Thanks, as always, Muhler, for your translations! I was at Moesgaard museum and hugely enjoyed my time there. One omission however I found troubling....there was no mention of the Viking expedition to Vinland or, as it is called today, Newfoundland in Canada! This summer I was in L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site
L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site
where there is a reconstruction of the original Viking settlement. Next door, there is a fascinating outdoor museum showing what might have been called Norstead
Norstead :: A Viking Port of Trade
had the Vikings stayed in Vinland!
I do wonder why Moesgaard in particular and Scandinavian countries in general do not pay more attention to the North American adventures of their Vikings. In my home town of Toronto, our Royal Ontario Museum will shortly host a Viking exhibit!
VIKINGS: The Exhibition | Royal Ontario Museum Come on over Scandinavia!
I don't know.
Perhaps because Moesgaard is not a dedicated Viking age museum as the one in Roskilde, which has the ships.
It's more natural for the Roskilde museum to deal with travels, trade and expeditions - also to North America IMO.
While Moesgaard go more into depth about the actual people, how they lived, looked like (*) and dressed. And in that respect very little is known about the colonies (or perhaps rather winter residencies) in Canada.
I imagine that may change once more discoveries are made in North America.
Because the settlements in Greenland went extinct in medieval times. It's presumed the last Viking colonists there were killed off by the Greenlanders going south. At the same time the climate worsened, so many must have left. Most probably to Iceland - but perhaps some tried to settle in North America somewhere?
It's IMO almost certain they did not only go to Newfoundland. They would at least have probed deeper west and south. But such settlements were almost certainly killed off by the locals or alternatively any Viking traces were bred away.
The Greenlandic/Icelandic expeditions could not have been large, well-organized and well-armed ventures, who were able to set up regular well-defended trading posts. The settlements on Iceland and Greenland simply did not have the resources for that.
The nearest to do that were the Norwegian kings, they had other concerns and the Icelanders did not wish to have an expedition from the Norwegian kings anywhere near their coasts, thank you very much!
The interesting thing is to speculate what had happened, had the Norman conquest of England failed, which it very well could have.
The English King Harald was already allied to the DRF and that alliance would have been reinforced in the face of a Norman threat. Norway would have maintained it's trade and colonies on the islands around Scotland and the Irish Sea. Giving Norway time to take control over Iceland and Greenland. Keeping the Inuit at bay and perhaps launch serious expeditions towards North America.
The trade links, intermarriages and contacts across the North Sea in particular would have continued, rather than being severed (at least for a time) by the Normans who had absolutely no interest in seeing a Norwegian-Danish fleet at the east coast of England! A fleet that would very likely have been welcomed by the English. Not to mention the political and economical influence the trade links brought with them had they been allowed to continue.
Just like the Nordic countries, Britain may not have become genuinely feudal for another 2-3 centuries with all that entails.
The population boom prior to the Black Death, meant people, especially in the more entrenched feudal countries had little prospects than a life in poverty, or at least a low-income existence.
In a Nordic sphere of interests around the North Sea, where organized expeditions had been launched towards North America. North America by anno 1200 might have been seen as a land of opportunity for many of what was actually a surplus population - and a place to resettle the disgruntled...
But by 1200's the Europeans would not have had the technological edge over the Native Americans as later, so it's likely the Norse would not have been able to settle in mass, except in Canada. But they would have had the strength and resources to establish, supply and if need be defend a string of trading posts down along the east coast of USA. - Trading posts that would not have been considered a threat by the locals, but rather an opportunity.
It's fascinating to speculate what consequences that would have had for the Native Americans. Economically, politically, demographically, technologically and so on and so on.
As you know it's been estimated by some that the native population of the Americas by the 1400's may have been around 100 million. Most dying from diseases in the 1400 and certainly during the 1500's. While diseases brought along from Europe no doubt killed off many, probably most, it is also suggested that the population of Latin and South America was already being weakened by a local pandemic.
A pandemic Europeans were more immune to, due to much more and varied exposure to livestock.
What would have happened had the European contact with America been slower and less deep? The Norse would have happily married local women as they usually did, mixing their genes and immune systems. The natives may have been subjected to diseases more slowly and gotten help treating the diseases by the Norse traders who may not have been particularly interested in seeing their costumers/suppliers die.
And when the Black Death came, North America, simply by distance may have a fairly safe place. That would have changed the balance between North America and Europe. Europe being weakened while North America isolated itself, at least for a period. The European colonists stranded there, becoming ever more "American".
The only real competitors the Norse would have had in reaching North America in the 1200's would have been the Muslims, who may have send expeditions to central and South America. To what scale we can only imagine.
So to conclude this long speculation. Had the Battle of Hastings had another outcome USA may have been a fact by 1500? Or rather a North American, mainly native, confederation.
) which never fail to cheer me up 
