Vikings Coming to America
Pages 61-64 in American Gods by Neil Gainman tell the tale of the vikings first landing in America. According to this interpretation, the vikings landed on American soil via navigating using the stars, but if it was a cloudy day they would rely on faith and the direction of the all-father (Odin). Upon arrival the vikings were exhausted, wounded, hungry, and feeling hopeless. After a motivational speech by the leader the vikings started constructing a hall out of trees and mud in honor of the God that created the land they are on. After the hall was built they celebrated by drinking, feasting, and singing songs that tell the story of Odin sacrificing himself for the men. Ironically, the next next the vikings find a scraeling whom the be-friend. After a night of feeding “him roasted meat to eat, and strong drink to quench his thirst” (63), the scraeling fell asleep upon which the vikings hung him, with rope around his neck, at the ash tree. According to the vikings they were sending their “sacrifice to the Heavens” (63).
One cold winter afternoon the vikings noticed that the remains of the scraeling’s body had been removed from the tree. That night the scraeling people formed a war party that entered the viking camping grounds and killed “each of the thirty men, in thirty different ways” (64). This chapter ends by saying the vikings were eventually forgotten and it was one hundred years later before Leif the Fortunate rediscovered the land and called it Vineland. It is also noted that Odin and Thor were waiting for Leif when he arrived.
I have decided to write my last blog post about this section of reading from American Gods because after reading it the for the first time myself, I did not understand it’s purpose in the novel. Although I am not completely sure it’s purpose for being in the novel, I do believe it is the first step in proving a framework, a base knowledge, of the viking history in America, and that this will have some importance later on in the story. Aside from that comment about this peculiar section, it is also important to note that since this could possibly be used as part of the base knowledge of the vikings discussed in the novel, the historical facts may not be completely accurate. Like it is mentioned at the end of the reading, “…the sailors were forgotten, by history and their people” and that “it was more than a hundred years before Leif the Fortunate, son of Erik the Red, rediscovered that land, which he would call Vineland” (64). With no survivor to pass on the history who is to say what is written is what actually occurred. Considering the scraeling people are natives of the land it can be assumed they do not speak the language of the vikings and therefore can not pass the story on to the vikings. What I am saying is not that all the information told in the section is false, but given the facts it may not be completely accurate and this is something to keep in mind when reading.
