Fearful adventurers and warriors, the Vikings marked the imagination and became the subject of several historical accounts, movies and TV series. This obsession with Scandinavians is not new. During the 1980’s, scientists and historians became interested in their travels, as our archives testify.
From Norway to Newfoundland via Iceland and Greenland
The Vikings were present between 793 and 1066 CE.
Despite the successes of their raids on the English shores, the Vikings were not the bloodthirsty brutes as they are often described. Many were traders, explorers, farmers or workers.
These unique navigators traveled without instruments on boats whose stability was resistant to the strongest storms.
On September 19, 1986 at reverse shot, René Vézina and Jean-François Mercier presented a report on the odyssey of the Vikings from Norway to Iceland and Greenland.
As Patrick Plumet, director of the archeology laboratory at UQAM, explained, the Vikings lived on sea adventures. Leaving Norway in the 9th century to settle in Iceland, they would further push their explorations west.
Erik Le Rouge will travel to Greenland, where he is being baptized the green country. He decided to live there with his family and found the colony of Brattahlid there in the 10th century. Divided into about fifteen ships, one hundred Vikings would arrive in Greenland carrying farm animals and some equipment.
To trade with the continent of Europe, the Vikings would climb north to hunt narwhal for its horn. The white falcon and the polar bear will also serve as their currency of exchange in Europe. Traces of the Viking presence have been found almost at the top of the world.
The absence of trees in Greenland will be a headache for these people of navigators who must build and repair their boats. Erik Le Rouge’s son would therefore stand to occupy the territories located west and further south towards Newfoundland at L’Anse aux Meadows. This is the first time that Europeans have landed on the American continent.
Celebrate your Scandinavian origins in Saguenay
On August 17, 1983 on the show Reflections of a nationPierre Lawrence introduced us to the Fjordsen and the Saguenay Vikings.
Val Rasmussen is the vice president of the Viking brotherhood of Fjord Saguenay.
In the mid-1980s, this proud son of a Dane suggested to his friend of Norwegian origin, André Ellefsen, to gather all the Scandinavian descendants of the Saguenay Lac-Saint-Jean region.
Extremely proud of their Viking origins, they multiplied the way of life of their ancestors over the course of a weekend.
In the report, engineer Émile Daoust explained how they were able to build their longship based on their research into Scandinavian culture.
A symbolic landing takes place at Cap des Roches where longship paddlers are expected.
The ship in the past, made with new materials, amazed children and adults who were fascinated by the world of the Vikings. We must not forget that in 1983, we were in the era of the animated series Vic the Viking enjoyed by many children. The popular series also seems to have inspired the costumes of many festival-goers. We now know that Viking helmets have no horns.
The Fjord Saguenay Vikings Festival takes place every year from July to 1992.
Find Vikings along St. Lawrence and Manicouagan River
On April 7, 1989, journalist Sylvain Turbide met Napoléon Martin, a novice historian who was keen on the history of navigation.
According to this volunteer from the historical society of Côte-Nord, the Vikings ventured as far as the Manicouagan River. Napoleon Martin has been interested in the subject for decades. He referred to many texts narrating the travels of the Vikings and compared several maps to come up with this hypothesis.
In 1995, he also published the book Vikings of St. Lawrence (in the year 1005). Napoléon Martin also took part in archaeological digs in the summer of 2014 at the Vieux-Poste site in Baie-Comeau.
Excavations did not reveal any presence of navigators at the mouth of Manicouagan.
Many specialists believe, such as Napoleon Martin, that the Vikings may have ventured along St. Lawrence River, but their hypotheses remain proven.
Source: Radio-Canada
