the possible Viking commonwealth of North America's Neo-Iceland.

There are points where history turns on a dime, that if an event had occurred with only a slight variation, outcomes of things could be radically, and sometimes wonderfully, different. NorsePlay draws your attention to the might-have-been Neo-Iceland of 2172 CE.

Historically there was a mass exodus from Iceland in the late 1800s when the population suffered a marked poverty due to a run of bad weather, volcanic activity, and some less-than-attentive Danish rule. The overflow of indentured workers and welfare resulted in actually offering one-way tickets to the New World. Given the strong & proud tradition of Icelandic citizenry, this was subject to much criticism & debate, but new lands & opportunities were overseas, so thousands left to find better lives for themselves, provided they survived the harsh attrition of a bare bones Atlantic ship crossing and the long unfamiliar trek to potential tracts hundreds of miles away from whichever docks they landed on.

Among these Icelandic sojourners was poet/journalist Jón Ólafsson (1850-1916). As an outspoken critic of Danish rule, Jón had to leave the island in 1872, very much just like an outlaw in the Icelandic Sagas. He met with U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, who gave him a ship with which to explore Alaska for potential settlement areas to offer immigrating Icelanders. To advocate this possibility, Ólafsson wrote a short book in 1874 titled Alaska, outlining a glorious and far-reaching plan for colonization:

If Icelanders now landed in Alaska — say 10,000 in 15 years, and their number doubled there, e.g. every 25 years, which could be successful and fearless in such a prosperous country, they would have reached 100 million in 3 to 4 centuries, and would then cover the entire continent from Hudson Bay to the Pacific Ocean. They could keep their tongue, enlarge it and enrich it from its own inexhaustible roots, and, who knows, perhaps as heirs of the great land to the south, gradually spread it with them across this continent, and regenerate the disfigured English language.

The hopefulness of this excerpt, along with the tradition of bold exploration, a legacy of landtaking, early global trading, and the remnants of a Heathen outlook might have given North America quite a different modern history if things had moved in this direction.

[image from the Iceland Space Agency.]

Still, the peoples of Gimli, Canada, where many of those Icelanders instead ended up, could correct the lapse in Ólafsson's planned cultural projection and achieve a Neo-Iceland by getting superbusy, as there's still a few centuries to work with.

[Icelandic descent population map from 2013, so project current figures to more than this.]

(And should you need technical help with this on those cold Manitoba nights, charming city of Gimli, do contact us for some consulting assistance as we certainly know how to NorsePlay.)

#    #    #

Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants at age seven. Since then he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the Map of Midgard project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay. If you have employment/opportunities in investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer, do contact him.