Reading through Binet’s Civilizations, I found the concept of the Skraeling’s to be implausible at first. They described short, ill, scared inhabitants. The origin of the Skraeling’s begins in Vinland. The Viking Thorvald discovered Greenland, the country that Freydis was born in. (the daughter of Erik.) Freydis was eager to explore new land (taking after her father) and came across the land Vinland. From her initial encounter with the Skraeling’s, she heads South, and then meets the troll like people and recruits them on her conquest.
When you come across the word troll, gremlin or monster in a reading, the first thing you assume is that it is make believe. In modern times, all humans look generally the same. I decided to research further into the Skraeling’s given their importance throughout Civilizations. The first historical article I came across was Skraelings: The Viking Name for the Inuit’s of Greenland written by K. Kris Hurst. This article dives into the factual knowledge of what historians believe to be the Skraeling’s. The initial origin of the Skraeling’s does not seem to be Vinland. According to the article, “Archaeologists and historians now believe the “skraelings” were more likely members of one or more of the extremely well arctic-adapted hunter-gatherer cultures of Canada, Greenland, Labrador, and Newfoundland: Dorset, Thule and/or Point Revenge.” With this information, we can correlate validity into Civilizations due to the fact we know that they join Freydis on her journey to conquer and dominate new lands. (hunter/gatherer)
As far as the physical and emotional appearance of the Skraeling’s, the books comparison and the article seem to have common observations. From the article, “The Norse had nothing good to say about the people they met: skraelings means “little men” or “barbarians” in Icelandic, and in the historical records of the Norse, the skraelings are referred to as poor traders, primitive people who were easily scared off by Viking prowess.” As well as from Civilizations, “But there were also Skraelings there: beings that resembled small trolls.”/ “…while the Skraelings, terrified by the vision of this voluptuous, ferocious woman, ran away.”
With this information provided in both the book and the article, it helped me see more plausibility in the existence of the Skraeling’s, even after they invited Freydis and her men into their village in the South. Yes, they do have characteristics that do not show in the article and just the book, but most of the historical evidence leads to validity.
Hirst, K. Kris. “Skraelings: The Viking Name for the Inuits of Greenland.” ThoughtCo, Aug. 25, 2020, thoughtco.com/skraelings-viking-name-for-the-inuit-172664.
BINET, LAURENT. Civilizations. PICADOR, 2022.