[Sca-cooks] Greenland/Iceland

[Stefan li Rous]

Nanna said:
> On the other hand, the Sagas also often mention that some of the settlers
> did not come straight from Scandinavia, but had lived in the British Isles,
> the Orkneys, Shetland or other places for some time, maybe even a generation
> or more. And many of the Norsemen who settled there for some time may have
> married local women and brought them with them to Iceland. As I've said
> earlier, I find it rather remarkable that all this does not seem to have had
> much (lasting) effect on food and cooking in Iceland - but then again, the
> resources were so few and the limitations so severe.


Yes, and when the Norse were in the Orkneys and Shetlands, they would
probably have become the dominant group there and the other inhabitants
may have already been similar in culture because of similar conditions so
anything picked up from them might not standout as such.

If the world were to plunge back into some kind of "Dark Ages: and
communication and transport with Iceland were to end, I really wonder
just how much of our current times would be left there in a century
or two. The climate makes a big differance.


>> Again, what happened to the ships? or at least the ship building
>> skills? Was Iceland not doing much fishing at this time, such that
>> seamanship and shipbuilding would be kept up? Or was it being done
>> much more on a small-scale coastal only arrangement?
>
> The trees that grew in Iceland were too small or unsuitable for
> ship-building (not much good for building houses either), so wood to build
> ships had to be imported from Norway - very expensive and not really viable
> Icelanders used small boats for coastal fishing and they were built out of
> driftwood. We didn't really own any ships again until the mid 19th century
> or even later.

Even when Iceland was first colonized, were the trees there too small
for major shipbuilding? Or was this just after the forest clearing
had been going on for awhile? I do seem to remember even in Scandanavia
that it did get harder to find the particular wood of the size needed to
continue shipbuilding as they had. I seem to remember a greater use of
spliced material later on.


It very much reminds me of various Science Fiction plots where the

planetary colonists lose their original technology and have either
canabalized their transport ships or were simply dropped off and
the ships went on. Leaves you rather dependant upon the homeland
and any political changes there. I also seem to remember the early
American colonists having similar problems.


--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****