Replica Viking ship Snorri
Fresh-caught cod
My musings evaporate when dinner
arrives. The platter of lightly battered
fish and chips—fresh local cod and
thick-cut home fries—is scrumptious.
Devouring my dessert of partridge
berry pie with vanilla ice cream, I can’t
help thinking that the Vikings missed
out big-time. To quote Led Zeppelin:
“Valhalla, I am coming.”
I sleep comfortably in my queen-
size bed at the Grenfell Heritage Hotel
and Suites in St. Anthony. Though
38
spriNg 2019
CAA maNiToba
it’s named after a pioneering British
medical missionary, I keep wanting
to call it “Grendel” after the terrifying
monster in the Beowulf legend.
Refreshed, I drive to Norstead the
following morning to find out how the
Vikings could have lived here if they’d
stayed longer.
The replica Viking village, just two
kilometres from L’Anse aux Meadows,
was built in 2000 and features a full-
size knarr: a 16-metre-long ocean-
going trading vessel. It’s named Snorri
after the first European child born in
the New World. Norstead interpreter
Denecka Burden portrays Gudrid,
Snorri’s mother, in a colourful linen
tunic. Wearing jewellery depicting both
Thor’s hammer and a Christian cross,
Burden challenges Norse stereotypes:
“Some killed, raped and pillaged, but
everyone’s judging their civilization by
one group of Vikings. Many were just
farmers and fishers.”
From an impressive rune stone to
the simple wooden church, a tranquil
feeling pervades coastal Norstead. In
the dim-lit buildings, I examine furs
and coins for trading, learn about
one-needle knitting, and discover
how the Vikings baked and gardened.
Even though Burden explains that
smoke inhalation indoors yielded life
expectancies of just 45 years for men
and 35 for women, this rough-edged
existence still feels more civilized than
the sack of York as depicted in Vikings,
History channel’s dramatized TV
series. I’m eager to come back in June,
when humpback whales frolic amid
icebergs offshore.
Much like the towering Leif
Erikson statue near Norstead, my
Viking experience looms large over
the rest of my visit to northwestern
Newfoundland.
More than 300 kilometres to the
south, I visit the still-functioning circa-
1897 Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse
in Gros Morne National Park, another
UNESCO World Heritage Site. My
mind flashes back to the Vikings’
seafaring exploits as I listen to folk
songs like “The Wreck of the Steamship
Ethie” and learn how Captain James
Cook mapped Gros Morne’s dramatic,
storm-swept coast in the 1760s. And
a two-hour BonTours boat tour of
Western Brook Pond—a glacier-carved
lake with epic cliffs and waterfalls—
naturally evokes the fjords of Norway
in their mist-shrouded mystery.
A thousand years later, we may
not know everything that really
happened in Vinland. But the thrill
of soaking up ferocious Viking sagas
in Newfoundland is an unforgettable
victory. Valhalla: I made it!
HopkiNs/alamy;
The fjord-like
Western Brook Pond