and the Indians are always a presence unlike in Greenland where the Inuit were invaders--Greenland was a peaceful land where most violence was either fights between individuals or dealing with dangerous polar bears.

Also compare the area of the unglaciated areas of southern Greenland to Labrador. Just a fraction of coastal fjordland in Labrador offers more land to the Norse than Greenland, and in many cases higher quality land due to the existance of sheltered areas where groves of trees grow.

I'd say we can't really know how Norse-Beothuk relations would have evolved over time. But it is definitely a mistake to assume that it was a template for how things would have gone elsewhere, and most certainly Norse-Inuit relations are not a template given they occurred in a very unique context which is impossible to replicate elsewhere.

Iceland doesn't suck by Norse standards. It's got a bunch of great land to raise cattle and sheep, used to have a decent amount of forest, and is far from any powerful king. The typical medieval Norseman mostly just wanted a big farm, a good wife, a lot of children, and to be left alone by wars and oppressive rulers. Even Greenland isn't so bad, since in some valleys it was possible to grow barley in some years during the 11th and 12th centuries. We should assume the same for most of Labrador south of the Arctic circle, and certainly for the southernmost parts which are akin to Iceland.

And the Norse also had very good navigational tools. They used sun compasses that could determine the direction of the sun on all but the most overcast days (or nights), which is helpful since at high latitudes the nights are very short in the summer. They could roughly determine latitude and compare it to the latitude of known ports.
If Markland does have spare bog iron then logically it would trade it. If they find the iron ore deposits and can get miners from Europe to emigrate to it that is a game changer. It gives them a serious export to Greenland and maybe Iceland as well as having colonists come from outside those places.

The problem is that the miners anf the families have got to take a chance on the North Atlantic sailing route at a time when there are likely to be better offers in Europe.

Markland. is unlikely to get many pigs though. There were only a few at the start and top of the Norse menu. I can't see the Greenland elite trading any.

Food for food trade between the Norse and Beothuk would work as long as the Norse do not trade milk. The natives are lactose intolerant. Apart from that food for food trade always work when the traders inhabit different ecological zones.

However good Norse-Beothuk problem would start when the Norse expand into native hunting areas, cut down the trees for export and convert them into pasture. Same problem as happened further south during the Early Modern era. If the Norse get a Markland settlement up and running and attract landless folk from Greenland and Iceland for free farmland then that is going to happen. The farms don't have to be that good. Just better than Greenland (easy) and Iceland.

If Lief Eriksson had tried settling Markland instead of Vinland (an easy PoD) then it is possible that the Norse could have established a settlement there at least in the short term. It is then possible for it to survive in the long term. Its advantage over say Roanoke are shorter lines of communication with trade partners and sources of colonists, less aggressive natives and more local experience.
 
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