The Northmen came first.

They landed their boats on the shores of a place that would someday be called America.

They sailed from the west coast of Greenland to explore the newly discovered land that

promised the fabulous riches of game and the forests, fish and the waters, timber in

the woods, and pasture land for cattle.

And they found what they were seeking, but they also found violence, bloodshed, and murder.

There were others in the new world before the Northmen.

The First Nations people inhabited the land, living in peace with it, knowing that it

couldn't be conquered.

But the Northmen were used to taking what they wanted and the scralines or the wretched

people as the Vikings called them were regarded as nothing more than a new sense.

The Northmen had iron weapons and tools, but their weapons were not enough.

They found the so-called new land to be an ancient place filled with mystery and brutal

violence.

It was a land of horror, hauntings, and the magic of old gods unlike those who waited in

Valhalla.

The Northmen were unprepared for what lurked in the darkness and in the woods.

When they came face to face with such terror, they sought ways to subdue and tame the darkness,

but neither the scralines nor the darkness were easily tamed.

They sought to conquer and break the land only to be broken themselves, wiped out by warfare,

starvation, and disease.

And the Northmen fled.

...