The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman

HIST 122A-02

June 17, 2020

Sean Foley
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Many people are familiar with the exploits and travels of the famed Viking explorer Leif

Ericson, thought to be the first European to have discovered continental North America. However,

many less are aware of other Viking explorers who have equally traveled to North America, to what the

Viking's referred to as Vinland. In The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman, Nancy Marie Brown

writes of these other Vikings that are less prevalent in popular culture, in particular her intent is to give

the account of Gudrid the Far-Traveler. Gudrid, Lief Ericson's sister-in-law mentioned in the Vinland

sagas, has an impressive history of travel including leading an expedition to Vinland, with her husband

Throfinn Karlsefni. She then gave birth in Vinland to her son Snorri, the first European birth in the

Americas. However, despite being the namesake of the book and the apparent main focus, it often

seems like Gudrid is mentioned as an afterthought. This is especially true in the later chapters. The Far

Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman is more of an account of various Vikings, their lives and the

author's excavation of Gudrid's home at Glaumbaer, rather than a book solely about Gudrid.

As mentioned, Nancy Marie Brown has first hand experience with Gudrid's history in the sense

that she was very involved in the excavation of the longhouse at Glaumbaer. When Brown had heard in

2002 that John Steinberg, an archaeologist from the University of California at Los Angeles, discovered

what appeared to be the buried remains of a Viking longhouse, she “knew Steinberg had found the

house Karlsefni had built for Gudrid when they returned from their Vinland adventure”1..She felt

compelled to be involved and was permitted to help excavate in 2005. However Steinberg, at the time

of writing, himself is not necessarily ready to make that claim. Evidence to support that the house

belonged to Gudrid was that the floor plan “most resembled one found at L’Anse aux Meadows” and

1 Brown, Nancy Marie. The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Kindle Edition.
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was very unlike traditional Viking longhouses2. L'Anse aux Meadows, being located on the northern tip

of the Great Northern Peninsula on Newfoundland, is an archaeological site that indicates a Norse

presences had once occupied the area. A very small percentage of Vikings traveled to this location,

many being relatives of Leif Ericson. This suggests that the house at Glaumbaer was built by someone

involved in the voyages to Vinland, which adds credibility to the author's claim that the house was

indeed Gudrid's. This is the home Gudrid, her husband Thorfinn and her son Snorri left Vinland to live

at due to conflicts with the indigenous people, according to the sagas.

The author chose various aspects of historical Viking life to compare to the account of Gudrid in

the sagas. Brown goes into great detail describing these other aspects such as explaining the properties

of Viking ships, how they were constructed in the past and also how replications are similarly

constructed in the present. She had the opportunity to observe replica Viking ships in person and speak

with modern day shipwrights. These shipwrights ensured her that the methods used to build replica

Viking ships are the same methods taught through generations. Brown added that by building these

replica ships in traditional ways they “are examples of experimental archaeology, of learning by

doing”3. This example nicely parallels her aid in the excavation work at Glaumbaer which is a more

traditional form of archaeology, learning by observing. In another example she greatly details how

Viking dwellings were made. She included details from what sort of wood was used, what tools were

used, how long each type of home took to build and how long it would be expected to last. Often times

these detailed examples were abruptly introduced and seemed to go into perhaps too much detail.

Though relevant information when considering how Vikings lived and traveled, these additions often

detracted from the story of Gudrid due to how abruptly they were inserted into threads directly
2 Ibid
3 Ibid
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addressing her. Gudrid is often indirectly connected to these detailed examples of Viking life, it is many

times other saga figures such as Eirik the Red. However, since Eirik the Red and many of the others

used in place of Gudrid shared the same time period and experiences, many of the same examples

could be extrapolated to describe Gudrid's life.

It is not necessarily the fault of the author that much of The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking

Woman is not focused on Gudrid herself. The story of Gudrid is not extensively detailed in the sagas

she is featured in. Gudrid appears as a figure in the Vinland Sagas which comprise the Saga of Eirik the

Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders. Unfortunately for Gudrid's story, as Brown states “If The Saga

of Eirik the Red took up three hundred pages in a modern paperback translation, as does Njal’s Saga,

instead of only thirty, we might have an image of Gudrid the Far-Traveler to match that of Hallgerd

Long-Legs” (another female saga character)4. Though almost briefly mentioned, and often times

indirectly, when Gudrid is mentioned she is a prominent figure. Gudrid accomplished much in her

relatively long life primarily being one of the first Europeans to lead an expedition to North America.

Because of her strong will and accolades she was referred to as a skörungur which literally translates

into English as “fire iron” or “fire poker”. When used to describe a person in the sagas it was a

masculine term used to describe someone as being bold and powerful. Brown remarks that “The

women who are mentioned in the sagas, the ones who are admired as skörungur, are the ones who have

acquired that distinction. And Gudrid the Far-Traveler is one of them”5.

Since there is less direct information on Gudrid compared to many of the other prominent saga

figures, such as Eirik the Red, it is reasonable to use the stories of others to extrapolate what life must

have been like for Gudrid herself. Gudrid was directly involved with many of the more prominent saga
4 Ibid
5 Ibid
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characters. She was directly involved with affairs of chieftains and nobility. Their lives were similar

in many ways as they were those at the forefront of exploration and the ones creating history.

In terms of history, there is some debate on whether the Icelandic sagas are historical accounts

or works of fiction; they are likely a mixture of the two. The Icelandic sagas were written during 1200-

20 and were about families, such as Gudrid's, that lived during 870 to 1030. Whether considered fiction

or not, they were pivotal in creating a proud Icelandic tradition that extends to the present as Brown

states “The sagas are very much alive with the local farmers. They know their saga heroes”6. The

characters featured in the sagas are likely to have been real people and many archaeological discoveries

support that position. However, the sagas began as oral tradition passed down from person to person

and it is very likely the true details have been warped by the time they were put into writing.

Archaeological discoveries such as skeletal remains, houses and churches are clearly indicative that a

person lived long ago before their remains became ancient and the structures built by their people

became buried by sediment over time. However, as Brown quotes Icelandic archaeologist Steinunn

Kristjansdottir's statements in her 2004 doctoral dissertation, “You must fill in the gaps. An

archaeologist, she concluded, “should be aware that the search for truth is like a story that never

ends””7.

Brown is herself invested with extrapolating a story from the excavation of what she believes,

and likely is, Gudrid's house at Glaumbaer. While very concerned with the scientific details of the

excavation at Glaumbaer, she is equally enamored by the thought of sharing the same space as Gudrid

once did. As Brown states “Science can now tell me what a woman like Gudrid ate and wore, what she

worked at, where her place was within her society. What it can’t tell me is why Gudrid was so
6 Ibid
7 Ibid
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remarkable, so utterly unlike our image of a woman of her time”8. Whether or not one chooses to

believe that the sagas are real historical accounts or not, the families depicted and Gudrid herself most

likely lived, and became so well traveled to earn accolades such as the Far-Traveler.

Brown makes extensive citations throughout The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Women.

She cites the sagas themselves and also speeches from academic conferences and excerpts from

scholarly documents. Occasionally, it becomes difficult to follow exactly what source Brown is citing

but the sources section is highly detailed, despite being an impressive 14 pages long. In addition to

providing third party sources, Brown has also included many of her own first person experiences such

as performing excavations, weaving as a historical Viking women would, observing replica Viking

ships and interviewing the modern day craftsmen that constructed them.

The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Women tells much more than just the history of one

person. Though the central figure is Gudrid, many more of the Vikings written of in the sagas are very

prominently featured. Despite somewhat meandering at times, Brown successfully delivers a

captivating story of Gudrid's life. Though the focus on Gudrid in the sagas is much less than many

other saga era Vikings, her importance to the history of Iceland, as well as Greenland and America, is

difficult to overstate. Gudrid was an explorer, one of few that dared venture to Vinland and interact

with the indigenous people, as well as the first European to give birth in the Americas. Her story is told

in The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman in the frame of the exploration of the author herself.

Brown's work is not dedicated solely to Gudrid. But rather on saga era Viking relationships and

conflicts that are used to create an image of the environment in which Gudrid lived. Brown states in the

very end of her book that “I learned new ways to tell Gudrid’s story, to pick up where the sagas leave

8 Ibid
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off”9. Since Gudrid is comparatively less represented than other saga Vikings, perhaps the detailed

descriptions of weaving and longhouse construction are imperative in continuing the legacy of Gudrid

The Far-Traveler.

9 Ibid
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Bibliography

Brown, Nancy Marie. The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Kindle Edition.