The First Viking Woman To Make It To America Was One Of Wildest Travelers Of All Time

One of those was a woman called Gudrid who, far from staying at home darning her husband’s socks, was herself a prodigious traveler and pioneer. While it’s true that women didn’t directly participate in the violence of raiding, Gudrid’s life shows that some of them took a full part in the Vikings’ extraordinary seafaring achievements. 

Dr. Jesch writes, “Women of all classes were essential to the setting up of new households in unknown and uninhabited territories, not only in Iceland but also in Greenland”. She also notes that women shared the “hardships of travel across the North Atlantic in an open boat along with their children and all their worldly goods.”

In fact, what we know about Gudrun comes from two of the sagas, Saga of the Greenlanders and Saga of Erik the Red. Writing on the Big Think website, Frank Jacobs describes the origins of the narratives. “These sagas were told and retold from memory until they were committed to paper in the 13th century,” he tells us.

So what do those two sagas tell us about Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, known as the “far-traveler?” She was born in about 985 A.D. in the west of Iceland in the Snaefellsnes district. This consists of a narrow peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean and features a rocky, volcanic landscape.

Going further back into her ancestry, Gudrid was a descendant of people who had served a Norwegian noblewoman called Aud Ketilsdóttir, also known as Unn the Wise. She was a Queen married to Olaf the Shining, the Viking King of Dublin in the mid-9th century. 

Speaking about Gudrid’s father, the Erik the Red Saga says, “Thorbjorn Vifilsson… was given land at Laugarbrekka, at Hellisvellir. Thorbjorn moved his household there and became a man of great worth. He ran a prosperous farm and lived in grand style”. Hellisvellir is on the Snaefellsnes peninsula.

In any case, we know very little about Gudrid’s early childhood. But one anecdote related in Erik the Red’s Saga does perhaps give us an insight into her character. Around the time of Gudrid’s life, some Vikings were actually renouncing Paganism and turning to Christianity. One of those was Gudrid.

Gudrid admits that she does actually know the songs required for the ritual. According to the Saga, she says, “I have neither magical powers nor the gift of prophecy, but in Iceland my foster-mother, Halldis, taught me chants she called ward songs”.

Won over by Thjorborg’s entreaty, Gudrid agrees to sing the ward songs. And it turns out she had a golden voice. As the Saga puts it, “Gudrid spoke the chant so well and so beautifully that people there said they had never heard anyone recite in a fairer voice”.

We do have a description of a grown-up Gudrid in the Saga of the Greenlanders. It describes her as “a woman of striking appearance and wise as well, who knew how to behave among strangers.”

Thorbjorn wanted to join his old friend Erik the Red, so-called because of his hair color. Sailing in an open boat across several hundred miles of the Iceland Sea had the potential to be a highly risky journey. And according to the Saga of the Greenlanders Gudrid and the others did indeed come to grief.

Sadly some sort of disease had erupted at Erik’s settlement, the first to be established by Europeans on Greenland, and it killed Thorir. The Saga of Erik the Red actually tells a rather different story to the one we’ve just recounted from the Saga of the Greenlanders. This alternative telling makes no mention of either a shipwreck, nor a husband called Thorir.

But Gudrid’s marriage didn’t get off to a happy start. She and Thorstein spent a winter living at the homestead of a farmer. Unfortunately this farm was stricken by a terrifying plague. In a ghoulish episode, the farmer’s wife, Grimhild, had a vision when she saw some of those who had been killed by this mysterious disease.

This time Gudrid married an Icelander named Thorfinn Karlsefni. The newlywed couple decided to make a great journey across the north Atlantic to a place called Vinland. It’s said that they embarked on the journey at the urging of Gudrid.

Just as Erik the Red had been the first Norseman to settle in Greenland, Leif Erikson, one of his three sons, was the first to reach Vinland. The name means “land of wine” and it was so called because of the wild grape vines growing there. In fact, Leif’s landing on Newfoundland had been accidental.

And so Leif was the first European we know of to land on North America, some five centuries before Christopher Columbus arrived. According to the sagas, Thorstein and possibly his wife Gudrid had previously tried to reach Vinland, but they had failed to do so.

Once settled in Vinland, Gudrid gave birth to Snorri Thorfinnsson, his second name reflecting the Viking naming convention that almost always mentioned the name of the father. The birth of Snorri had a compelling significance.

We know little else of Gudrid’s life on Newfoundland. But on the Big Think website Jacobs describes one enigmatic tale recounted in the sagas. It describes events that happened during Gudrid’s second winter at the Newfoundland settlement.

The description of this mysterious woman continues. “Her hair was light red-brown, she was pale and her eyes were larger than any ever seen in a human head.” She approached Gudrid and asked her what her name was. 

Jacobs believes he might have an explanation. He writes, “The story might not be as spooky as first reported. Perhaps the Native woman was merely repeating what the Viking woman said: Ek heiti Gudridr (‘My name is Gudrid’). This is often what happens first between people who don’t speak each other’s language.”

In the end the settlement in Newfoundland was not a success. According to the sagas, after three years the Vikings abandoned their project and sailed back across the sea to Scandinavia. Jacobs tells us, “They received a hero’s welcome at the royal court in Norway”.

As we pointed out earlier, we depend on the Viking sagas for information about Gudrid’s life and in particular about the Norse settlement of Newfoundland. But how confident can we be in the historical accuracy of these literary works?

It was in 1960 that a Norwegian called Helge Ingstad first came across the site at L’Anse aux Meadows. Eight years of excavation followed and the camp that emerged is the only Viking settlement we know about in North America. 

Three turf houses emerged from the archaeological dig at L’Anse aux Meadows, plus four workshops and a forge. Discarded nails and wood indicated that the Vikings had used the site as a boat-repair shop. And the researchers uncovered one particular object that just might confirm the presence of Gudrid at the site.

But researchers were able to recognize the object for what it was: a spindle whorl, a tool used for spinning wool. While some archaeologists are cagey about stating that this spinning device belonged to Gudrid, there’s one who has no doubt.

There’s another piece of evidence which seems to authenticate Gudrid’s status as a real woman who lived in Viking times. You’ll remember that Gudrid with her husband and son settled on a farm called Glaumbaer in northern Iceland after returning from Newfoundland.

So when it comes to confirming the existence of Gudrid we have a range of evidence that surely offers strong proof that she was a real — and intrepid — Viking woman who lived more than 1,000 years ago.

The Saga of the Greenlanders recounts that Gudrid and her family lived a comfortable life until her husband Thorfinn eventually died of old age. When her son Snorri married, Gudrid decided it was time for another journey. As a Christian. she decided to make a pilgrimage to Rome. 

After eight no doubt arduous sea voyages in an open boat across the chill waters of the Atlantic, plus a difficult journey to Rome, Gudrid had at last found a final resting place at the church Snorri built.