Posted on 03/10/2005 8:19:28 AM PST by Squawk 8888
Ancient Icelandic sagas may be full of treachery, death and destruction, but the real villain behind all the foment could well have been climate change. According to a Canadian scientist, there's a direct link between changes in regional temperatures and the thematic content of the sagas.
The research is based on newly reconstructed temperature records gained from ocean sediment cores collected off the coast of Vestfirdir, the northwest peninsula of Iceland by scientists from the University of Colorado. Analysis of mollusc shells within these cores has provided an astounding, almost weekly, record of temperature changes in the region.
"The difficult social periods in the sagas and other histories correspond to periods when cooler winters were coupled with what were some of the coldest summers of the last 2,000 years," says Dr. William Patterson, an associate professor of geology at the University of Saskatchewan who is leading the research linking seasonal climate change and Norse sagas.
The new temperature record was gleaned from microscopically thin layers cut from the mollusc's growth rings, each layer representing a few days in the animal's submarine life. The layers were powdered and the oxygen and carbon isotope values measured to create a record of environmental stresses, that were primarily due to temperature, on the Icelanders.
The results of the research, funded by NSERC and the U.S. National Science Foundation, show that in Iceland during what's known as the Little Ice Age from about 1350 A.D. to 1850 A.D., there was an increase in what is termed "seasonality," with cooler winters, colder summers and increased temperature variability. On the other hand, temperatures were highest at 80 B.C., 850 A.D. (during Viking settlement), and during the 1740s.
These changes had a profound impact on early Icelanders, and they continue to have an impact today. A one-degree drop in average summer temperatures can result in a 15-per cent drop in crop yields.
"The sensitivity of these people living in this marginal environment is readily apparent when you reconstruct the temperature variation," says Dr. Patterson. "Prior to this research we could speculate that temperature was a cause, but now we can say there's a good correlation between summer temperatures and the social situation."
Dr. Patterson says the Norse sagas provide numerous points for climatological analysis and comparison. One of the early sagas (Egils saga Skallagrímssonar) provides clues to the climate of Norway and Iceland from 850 to 1000 A.D. Other sagas such as Edda depict the Ragnarok, a pagan tale of the twilight of the ancient gods, that starts with the fimbulvinter (mighty winter) in which much is destroyed during a period of many years without summer, heroes and even families turn against and kill each other, and the world is ruined. Though Edda was written in the 1200s by Snorri Sturluson, it is thought to represent a previous cold period in northern Europe about 2,800 years ago. Other less stylized records from the Middle Ages and later are easier to interpret in terms of the climate-society connection, says Dr. Patterson.
The findings are part of a larger research project that will document changes in North Atlantic temperatures over the past 16,000 years. This type of information is critical for the validation of existing climate change models.
No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!
BTTT!!!!!!
The plumage don't enter into it. It's stone dead.
No, no -- it's just resting.
(owner hits the cage)
There, he moved!
No, he didn't, that was you hitting the cage!
I never!!
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Note: this topic is from 3/10/2005.Thanks Squawk 8888. I just added this to the Catastrophism catalog, and am going to ping it out of sheer stubbornness.
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The Little Ice Age:
How Climate Made History 1300-1850
by Brian M. Fagan
PaperbackFloods, Famines, and Emperors:
El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations
by Brian M. FaganThe Long Summer:
How Climate Changed Civilization
by Brian M. Fagan
“Ere, E’s just pining for the Fjords.”
Thanks for the ping. I think it was back in 1100 A.D.(?) or so when the Vikings abandoned Iceland(?). They were farmers by that time, and Christian. When the farms died off because of the cooling, the native Eskimos tried to get the Vikings to join in their hunts. But the Vikings wouldn’t join because of all the pre-hunt rituals to the pagan gods. The Vikings died off and/or left.
At least that is one theory I saw on TV. Sounds plausible.
I’m going to have to check to see if I can get any of those books on a library loan.
I’ve read all six of the books the library has about as many times as I can stand.
Greenland, not Iceland. Greenland was still Viking into the 13th c, the cold got worse, and more importantly, the ships stopped coming from Europe. No trees on Greenland to build boats. The population was trapped. One possibility raised in the 1980s (hmm, maybe 1970s) was that German corsairs arrived there and carried off the entire remaining colony.
The library in my town burned down.
Destroyed both books.
One wasn’t even colored yet.
[old joke alert, comes too late to prevent the joke]
Thanks for the corrections. The other one I always get messed up on is “Was Greenland really frozen in the old days, and Iceland was green as the Vikings were trying to be tricky, or vice-versa?”
And Eric the RED discovered Greenland — IOW, I think they just did that to piss us off.
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