5. The Viking Age &
the Norse Westward Expansion
• Norse “landnám package”
– Farming-based domestic economy
• Domestic animals
• Barley, flax, rye, oats, hay
– Supplemental use of wild food resources – “Natural
Capital”
• Fish, sea mammals, birds, reindeer, etc.
6. Natural Capital
• Wild species & lush landscapes serve to underwrite
landnám by reducing consumption of imported
domesticates
• Some resources might be expended - “natural capital” is
totally drawn down
• Others might be managed sustainably for long period of
time
• Participation in a community network was key for
continued access to most important wild resources
• Human impact story is NOT simple
7. Norse North Atlantic
Different choices- different outcomes to
climate changes
Communities in the
Atlantic islands
faced different
challenges, made
different choices
and faced different
outcomes.
8. Norse N. Atlantic: Different Geographies
Faroes:
Everywhere close to sea
Close to Europe
Open landscape
Marginal grain production
Pilot whales
Birds and fish
Iceland:
Large island-
Extensive interior
Woodlands
Bog iron deposits
Very marginal arable cultivation
No terrestrial mammals
Birds and fish
Greenland:
Very large island-
Distant resources
Short summer/pack ice
No accessible iron
Pastoralism challenging
Caribou
Migrating seals
Other societies
9. 1: In the Faroe Islands, sustainable
practice, effective utilization of wild
resources, limited landscape impacts and
successful adaptation to climate change
on centennial time scales is associated
with long-term settlement success and the
development of a prosperous society.
Three
contrasting
outcomes in
the face of
climatic
hazards
15. 2: In Iceland we have the
puzzle of Norse
sustainable practice,
successful adaptation
and long-term success
linked to extensive
landscape degradation.
Soil
erosion
2009
Three
contrasting
outcomes in
the face of
climatic
hazards
20. 3: In Greenland, sustainable practice, limited landscape
impacts and successful adaptation to climate change on
centennial time scales was followed by settlement
abandonment in the mid 15th century.
Three
contrasting
outcomes in
the face of
climatic
hazards
27. Human Impacts: Faroe Islands
• Little to no tree cover at settlement
– Grasses & peat
• Topography limited settlement locations
– Settlements clustered
28. Human Impacts: Faroe Islands
• Importance of Natural
Capital
– Coastal & marine
resources
– Peat
– Grasslands
32. The Faroes as success story
• Environmental:
– Creation of managed infield system
– No woodland to clear
– Limited soil erosion & peat removal
• Wild resources heavily, sustainably exploited
– Continued legacy
• Nucleated settlement
– Reinforces social interactions
39. Legislated management system
• Exclusive grazing rights to hreppur
• Farm quotas for maximum number of sheep
– Penalty if exceeded
• Regulated grazing season
– Began given week in June
– Ended given week in September
41. 13th Century environmental
managers were slightly
distracted...
Civil War !
•Age of the Sturlungs:
- Five Great Families struggle to control
all Iceland
- Icelandic warlords seek kingship
- Everyone loses
- Iceland submits to Norway 1264
42. The human impacts of climate
changes that were extreme (in terms
of their deviation for the mean of the
previous 15 years) were buffered by
the drawdown of natural (landscape)
capital and resulted in threshold-
crossing events.
43. Iceland: success at a cost
• Early establishment of environmental management &
regulation; sustainable exploitation of finite resources
(e.g. birds)
• When faced with predictable changes (e.g. woodland
clearance) adaptations were made to conserve a
landscape fit for purpose
• When faced with unpredictable change (e.g. climate
hazards) natural capitals could be drawn down to
maintain settlement
48. Travel time & connectedness
• With a 12-hr travel time, all settlement connected to each other
• Outer parts of fjord and skerries (seal hunting grounds) are only marginally
reached or not at all
49. Travel time & connectedness
• With deteriorating climate, travel conditions become more difficult
• Settlements concentrate on best farmland & in greater concentration
• But crucial marine food resources are now further away
50. Exposure to step-wise climate
change
Settlement focused on marine
mammals for subsistence & trade
did not endure past the climate
hazards of mid 15th century
Changing world systems – a double
exposure?
Plague may have reached Greenland
in 15th century; it certainly caused the
collapse of the Norwegian economy
(and market for ivory)
Triple
exposure?
Inuit contacts:
source of
conflict, or
source of
trade goods
(furs)?
51. Summary from the Viking Age cases
• In Greenland, successful adaptation led to the
development of a rigidity trap
– Path chosen by the Greenlanders created a society that could
not endure the conjunctures of climate hazard, economic change
& culture contact of the mid 15th century
• In contrast to Iceland & Faroe Islands, the exploitation of
marine resources in Greenland had greater exposure to
climate hazards
– Faroe Islands faced less extreme climate change
– Icelanders could utilise greater pastoral resources (and drawn
down landscape capitals)
– Greenlanders died
52. Lessons from the Viking AgePeople can...
• Creatively adapt to new environments
• Build up centuries of community-based managerial experience
• Wisely conserve fragile resources
• Maintain long-term (century-scale) sustainable patterns of life &
society
• …and still face localized collapse and extinction
Scales & cross-scale interactions
• Distances matter
– Utilization of dispersed resources carries cost, especially when
settlements are fixed
– Dispersed systems are vulnerable to increased travel costs
• Strong communal interaction can be a strength, but collapse of
a well-integrated system can kill everyone…
