new. We just have to dig into our history to understand the motivation behind it.
GO WEST YOUNG MAN
During the Viking Age, all was not rosy and peaceful within Scandinavia itself. Internal battles led some Vikings to leave on their longships and head west in search of new lands. The western Atlantic Ocean was an unfamiliar abyss. To head out into the open sea with no maps to follow was simply hazardous. There were no reports of any land west of the known world. The prevailing idea was that if you went too far west on this flat Earth, you would suddenly fly over the edge. It took the reckless Vikings to challenge that belief head on. After many days of sailing west from Norway, the Vikings surprisingly found Iceland in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It became their first discovery of new land as well as a new settlement.
THE LAND OF GOOD GRAPES
From Iceland the explorers again headed west, further into the great unknown. After some days of sailing, they discovered Greenland. Then, from there, "Leif the Lucky," a famous Viking, went all the way to Newfoundland in North America. Both in Greenland and in America, they set up temporary Viking camps. They could not secure those two newer territories, as they did not have the backup ships or supplies to thrive there. So the daring voyagers returned to Iceland, which became their own private territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. The island was then divided amongst the new settlers. They wrote a glowing report about America, which they called "The Land of Good Grapes." Over the centuries, that report filtered back to Norway and mainland Europe. Those Viking expeditions took place about five centuries before Columbus sailed west with his three well-stocked ships. But the Viking explorers never went back to North America because of the crushing limitations that Iceland soon inflicted upon them.
VIKINGS WITHOUT LONGSHIPS
The first generation of Icelandic settlers raided Europe for riches and fair maidens. The chilling problem came decades later when they needed to replace their proud ships. Iceland has no timber to speak of, nor can it grow crops of any size. The settlers had brought a few cows and sheep over from Norway, which now sustained them. The ocean had plenty of fish, but strong ships were needed to go out on those rough Atlantic waves. After a short time in Iceland, the Vikings found themselves in a struggle for survival against the forces of nature. They were now confined on a faraway island and could not renew their ships. Their proud achievement of wandering freely across the ocean had become their entrapment, and they faced the unexpected dilemma of being powerless to leave this faraway place. This strained situation became a problem that lasted centuries. With the long, dangerous sailing between them and Norway, no ships would be coming their way in the foreseeable future. Total isolation and grinding poverty came upon the Icelandic settlers like a sudden snare. A Viking without a longship was not a proud Viking. So this most daring discovery of new lands came to an anticlimactic end on a rocky island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. They had boldly found the "New World," an endless territory of riches there for the taking. No other discovery in history would match that. You can just imagine North America inhabited over the following centuries by that violent Viking race. That would have changed the course of all history in some drastic ways. But they were strangely halted there at the threshold of a momentous success.
THE LAND OF ICE AND FIRE
Later, the great volcanoes of Iceland started erupting, raining ash and lava over large areas. Over the next ten centuries, this would regularly kill off part of the fragile Icelandic population. Often the ash would travel through the air and rain down on distant Europe, poisoning the ground and killing cattle. Rats would feast on the carcasses, and plagues soon followed. Trapped in Iceland, the Vikings sat down and agreed to settle disputes in crucial matters with a simple majority vote. The normal Viking way was to resolve things with brute force, but they understood that the population was now too frail for internal battles. Thingvellir is a beautiful lake surrounded by rock formations. It became the gathering place for the small population each summer. That is where they debated and voted on issues. It was almost unheard of in the Middle Ages to settle any matters in a democratic way. This radical Icelandic solution was clearly borne out of sheer desperation.
THE GOD OF LIGHT
The Icelanders had kept their old Viking beliefs, but Christianity had influenced some during their earlier exploits in Europe. It was the summer of the year 1000, and a heated debate was raging at Thingvellir. A rift was now growing between the few followers of Christ and the supporters of Odin. It was suggested that all Icelanders be of one and the same faith in order to keep the peace within the small country. An influential Viking named Thorgeir was asked to propose a sensible solution to this most tricky subject. He lay under his animal hide for two whole days and returned with his deep insights. By that point, the Vikings had endured a few dark winters in Iceland, which had sensitized them to the lack of light. Thorgeir's proposal was that this new god Jesus was worth discussing and even adopting. His conclusion was that if Jesus was the "God of light," then he would come to conquer in the final battle of Ragnarok. In this battle of all battles, light would always be stronger and would drive out darkness. It simply made sense to follow the strongest guy. In other words, the Vikings should basically sign up with the winning team.
LET'S VOTE ON IT
This was voted on, and the majority moved to adopt Christianity. This newly settled country of violent Vikings changed their religion by casting a simple majority vote. The Viking population threw out their Viking idols, and Iceland became a "Christian nation." This was done without any bloodshed whatsoever. Over the next few centuries, Iceland sustained a micro population that remained painfully isolated. It was dirt poor, but it was the most literate corner of the planet. The main hobby of the Icelandic settlers was writing down the famed stories of their Viking heritage. No papyrus was to be found in Iceland, but there were enough cowhides and berry ink to produce leather books, and reading became a popular entertainment for all. They kept meticulous records of who lived where and who was the son of whom, as they did not want inbreeding to happen among their small ranks. Most of those leather-bound sagas have been preserved. Today, every Icelander can trace his or her ancestral lineage, name by name, back through the centuries to the year 960. I feel lucky to know my own background so far back. I also appreciate that it was a desperate survival story, one of seeking shelter and food against all odds.
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
As an afterthought to this little Viking saga, Iceland went through a very radical transformation between the years 2000 and 2008. The government deregulated and encouraged high-risk banking practices. The fishing-based economy was quickly overtaken by the banking and financial sectors. Icelandic banks borrowed massively from foreign banks to invest in new opportunities in faraway countries. The supportive government of the time warmly called Icelandic bankers their "Exploring Vikings." They swiftly opened up new connections and territories for Iceland. The economy became rich, and the standard of living rose sharply. You could say that these new banks acted like cleverly constructed longships. They operated with brazen boldness but lacked basic risk management. Around 2008 the "financial meltdown" started spreading around the globe. One of the main casualties was Iceland, which became the first European country to go totally bankrupt. When the dust had finally settled, Icelandic bankers had borrowed many times the total production of the national economy. Once again, conquering new territory was not easy without plenty of strong backup ships. Also, this vast global exploration ended in a sudden financial entrapment. Now, Iceland has to rely on itself for most things, as some nations are demanding repayment of funds before opening up free and unhindered financial relationships. Centuries of self-reliance have helped the population to adjust very quickly, and even to thrive, in this new segregated condition. We can expect new sagas to be written about the 21st-century Vikings to bring the historical echo full circle.
