Chapter 22 | Page 13
on April 18, 2023
at 12:00 am
They’re desperate for entertainment.
Thistil Mistil Kistil
by Sarah Schanze
Velkommen!
Thistil Mistil Kistil is a comic about vikings, Norse gods, and their adventures together (or against each other). Updates are on Thor’s Day.
I just realised that people here wouldn’t find Ibrahim and Arne unusual. Aren is native American I presume and Ibrahim is from a cultural that had trader’s all over that region.
Maybe? Muslim traders got around but did they get here? Are there records?
As for those the Norse called Skraelings, they did know of them but would they expect to see them there? And who the First Peoples were changes over the few centuries the Norse are in Greenland from the Dorset to the Thule and Algonquin depending on where they go.
It’s complex and sometimes indistinct.
I´m with you where Arab traders are concerned.
As for the First Nations… Arne is from Helluland, which was probably Labrador. The people there should not have looked too different from the ones the Norse encountered on Greenland itself. They´ll probably think Arne was one of those.
I haven’t read anything about Arab traders making their way to Greenland, but I have little doubt people from Greenland made their way to more cosmopolitan areas with greater diversity of appearances and religions. In fact, when archaeologists excavated the graveyard of the church from Herjolfsnes, they were surprised to find a lot of clothing was high-quality and fashionably current. The location of the settlement, being the southern- and eastern-most major homestead and so close to the ocean rather than further inland where the fertile farmland would be, implies it was intended to be a major port of trade, the first place a ship might arrive before heading to other Greenland settlements.
Of course, absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence. Maybe Arab traders did get to Greenland! The primary reason the Greenlanders are so excited it just because anyone new is a novelty lol.