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Common questions about The Settlers
Q: What is the book about?
A: Axe of Iron—The Settlers is the first novel of a continuing character-driven tale of a medieval people whose wanderlust and yearning for adventure cause them to leave the two established settlements on Greenland and sail west, to the unexplored land that would later be called Vinland.
Standing in their way are unimagined numbers of indigenous people, the pre-historical ancestors of the Cree, Ojibwa, and Iroquois Indians. From the outset, these native people strenuously resist the incursion of these tall, pale-skinned invaders.
Q: What happened to the Northmen who lived on the island of Greenland for almost five hundred years?
A: Between 1350 and 1425 they abandoned both of the known Greenland settlements and simply disappeared. Nobody knows where they went. Several people think they had been gradually moving to Vinland—North America, over the years.
During the late 14th or early 15th centuries, a Catholic Prelate voyaged to Greenland, ostensibly to check on his flock. Although a few domestic animals grazed the hillsides, he found no people, living or dead; no ships, supplies, or tools remained. The people and their possessions had simply vanished.
The Icelandic bishop Gisli Oddsson, quoting church records, stated in the 16th or 17th century (the exact date is unknown) that the Norse Greenlanders joined the natives of America in 1342, giving up Christianity in the process. The record notes a firm date, not sometime in the 14th century. Ingstad, Helge & Anne Stine, "The Viking Discovery of America,"(Checkmark Books, New York, NY, 2001) iv.
See the saga unfold, in this first book of the Axe of Iron series, through the eyes of the characters. Each day brings a continuation of the toil, love, hardship, and danger they come to expect in this unforgiving new land.
My Axe of Iron series speaks to what I believe happened to them. Come along with me in this first novel of the series: The Settlers.
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