Best greenland history books according to redditors

We found 24 Reddit comments discussing the best greenland history books. We ranked the 9 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Top Reddit comments about Greenland History:

u/isabelladangelo · 12 pointsr/history

The idea behind purple =expensive is really not exactly accurate. Yes, the dye purpura was expensive because of the amount of crushed sea creatures you needed to create the dye. However, because it was crushed sea creature, the color itself is not what we think of as purple - it was more of a maroon. We use purple and violet interchangeably today but it wasn't always the case.

Purple itself is just blue (woad or indigo) and red (madder) mixed together. Depending on the area in Europe and time, it's pretty easy to get those together to create purple. Also, in Norse Ireland there was a litchen purple that is pretty darn bright purple when I've seen it in person.

Black well, most people have one of these guys in their family. If not, you probably are the black sheep. :-) Amazing how many people forget kindergarten ~Ba Ba Black Sheep, Have you any wool?~ which can be dated back to at least the 18th C. Black sheep themselves are nothing new. In fact, in the Greenland digs garments are shown to be woven of a cross weave of white and black wool.

For yellow weld and saffron were common with saffron being the more expensive of the two. Safflower - a dye mentioned in the late middle ages but I'm under of how expensive it would be - dyes boiled linen hot pink.

As far as cultural significance - white was used for mourning up until the 16th C in most of Europe. Green was associated with love and, by a consequence, was sometimes also associated with courtesans. Yellow seems to have a lot of association with courtesans in Italy - with various sources normally stating that yellow scarves are to be worn by courtesans.

In the Elizabethan Court, purple silk meaning purpura dyed silk, not the color purple as we know it, was regulated but so were sable fur and cloth of gold (as in, cloth woven out of actual gold). Still, you could get away with breaking the Sumptuary laws if the Queen gave you it as a gift or if you just paid the fine. It became a status symbol to be able to break the law and pay the fine.

Tl;DR
Colors didn't have the same names as now and anyone could get red, blue, and yellow which means almost every color was available.

u/IrreverentArchaeolog · 12 pointsr/MapPorn

A recent article in Science has shown that the Sadlermiut did not have a genetic link to the Dorset culture and rather were descendants of the Thule people and that there appears to have been no intermarriage between the Dorset, Norse, and Thule. While the study is obviously limited by its sample size (i.e. there may have been some intermarriage with a small amount of individuals), its conclusions are solid. This also does not mean that the three cultures never interacted. Rather, it might be a type of interaction that did not result in intermarriage or cultural transmission (which is entirely possible).

Second, and this is directed to the above post, I wouldn't classify the Thule migration as a "conquest". It was simply a population movement. There is almost no archaeological evidence for violence during this time. Admittedly, this is very hard to detect in the archaeological record.

While I am a full supporter of the importance of metal in the Thule worldview (with sources from Cape York in northern Greenland, the Coppermine River in the central Arctic, and the Norse), I highly doubt their migration was so mono-causal. The climate may have been warming at this time, increasing the range of bowhead whales, one of the Thule's prime food sources. There may have been also some "push" from other groups in the Bering Strait region. I'll admit this last one is purely an educated guess as I am not as familiar with the situation in the Bering Strait at the time of Thule migration. Regardless, the migration was certainly as complex as it was quick! Interestingly, new radiocarbon dates suggest that the Thule only really moved south into Labrador after Norse Greenland was abandoned. Perhaps this was to put themselves in a better position to exploit the newly incoming Europeans in the south just as their link to Europe in Greenland had faded away? A chapter by Peter Ramsden and Lisa Rankin in Exploring Atlantic Transitions discusses this.

Last, this map is slightly old. If I recall correctly, I first saw it (or a version of it) in the Vikings: the North Atlantic Saga book which was first published in 2000. I'm too lazy to check my copy right now... But from memory, I don't think the map in the OP is any different. While I am pleased that it places the Thule migration around the 13th century (something that most people still get wrong), there are a few inaccuracies:

First, there are some radiocarbon dates from a few Late Dorset sites in northern Greenland that indicate a 13-14th century occupation. Those sites also have a few bits of Norse material as well. So that would mean that the Thule and Dorset may have lived in the area around the Nares Strait for a small amount of time. I forget if the dates are mentioned but the Gullov and Appelt chapter in Archaeology of Shamanism talks about this site. I know it's discussed in later articles by those authors and in the site report but that is probably not as easy to get ahold of. Second, there is evidence of Thule occupation in the Disko Bay region during the time of Norse occupation in southern Greenland. There is even a site called Sandhavn that shows potential cohabitation by the Thule and Norse. Third, this is outside of my own knowledge but I am 80% sure that Innu groups moved around during the map's timeframe. Specifically, they moved slightly north in Labrador around the time of Norse settlement in Greenland. Although I am not sure if the distance they moved would be perceivable on the map.

P.S. Sorry about the silly Amazon links, I just figured that they would be more useful for people to see which books I am talking about than me to simply provide a full reference at the end. I am sure that most libraries (and certainly university libraries) would have a copy of the books I mentioned.

u/Platypuskeeper · 9 pointsr/badhistory

So I got Arnved Nedkvitne's recent book Norse Greenland: Viking Peasants in the Arctic.

It seemed like he was proving wrong a claim I've made many times; that Scandinavian historians don't refer to Viking Age Scandinavians in general as 'Vikings'. But once I look through the e-book, I find he does use the title's term "Viking peasants" once in the preface and introduction but after that there's zero references to any person or persons in the whole book as viking(s). Just the term "Viking Age" and such. I strongly smell an editor at work here!

Other than that, not a bad book.

Except for the godawful cover. WTF is up with that, Routledge? If you want me to pay €130 for the hardcover, you could at least spend ten minutes online finding some public-domain image with some sort of relevancy to the text. It looks like it belongs on a maths textbook from the 1960s; "Introduction to Graph Theory" or whatever.

u/SallyAmazeballs · 7 pointsr/weaving

Generalizing grossly, for undergarments, you'll want undyed linen woven plain. For top garments, you'll want wool either natural sheep colors or dyed with madder or woad and woven in a twill pattern. Wool yarns should be worsted spun and 2-ply (I think? I want to say 3-ply happens, but isn't as common). I don't have setts in my head anymore, but they're finer than is typically used for modern weaving.

Twill patterns depend on what period you're in, to my recollection.

There are also a ton of different kinds of narrow wares (ribbons, lacing, belts, garters, etc.) which are woven using a variety of different methods, but that is an entirely different barrel of monkeys.

OK, references!

Textile Production at 16-22 Coppergate (goes to a PDF; focuses mostly on 9th-14th/15th centuries) -- Definitely, definitely read this one. It's free and covers textile production from beginning to end.

Textiles and Clothing: c.1150-c1450, vol. 4 of Medieval Finds from Excavations in London

I also want to suggest Woven into the Earth and its partner book Medieval Garments Reconstructed, which are about the medieval finds in Herjolfnes, Greenland. However, the settlement in Greenland was cut off from the rest of Europe for a long time, so the finds don't really represent what was happening on the mainland at the time. You might find the weaving patterns useful, though. Possibly the clothing patterns?

ETA: There was also a recent discovery at a castle in Austria of a bunch of linen fragments of undergarments. Beatrix Nutz is the main researcher, but I'm not sure if she's published her findings yet. I lost track of the research. Here's a blog post about it with some thread counts for the linen.

u/FreeMarketBolshevik · 7 pointsr/canada

>Sanders' "Socialism" is Democratic socialism, the brand you find in Scandinavia.

Give this book a read.

u/jamesjamersonson · 4 pointsr/TheLastKingdom

Here's a link to the book on Amazon. It's pretty basic, but fairly well-researched and a good introduction to Viking history. It has some neat little bits here and there I was unaware of and is a nice little coffee table book or bathroom reader.

The book describes the Western half of Denmark as being a "desolate sandy heath", so it seems the land is simply geographically unsuitable for farming based on the composition of its soil, something I imagine was the case ever since the glaciers of the Ice Age receded.

u/Leadstripes · 4 pointsr/history

Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga is a good read on Viking history. For a more indepth study of Viking culture i'd recommend The Vikings by Else Roesdahl

u/harrison_wintergreen · 4 pointsr/worldnews

Norway has an import duty of 180% on foreign automobiles.

https://www.amazon.com/Almost-Nearly-Perfect-People-Scandinavian/dp/1250081564

u/dalinks · 3 pointsr/slatestarcodex

In the book The Almost Nearly Perfect People Michael Booth gave the nationalism reason as why Sweden became less religious (and also socialist). He said (IIRC) that there was basically a movement that just rewrote what it meant to be Swedish and this included changing the religion. He doesn't support this with studies or anything but his explanation matches up very well with the nationalism explanation.

u/penguinsderp · 3 pointsr/Archaeology

I was actually going to take a class on the Vikings this spring for kicks (main area of study is Near Eastern archaeology). While I ended up not being able to take the class due to time, I did keep the books since they did a pretty good job of introducing the topic to someone who never had any exposure to it before; not to mention they were extremely interesting!

A History of the Vikings by Gwyn Jones: Kind of dry, but very informative and helpful.

Medieval Scandinavia: From Conversion to Reformation, circa 800-1500 (Nordic Series) by Birgit and Peter Sawyer: If I recall correctly, the husband and wife who wrote this are both archaeologists. This was a pretty accesible book.

Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga edited by William F. Fitzhugh and Elisabeth Ward: Lots of information with lots of pictures!

Silver Economy in the Viking Age edited by James Graham-Campbell and Gareth Williams: This is also available on Amazon, but I had originally just bought the e-Book rental through this link. This book mostly concentrates on the archaeology of the Viking Age, if that's what you're looking for. I think I might just buy this book soon, haha.

Hopefully that helped a bit!

--edit--

/r/AskHistorians also seems to recommend The Viking World by Stefan Brink (as mentioned by /u/ThrostThrandson) and Exploring the World of the Vikings by Richard Hall. That subreddit has compiled a pretty extensive book list for a wide variety of subjects, if that interests you as well.

u/dinofragrance · 2 pointsr/funny

Actually, it might be better to get a perspective on this from a cultural outsider who has lived in Scandinavia for a long period of time. Reddit, the international media, and many Scandinavians themselves tend to idealize their own cultures and often within the frame of being condescending to Americans, since it doesn't seem possible these days to talk about the positive aspects of one's own culture without bashing Americans at some point. But I digress. [As a starting point, here is a book that provides a different perspective from the stereotypical idealized narrative that we are fed.] (https://www.amazon.com/Almost-Nearly-Perfect-People-Scandinavian/dp/1250081564)

u/VikingHedgehog · 2 pointsr/sca

It wasn't the ONLY issue, but the most frustrating one. The pieces for the arm and gores in that area didn't fit together right at all. I ended up having to redraft to make a proper fit. That was just an mild annoyance though compared to the devastation of loosing the fabric from the length issue. Of course, it wasn't devastating for me because I had another use for the wool but for somebody else it would be awful!

If you're interested in the Greenland gowns, I'm sure you already know, but if not I feel the need to point you in the direction of this and this. I haven't actually tried to use any of the patterns given in the second book but the research and photos are simply astounding.

I know by this point most people interested in the topic have heard of and seen these books but they are so interesting I always have to point them out just in case somebody hasn't seen them yet and I can blow their minds the way that lady from Smoke and Fire did for me when she showed me these books.

u/GaarenFinlay · 2 pointsr/history

http://www.amazon.com/The-Vikings-A-History-ebook/dp/B002TV07E2/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368241864&sr=1-4&keywords=vikings

Pretty good book, lots of information. A bit dry though, pretty much written for people already immensely interested in the topic and not really designed to capture the attention of a random reader.

http://www.amazon.com/Vikings-Atlantic-William-F-Fitzhugh/dp/1560989955/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368241957&sr=1-7&keywords=vikings

A little bit better in my opinion. Lots of images so you can see what is being referenced instead of trying to imagine it.

As for the figure head, I can't tell you exactly where it's from. All i can say is it's a modern interpretation of a dragon figurehead, with some embellishments, especially with the figures forming the top side rails.

u/tiggywinkle · 2 pointsr/geology

I wish you were going to be my student. Jeepers, motivation!

Richard Alley is a good writer and you'd get a head start on understanding climate: http://www.amazon.com/Two-Mile-Time-Machine-Abrupt-Climate/dp/0691102961/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319155474&sr=8-1

You could start reading Earth magazine: http://www.earthmagazine.org/

I guess you could buy the textbook for the course and read that.

u/pnewell · 1 pointr/science

In climate science, you can always assume the temperature anomaly is based on the average 20th century temperature. Once you look at a couple of real pieces of science, you'll see it time and again.

Like in the title of this submission.

CO2 measurements from thousands of years ago are based on proxy measurements. Basically, ice cores, and some plants and animals that incorporate elements of the atmosphere or ocean also incorporate the ratio of CO2.

So scientists go to places like Greenland and Antactica, and drill down a couple of miles (literally). Then they examine the tiny air bubbles frozen in the ice to see what the concentration of CO2 was back then.

Then, to verify these numbers are correct, they go to the deep ocean, and take out cores from thousands of years ago. They look at the fossilized shells of ancient plankton, examine its chemical makeup, and can figure out CO2 concentrations. They then compare these with tree ring records and other proxy measurements to make sure they all line up.

The Two Mile Time Machine
is a great book on climate and ice cores, if you're interested.

u/Keari · 1 pointr/worldnews

There is a really good (and surprisingly entertaining) book that talks all about ice core science that can answer all your questions. Long story short, we can tell a lot from ice cores. http://www.amazon.com/The-Two-Mile-Time-Machine-Climate/dp/0691102961 Hope that helps!

u/sufficing · -1 pointsr/videos

a) You must be a millennial - I'm stating facts, suck it up princess. Also... "Best of luck on your SAT" is now considered being an ass? Okay.

b) Uh, yes they do (it's not just me). And yes, I know this is a book and not actually spoken, but it serves as an example to highlight - at the very least - that I'm not some unique special case.