Artstuff

Deanna Hagy, an longtime friend of mine, recently celebrated her 50th birthday. Her not-a-husband threw her a surprise party. I drew this portrait of her as a present and, since I scan almost everything I draw, I can share the portrait with y’all. Among other things, Deanna is a partner at Evening Star End-of-Life Doula Services. No, she does not have more than two arms. She just sometimes gives the impression that she does.

Story Seed #31

Alternate History: What if the Vikings had colonized North America?

Last week my story seed concerned someone besides Columbus, presumably another European, “discovering” America. Of course, another European already had. Five hundred years before Columbus, in about 1000 AD, Leif Erikson had led an expedition to North America from Greenland. Greenland itself had been recently colonized by followers of Leif’s father, Erik the Red. Unlike Columbus, Erikson didn’t proceed to rape and pillage and enslave the natives. He seems to have set up a few outposts, skirmished a bit with the folks who were already there and then didn’t give Vinland (the name given the place in the Sagas) much thought.

In order to write plausible alternate history it helps to know history. In order to write stories set in world where the Vikings had colonized (or regularly traded with) North America one has to consider why the Vikings didn’t pay much attention to North America in real history. The basic answer seems to be: North America wasn’t convenient or sufficiently profitable. Also ice. Lots of ice.

Columbus and the Europeans who followed him sailed across an open ocean. The main reason that Columbus was the first to cross the Atlantic is that most learned folks assumed that it was too big to be worth the trip. No contemporary European thought there was a continent (or two) out there to break up the distance. The Vikings had known but they’d forgotten about it. Hell, by 1492, Greenland had mostly been abandoned. The “Little Ice Age” had made for longer winters and harder travel.

So, what would have made regular contact and settlement of North America attractive to the Vikings?

Possibility A: Lack of choice. Erik the Red, Leif Erickson’s father, had settled Greenland because he’d been temporarily banished from his estates in Oxney, England. He’d already been banished from Iceland. A permanent exile might have made him more interested in expanding his holdings west. As a good son, Leif might have shared his father’s ambitions.

Possibility B: Twist of fate. Erik the Red had planned to accompany his son, Leif, on his expedition to Vinland but he fell off his horse shortly on his way to the ship. Taking this as a bad omen, Erik stayed in Greenland and died in an epidemic the following winter. What if Erik had accompanied his son?

Possibility C: Other Vikings. This is actually a more likely (and probably easier) way to write an alternate history. There were plenty of Vikings who didn’t get make it into any Sagas and yet still lived interesting lives. Leif Erikson knew about Vinland because other Vikings had gotten blown off course and seen the place.  Hell, Erik the Red found Greenland because other Vikings had gotten blown off course and seen that place. Getting blown off course seems to have been a valid discovery technique among the Northlanders. If someone had gotten blown further south they could have discovered the east coast of North America – less ice, different natives, perhaps an easier place to set up a colony.

Possibility D: Flip the story. What if the North American natives had decided that the Vikings were something other than rude invaders? What kind of stories could be told from the Native perspectives? The Vikings had technology that the Natives didn’t. What if the Natives had adopted those technologies? What kind of world would they have created?

Other Newsletters

Autumn Christian writes about a variety of things, much of it related to her own mental health and how she’s managed her own demons. She’s a good writer. If you’ve got demons to manage her advice might be useful. If you don’t … she’s a good writer.

Lifestuff

Unless you and only you have lived at an address for twenty years, there’s a good chance that you’ve received mail addressed to someone else. What are you supposed to do with it?

I’m glad you asked.

1. If the address on the letter is not your address (say your address 1215 Whatever Street and the letter says 2290 Someplace Ave.) just drop it in outgoing mail and the post office will reroute it. There’s no need to write anything on the letter. The delivery was an accident. Chances are that envelope was stuck to the one above it and your carrier didn’t notice.
2. If the address is your address but the person it is addressed to is not a resident, check to see if the letter is First Class or asks for some sort of address correction request on it. If it does, put it in outgoing mail with “Not at this address” or “this person doesn’t live here” written on it. Your carrier will either put it into the system to be forwarded or, if the carrier knows that there’s no active forward for that addressee they will properly endorse it so that it’s returned to the sender or the sender’s mailing list is updated.
3. If the letter is address to a non-resident but is third class just recycle it. The sender isn’t paying for the post office to either forward it or correct their mailing list so putting it back in the system will just result in your carrier putting in it their UBBM.
4. Do not write “Return to Sender” on the envelope. Especially if you’re a new resident. Chances are there’s a forward in effect. Let the post office figure out what to do with the letter. “Not at this Address” is more useful.

I deliver to over 700 active addresses. I do my best to only deliver mail to people that I know live at those addresses. In the five years that I’ve had my route, hundreds of people have moved. Most of the movees still get mail. Some of them, despite not living at an address for years, still get LOTS of mail. You think it’s annoying to get mail for some bozo who moved three years ago? Imagine having to handle mail for hundreds of bozos who don’t live at hundreds of addresses?

You’re welcome.