EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE

Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir (c980–?) ‘FAR-TRAVELLED’ ICELANDIC PIONEER TO AMERICA Old Norse sagas laud the exploits of Erik the Red and Leif Eriksson, but their real hero is female. Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough introduces the first lady of Viking Vinland

he cartoon stereotype of remains of several Norse buildings were Gudrid urged Karlsefni to make the the Viking age is decidedly discovered in the 1960s. journey. Once in Vinland, Gudrid gave male: bearded blond men Gudrid is described in The Saga of the birth to a son, Snorri – the first baby born in boats raiding the coast- Greenlanders as “a woman of striking to a European on the North American lines of western Europe, appearance, and wise”. In both texts, her continent, if the account is true. Tdiscovering and settling new lands. Yet dramatic story began when she and her Gudrid is the real hero of the Vinland from the Valkyries of Norse mythology father sailed west from Iceland to join sagas – such an important character in to female prime ministers and presi- Erik the Red’s new colony in Greenland. The Saga of Erik the Red that it’s been dents, from legendary shieldmaidens to That sea journey was notoriously suggested the story would be more aptly others trailblazing socially progressive dangerous and, according to The Saga of named Gudrid’s Saga. In her older years, gender politics, the Nordic world has a the Greenlanders, Gudrid, her husband she continued her travels, undertaking long history of extraordinary women. and several others were shipwrecked, then a pilgrimage to Rome. She became a No one epitomises this heritage better rescued by Leif the Lucky, son of Erik the formidable matriarch, ancestor to many than Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, a Norse Red. Sickness afflicted the colony that illustrious Icelanders – it is her line listed explorer known as the ‘far-traveller’, born winter, and Gudrid’s husband died, but at the end of The Saga of the Greenlanders, on Iceland’s Snæfellsnes peninsula in the Gudrid lived to fight another day. not that of Erik the Red. As the pagan latter part of the 10th century. What The Saga of Erik the Red tells of no seeress in The Saga of Erik the Red told we know of her life story is derived from shipwreck and no husband. In it, instead, her: “from you will be descended a long two Old Norse sagas, The Saga of Erik when Gudrid arrived Greenland was in and worthy line, and over all the branches the Red and The Saga of the Greenlanders. the grip of a famine. Though a Christian, of that family a bright ray will shine”. Together they are known as the ‘Vinland she took part in a pagan ritual, helping an A modern sculpture of Gudrid at her sagas’, because they describe voyages seeress called Thorbjorg to chant songs to birthplace, Laugarbrekka in western sailing to the fringes of North America charm the spirits and end the famine. Iceland, depicts her standing on a ship, around the year 1000. The Norse named Both sagas tell us that Gudrid married one hand resting on the square, toothy these lands ‘Vinland’, apparently because Thorstein, son of Erik the Red and dragon’s head that forms the bow. On her of the wild grapes that grew there. younger brother of Leif the Lucky shoulder she balances her little son Snorri, The sagas were first recorded in (Eriksson), then spent a dark, terrifying his face lifted upwards, arm raised to the 13th-century Iceland over two centuries winter at the farmstead of a pagan farmer, sky. Gudrid’s eyes, though, are fixed firm- after the events they describe took place, which was struck by a deadly plague. ly ahead, on the long sea road before her. their tales having been transmitted The tale cites supernatural forces: at one True, the sagas are by no means down the years in oral form, retold and point, the farmer’s wife looked out into straightforward historical records. But reshaped as the stories passed from gen- the yard to see the figures of those who they are our main source of information eration to generation. They contain ele- have died, waiting menacingly for her – about the remarkable people who un- ments we might expect to see in fantasy and among them saw herself and dertook long and dangerous sea voyages, films – dragons, trolls, zombies – but they Gudrid’s husband, Thorstein Eriksson. building new lives far from home and are our main textual sources for Norse By the morning she was dead. Thorstein discovering new lands – and Gudrid was activities at the far-western margins of died a few hours later, but – true to form perhaps the most extraordinary of all. the medieval world. It was thanks to the – Gudrid survived another deadly winter. Vinland bound sagas that archaeologists began to search Gudrid’s next husband was an Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is Old Norse sagas describe Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir as “the loveliest of women and for material evidence of these journeys Icelander, Thorstein Karlsefni, with associate professor of medieval history and noble in every trait”. But this far-travelled Icelandic woman was eulogised largely not for her beauty and charm but as a strong-willed survivor who married three times and – for example, at L’Anse aux Meadows whom she travelled to Vinland – indeed, literature at Durham University, and author bore a son, Snorri, in Vinland (North America) during one of her intrepid voyages at the tip of Newfoundland, where the The Saga of the Greenlanders tells us that of Beyond the Northlands (OUP, 2016) 52 ILLUSTRATION BY LYNN HATZIUS 53