The Viking Sagas

One of the strangest yet most interesting links to the ancient game of hockey pertains to the legends and history of the Norse. We know from archaeological evidence that the Vikings, as they were called, arrived on the shores of Eastern Canada as early as c.1000 AD and that numerous forays to the region followed. Norse accounts of their voyages are numerous. Many of these writings contain references to the natives of Eastern Canada. Some historians have argued that Norse settlements may have existed as far inland as Lake Michigan. In terms of ancient hockey, evidence to support the belief of Viking forays to the Great Lakes does exist, however, often it has been refuted by skeptics more inclined to criticize new theories rather than assume traditional historic thought may be incorrect.

One obvious linkage, never fully explored, is the similarities between the oral histories of the Great Lakes Indians and the Norse Sagas. On at least one occasion, Jesuit missionaries reported that they had been told by the natives that lacrosse, in addition to holding religious importance, was associated with the remembrance of an event in which one of their own warriors bloodied a human giant while engaging the stranger along the shoreline. The stranger received a serious head wound at the hands of the warrior - proof that the individual was mortal and not a visiting supreme being or a god. Jesuit missionary Jean de Brebeuf accounts of this Huron legend tied to the game of lacrosse:

During these songs and dances, some take occasion to knock down, as if in sport, their enemies. Their most usual cries are hen, hen, or hééééé, or else wiiiiiii. They ascribe the origin of all these mysteries to a certain Giant of more than human size, whom one of their tribe wounded in the forehead when they dwelt on the shore of the sea.

This insignificant account or legend seems to hold little importance until it is reviewed in the context of Norse history.

In the Thorfinn Karlsefni Sagas (c.1003AD to c.1008 AD), Karlsefni is credited with seeing more of the North American continent than any other Viking. The Hauk's Book details Karlsefni's voyage southward along the coast where it is said that he and his men sailed far to a river that flowed down from the land into a lake and thence into the sea. Could this be referring to the Great Lakes region? It was here they built shelters and where they would encounter a hostile tribe of natives. The saga describes one early spring morning when Karsefni's party saw a great many skin canoes filled with Indians:

. . . looking like coals flung out beyond the bay, and staves being swung about on every boat. . .

Nothing was seen of them for three weeks, but at the end of that time, such a great number of the boats of the savages appeared that they looked like a floating stream, and their staves were all revolving in a direction opposite to the course of the sun, and they were all whooping with great outcries. Then Karlsefni's men took red shields and held them up to view. The savages leaped from their boats, and they met and fought. There was a heavy shower of missiles, for the savages had war slings. Karlsefni observed that the savages had on the end of a pole a great ball-shaped object almost the size of a sheep's belly, and nearly black in color, and this they flung from the pole up on the land above Karlsefni's men, and it made such a terrifying noise where it struck the ground that great fear seized Karlsefni and all with him, so that they thought only of flight and of making their escape up along the river bank. It seemed to them that the savages were driving at them from all sides, and they did not make a stand until they came to some jutting rocks where they resisted fiercely. In front of her she (Freydis) found a dead man, Thorbrand Snorrason, whose skull had been split by a flat stone . . .

It would be this battle that would cause Karlsefni and his men to leave and return home.

It was the Norwegian historian Ebbe Hertzberg in his 1904 article entitled Old Ball Games of the Norsemen ('Nordboernes Gamle Boldspil'), who first pointed to the similarities between the ancient Norse stick and ball game of knattleikr and Indian Lacrosse. Hertzberg argued both games were in fact the same and that the games were evidence of early Norse contact with the Americas. Hertzberg's arguments concluded that the game of knattleikr was given from the Vikings to the tribes of the Americas. Hertzberg would have perhaps been more correct if he had concluded the opposite; that knattleikr was a game adopted by the Vikings from their contact with the Indians. Regardless, Hertzberg's arguments of similarities have continued to stand the test of time and to conclusively link the two games. Hertzberg identified at least ten similarities between knattleikr and lacrosse:

1) Both games are played on both dry land and ice;
2) Both Games are played with well defined boundaries;
3) Both games are played by two opposing teams;
4) Both games require a referee;
5) Each player is matched against an opposing player of equal skill or strength;
6) Both games require players to carry the ball across the opponent's boundary line or to throw the ball through the goal of the opposition;
7) Both games are noted for their sanctioning of extreme violence;
8) Both games are seen as a test of male strength and warrior masculinity;
9) Opposing players, once paired off, were required to maintain close proximity to each other; and
10) Both games utilize a wooden ball and a shinny-like stick with meshed ball holder.

Though many of these similarities appear trivial and can be dismissed individually as coincidental, the overwhelming number of similarities is too many to be deemed a coincidence. If one accepted the Hertzberg argument, then the next question that must be answered is: When did the Norsemen-Indian contact occur? Archaeological evidence suggests the game of Lacrosse dates back to at least c.800 AD. Coincidentally, this is well before the first Norse expeditions to America occurred. During the period between c.874 AD to c. 930 AD numerous Norse settlements were successfully established in Iceland and Greenland. At the height of Norse expansion and sea power, around c.1100 AD, Norse census records record a population of 50,000 individuals in Iceland alone. These individuals were ruled over by 400 different chieftains who individually oversaw their own clan communities and warriors, each of whom competed for glory, wealth and land holdings. Competition among the chieftains and their clans was intense and often led to violence as groups struggled to maintain control of their own lands and economic power bases. In order to alleviate this cultural strain, expeditions of resettlement by landless clan members were often initiated. In fact, given the tremendous demands such a large population would have had on the Icelandic communities and fertile farm lands, resettlement was in all likelihood promoted.

The Norse sagas record numerous expeditions to the uncharted lands in and around the North Atlantic. Until this century, many scholars have assumed that the few expeditions mentioned in the sagas were limited in numbers. However, more recently, some researchers have suggested that in fact the sagas were an amalgamation of "many" voyages and not just a limited few. This theory would account for the often contradictory descriptions of the lands that the Norse explorers discovered and would explain the difficulties researchers have faced in terms of identifying the lands described.

If one assumes Norse exploratory and resettlement expeditions were commonplace among the chieftain-led clans, then it is safe to assume that these settlement attempts were more numerous than currently believed. Such a theory would also imply that the Norse settlements which have been suggested to have existed in America in at least 3-5 locations were larger in number than previously thought. Though evidence of Norse settlements has been slow in coming, in recent years, as the 1961 discovery of the Viking settlement of L'Anse Aux du Meadows site in Newfoundland shows, Norse settlements in America did exist. Given what we know today of the existence of Norse settlements along the Eastern Canadian shores, the comparison of knattleikr and lacrosse seems all but fitting.

The closest resemblances of lacrosse to knattleikr can be found in the games played by the Indians of the interior Great Lakes of Canada. The tribes who played this sport were known to have trade links and contact with other groups that included the Mi'kmaqs of the Eastern shores and the Inuits of the Labrador and Baffin Island. Is it possible that Norse explorers, aided by Inuit and Mi'kmaq scouts, sailed inland via the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes and/or down the Hudsons Bay where they came into contact with the Eastern tribes? Many scholars would disclaim such a theory. However, compelling evidence suggests that in fact both possibilities may indeed have occurred.

In 1888, Dr. Franz Boas, in his book The Central Eskimo recounted an Inuit legend from Baffin Island. He wrote:

In olden times the Inuit were not the only inhabitants of the country in which they live at the present time. Another tribe similar to them shared their hunting-ground. But they were on good terms, both tribes living in harmony in the villages. The Tornit were much taller than the Inuit and had very long legs and arms. Almost all of them were blear-eyed (blue-eyed) They were extremely strong and could lift large boulders, which were by far too heavy for the Inuit. But even the Inuit of that time were much stronger than those of to-day, and some large stones were shown on the plain of Miliaqdjuin, in Cumberland Sound, with which the ancient Inuit used to play, throwing them great distances. Even the strongest men of the present generation are scarcely able to lift them, much less swing them or throw them any distance.

The Tornit lived on walrus, seals, and deer, just as the Eskimos do nowadays, but their methods of hunting were different . . . There method of hunting deer was remarkable. In a deer pass, where the game could not escape, they erected a pile of cairns across the valley and connected them by ropes. Some of the hunters hid behind the cairns, while others drove the deer towards them. As the animals were unable to pass the rope they fled along it, looking for an exit, and while attempting to pass a cairn were lanced by the waiting hunter, who seized the body by the hind legs and drew it behind the line . . . The old stone houses of the Tornit can be seen everywhere. Generally they did not build snow houses, but lived the whole winter in stone buildings, the roofs of which were frequently supported by whale ribs . . . Though both tribes lived on very good terms, the Inuit did not like to play at ball with the Tornit, as they were too strong and used large balls with which they hurt their playfellows severely.

What makes this passage remarkable is the detail of the descriptions of both the Tornits as well as their of hunting practices and sports. Stone-tossing was common among the Norse. It is a sport played in parts of Scotland, a former Norse settlement, and other areas of the North Atlantic. In addition, the style of hunting was similar to the herding and hunting methods of the early Europeans. Lastly, the description of the people and their ball play seems to describe Norse physical features and the game of knattleikr.

If indeed the Tornits were Norsemen, then what could have happened to them? Where did these blue-eyed Indians go? Again, the answer may surprise us. We know from the historic Roman Catholic clerical accounts of the 1600's that the last reference to a Norse settlement was recorded in c.1374 AD. After that date, all record of Viking colonization on Greenland appears to have been abandoned. Some suggest that these Norse colonists sailed east and south east toward the shores of Iceland and Ireland. However, evidence does not support this theory. Others, less willing to discount the arguments of continued westward movement, believe that the lost Greenland settlers went west into the heartland of the Canadian Arctic lands eventually becoming assimilated with the dominant Eskimo tribes. In his book, The Voyages of the Norsemen to America, William Hovgaard writes:

Thus the final disappearance of the Norsemen was due in part, to their absorption by the more numerous Eskimo population. This theory is most important, since it opens up fresh possibilities and a new field of research as to the ultimate fate of the Norse colony in Greenland. It might be objected that if such a fusion had actually taken place, we would have heard more about it; but this does not follow. The comparative silence of the reports on this point may be due to the fact that intercourse with the heathen was strictly prohibited by the Church. Such intercourse was regarded with the greatest abhorrence by all good Christians, and every effort must have been made to prevent reports of it from reaching the outside world, especially the ecclesiastical authorities in Norway and Rome. Judging from the Eskimo traditions, the Norsemen did actually associate with the Eskimos and even took pains to learn their language. Little by little, since the Church no longer infused new religious life in the colony by sending out priests, the Norsemen relinquished the Christian faith and merged completely with the Eskimo population. In spite of all efforts to conceal the fact, reports of it reached Iceland, as is seen from the annals of Bishop Gisle Oddson, written in Iceland before 1637. At the year 1342 we read: "The inhabitants of Greenland voluntarily forsook the true faith and the Christian religion, after having abandoned all good morals and true virtues, and were converted to the peoples of America.

In c.1656 AD reports of tall, blond haired Eskimos were recorded by Dutch explorers who had ventured as far north as Baffin Island. As late as 1910 on Victoria Island, an area located midway between Baffin Island and Alaska, European explorers again recorded the existence of Eskimos with European features. The Victoria Eskimos were said to have had white skin and blue eyes and some were even said to have had curly hair.

We do not know the total population of the Norse Greenland colonies; we can assume that their population was comparable to that of Iceland. The Norse Greenland colonies were in existence for more than 400 years. During this period, the entire Greenland coastline had been sailed and explored. Most of the Norse settlements had been established on the western side of the island with the largest concentration of communities being near the Davis Strait, a body of water separating Greenland from Baffin Island. At its shortest point, the Davis Strait separates Baffin Island from Greenland by only 165 miles. In terms of Norse sailing abilities, this distance could be easily covered in just two days of normal sailing.

Given the type of ship utilized by the Norsemen and their excellent navigational skills, the idea that they reached Baffin Island is not so much a question of when, but rather a question of how often? During 400 years of existence, and being less than 300 miles from Baffin Island, the Greenland settlements seem to have been the likely starting point of Norse exploration westward into the Hudson Bay and south towards the Great Lakes. From c.985 AD to c.1014 AD, a thirty-year period, we know of at least ten Norse expeditions of discovery being initiated in the North Atlantic. Six of these expeditions reportedly sailed to or were key in the discovery of Leif Ericson's Vinland, a territory speculated to be either Newfoundland, Eastern United States in the area of present day Chesapeake Bay, or even as farther inland towards the Great Lakes. Such major undertakings, on average once every three years, indicate just how widespread Norse travels and explorations were. To assume that over a 400-year period of settlement in Greenland the Norse did not continue their westward journeys is not only a narrow interpretation of history but also ignores the navigational skill achieved by the Norse during these periods.

An argument for Vikings reaching the Great Lakes, besides the similarities between Jean de Brebeuf recorded account of the Huron legend and its similarities to the Karlsefni Norse Saga and the similarities between knattleikr and lacrosse, is the controversial Kensington Runestone. Found in 1898 by farmer Olaf Ohman near Alexandria, Minnesota, the stone reads:

8 Goths and 22 Norwegians on opthagels journey
from Vinland over the West. We had camp by 2 skerries
one days journey north from this stone. We were and
fished on day. After we came home found 10 men red
with blood and dead Ave Maria Save from evil.

Have 10 of our party by the sea to look after our
ships 14 days journey from this island Year 1362.

According to the The Runestone Museum in Alexandria, modern research evidence supports the artifact's authenticity. Recent work by linguist Richard Nielsen, an expert in Middle Age Swedish language, shows that the engraving is of 14th Century origin. According to Nielsen, the inscribed word "opthagels," indicates a journey of "acquisition" not one of discovery meaning it was a trip based on commerce and exchange. This indeed lends credence to support the argument that cultural interaction between the tribes of the Great Lakes and the Norse occurred. This would also explain how the Norse came to play knattleikr. Geologist Scott Wolter, who has studied the Kensington Stone's mineralogical and geological weathering claims the stone is authentic based on the degree of mica weathering found on the stone. In an interview with Wolter, he argues:

Based on comparison of weathering characteristics of the chip samples obtained from slate tombstones, the biotite mica that was exposed at the time of the original inscription on the KRS [Kensington Runestone] took longer than 200 years to completely weather away. Having said this, the only other evidence there is to put the KRS at some point in past, is the date inscribed on the stone - 1362.

The religious priest and historian Adam of Bremen, after sailing the lands of the North Atlantic and documenting the kingdoms of the Norsemen, wrote in his book On the Propagation of the Christian Religion in the North of Europe in c.1073 AD:

. . . there is still another region, which has been visited by many, lying in that Ocean which is called Vinland, because vines grow there spontaneously, producing very good wine; corn likewise springs up there without being sown. . . This we know not by fabulous conjecture, but from positive statements of the Danes.

Bremen, like many other scholars of his generation, was well aware of the Norse journeys westward, and the lands of their discovery. Skeptics claim that there is no evidence of Norse settlements outside of Greenland, Iceland and Newfoundland. However, these same skeptics can not explain the similarities between Norse and Indian legends as well as the similarities between lacrosse and knattleikr?