Civilizations

by Laurent Binet

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  Table of Contents

  A Note About the Author and Translator

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  ‘Art gives life to what history killed.’

  Carlos Fuentes

  Don Quixote, or The Critique of Reading

  ‘Because of the confusion and discordance in which they lived, their conquest was very easy.’

  Inca Garcilaso de la Vega

  The Royal Commentaries of the Incas

  Part One

  The Saga of Freydis Eriksdottir

  1. Erik

  There was a woman named Aud the Deep-Minded, daughter of Ketill Flatnose, who had been queen. She was the widow of Olaf the White, the warrior-king of Ireland. Upon the death of her husband, she travelled to the Hebrides and on to Scotland, where her son, Thorstein the Red, in turn became king. Then the Scots betrayed him and he perished in battle.

  When she learned of her son’s death, Aud took to sea with twenty freemen and travelled to Iceland, where she colonised the territories between the Day-meal and the Giantess’s Leap rivers.

  With her were many noblemen who had been taken prisoner during the Viking expeditions to the west, and whom she treated as slaves.

  There was a man named Thorvald, who had left Norway after committing murder, and his son Erik the Red. They were farmers who cultivated the earth. One day, Eyiolf the Foul, a relative of one of Erik’s neighbours, killed some of Erik’s slaves because they had caused a landslide. Erik killed Eyiolf the Foul. He also killed Hrafn the Duellist.

  So he was banished.

  He colonised the Isle of Oxney. He asked his neighbour to look after his beams, but when he wanted them back, his neighbour refused to return them. They fought and other men died. He was banished once again, this time at the Thorsnes Thing.

  He could not stay in Iceland, nor could he return to Norway. That was why he chose to sail towards the land glimpsed by the son of Ulf the Crow one day when he had navigated too far west. He named this country Greenland, because he reasoned that people would want to go to a country with such a beautiful name.

  He married Thorhild, granddaughter of Thorbjorg the Ship-Chested, and together they had several sons. But he also had a daughter by another woman. The girl’s name was Freydis.

  2. Freydis

  Nothing is known about Freydis’s mother. But Freydis, like her brothers, inherited her father Erik’s wanderlust. So it was that she embarked on the ship lent by her half-brother Leif the Lucky to Thorfinn Karlsefni so that he could find the way to Vinland.

  They sailed west. After a stopover in Markland, they reached Vinland and found the camp left behind by Leif Eriksson.

  They found it a beautiful land, with forests not far from the sea and white sand along the coastline. There were many islands and shallows. Day and night were of a more equal length than in Greenland or Iceland.

  But there were also Skraelings there: beings that resembled small trolls. The legends were wrong: they were not unipeds. But they had dark skin and were fond of red fabrics. The Greenlanders swapped all the red cloths they had for animal skins. They traded. But one day, a bellowing bull belonging to Karlsefni escaped its enclosure and frightened the Skraelings. So they attacked the camp and Karlsefni’s men fled in fear, until Freydis furiously berated them for their cowardice, picked up a sword and prepared to defend herself from the enemy. She tore her shift open and beat the flat of the blade against her breasts while insulting the Skraelings. Seeing this, her countrymen were ashamed and turned back to help her, while the Skraelings, terrified by the vision of this voluptuous, ferocious woman, ran away.

  Freydis was pregnant and bad-tempered. She got into an argument with two brothers. She wanted to take their boat because it was bigger than hers, so she ordered her husband, Thorvard, to kill them and their men, which he did. Freydis killed their women with an axe.

  Winter was over and summer was coming. But Freydis didn’t dare return to Greenland because she feared the wrath of her brother Leif once he found out that she was guilty of murder. However, she felt that the others distrusted her and that she was no longer welcome in the camp. She fitted out the brothers’ boat, then set sail with her husband, a few men, some cattle and horses. Those remaining in the Vinland colony were relieved when she left. But before going out to sea, she said to them: ‘I, Freydis Eriksdottir, swear that I will return.’

  They headed south.

  3. The South

  The wide-sided knarr sailed along the coast. There was a storm and Freydis prayed to Thor. The ship almost crashed into some rocks. The terrified animals thrashed so violently that the men were on the verge of throwing them overboard for fear that they would capsize the ship. But in the end, the god’s anger abated.

  The journey lasted longer than they had expected. The crew could find nowhere to land because the cliffs were too high, and when they did come across a beach, it was defended by Skraelings with bows who shot stones at them. It was too late to sail east and Freydis did not want to turn back. The men survived on the fish they caught, but some of them drank seawater and became ill.

  One day, when there was no north wind to help swell their sails, Freydis gave birth in the aisle between the benches of oarsmen. The baby boy, whom she wanted to name Erik after his grandfather, was stillborn, and she gave him to the sea.

  At last, they discovered a cove where they could anchor.

  4. The Land of the Dawn

  The water there was so shallow that they were able to walk to the beach. They had brought all kinds of animals with them. The land was beautiful. They immediately began to explore.

  There were meadows and airy forests. There was an abundance of game. The rivers were full of fish. Freydis and her com- panions decided to set up camp near the coast, sheltered from the wind. They did not lack provisions, so they thought they would stay there for the winter. They guessed that the winters there would be milder, or at least shorter, than in their homeland. The youngest among them had been born in Greenland, while the others were from Iceland or Norway, like Freydis’s father.

  But one day, exploring more deeply inland, they discovered a cultivated field. There were neat rows of crops, like ears of yellow barley but with crunchy, juicy grains. So it was that they knew they were not alone.

  They, too, wanted to grow this crunchy barley, but didn’t know how.

  A few weeks later, some Skraelings appeared at the top of the hill overlooking their camp. They were tall and well built, with oily skin. Their faces were painted with long black lines, which frightened the Greenlanders, but this time nobody dared run away in case Freydis accused them of cowardice. Besides, the Skraelings seemed more curious than hostile. One of the Greenlanders wanted to give them a small axe as a peace offering, but Freydis forbade him, and instead she gave them a pearl necklace and an iron brooch. The Skraelings appeared to greatly appreciate the brooch: they passed it from hand to hand and fought over it. Then Freydis and her companions realised that the Skraelings wanted to invite them to their village. Freydis was the only one to accept the invitation. Her husband and the others remained in the camp, not because they were afraid of the unknown, but because they had almost died before in similar circumstances. They named Freydis their emissary and delegate, which made her laugh because she understood that none of them was brave enough to accompany her. Once again, she insulted them, but this time the shame had no effect. So she went alone with the Skraelings
, who coated her white skin and red hair with bear fat, then they all got into a boat carved out of a tree trunk and rowed across a swamp. The trees were so tall in that land that ten people could easily fit in a single boat. The boat moved away from the shore and Freydis disappeared with the Skraelings.

  For three days and three nights they awaited her return, but nobody went off in search of her. Even her husband, Thorvard, didn’t dare venture into those swamps.

  Then, on the fourth day, she returned with a Skraeling chief, who wore brightly coloured jewellery around his neck and in his ears. He had long hair that was shaved on one side, and it was difficult to imagine a more physically imposing man.

  Freydis told her companions that this was the Land of the Dawn and that these Skraelings were called the People of the First Light. They were waging war on another people who lived further west, and Freydis believed that the Greenlanders should support them. When her companions asked her how she had been able to understand their language, she replied, laughing: ‘Well, maybe I’m a seeress too?’ She summoned the man who had wanted to give the Skraelings an axe, and told him to give it to the sachem (as the Skraelings called their chiefs). Nine months later, Freydis would give birth to a girl. She would name her daughter Gudrid, after her former sister-in-law, Karlsefni’s wife, the widow of Thorstein Eriksson, whom she had always hated (but there is no point going on about people who will play no part in this saga).

  The little colony moved close to the Skraeling village. Not content just to live together peacefully, the two groups began helping each other. The Greenlanders taught the Skraelings to extract iron from peat and to transform it into axes, lances and arrowheads, helping them to be more effective in battle against their enemies. In exchange, they taught the Greenlanders to grow the crunchy barley by pushing the grains into little piles of earth, alongside beans and marrows, so that they could wind themselves around the tall stems. This enabled them to build up stores for winter, when there would be less game to hunt. The Greenlanders were eager to remain in this country. As a mark of friendship, they gave the Skraelings a cow.

  After a while, some of the Skraelings became ill. One caught a fever and died. Soon after that, they began dropping like flies. The Greenlanders grew frightened and wanted to leave, but Freydis forbade it. Even though her companions told her that sooner or later the epidemic would start killing them, she refused to abandon the village they had built. This was a fertile land, she pointed out, and if they went elsewhere there was no guarantee that they would find any other friendly Skraelings with whom they could trade.

  But then the imposing sachem caught the disease. Returning to his house – a dome made from arched posts covered with strips of tree bark – he saw the corpses of strangers strewn across the threshold, rising like a giant wave to sweep away his village and the Greenlanders’ village. When this vision faded, he lay down with a burning fever, and summoned Freydis. When she came to his bedside he whispered a few words into her ear, so that she was the only one to hear them. But in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, he declared that happy were those people who were at home all over the world, and that the gift of iron made to his people by the travellers would not be forgotten. He talked to Freydis about her situation, telling her that she would have a great destiny, as would her child. Then he collapsed. Freydis watched over him all night long, but in the morning his body was cold. So she went back to her companions and said: ‘It’s time to load the animals on to the knarr.’

  5. Cuba

  Freydis still dreamed of voyaging further south. For weeks, they sailed the coastline, and soon they had no provisions left and had to drink rainwater and eat fish from the sea. But whenever they thought that a particular land looked promising, Freydis always refused to stop. At first this made the crew nervous, then suspicious; in the end, they became angry. Freydis said to them: ‘Do you want to risk your lives again? Do you want a uniped to shoot an arrow through your belly?’ (Because this was how her half-brother Thorvald Eriksson had died, and she knew that everyone would remember that gruesome incident.) ‘We will continue our journey until its end or we will die at sea, if such is the whim of Njörd or the wish of Hel.’ But nobody knew what end Freydis was talking about.

  At last, they came upon a land that was perhaps an island. Freydis, sensing that she could not contain her companions’ impatience much longer, agreed to berth there.

  The knarr entered a magnificent river. All along the shore, the water was perfectly clear, and the land itself more beautiful than any they had seen before. Close to the river, there were only trees, each with its own fruit and flowers. The fruits tasted wonderful. Many birds and their chicks sang very softly. The leaves of the trees were so large that they could be used to cover houses. The ground was very flat.

  Freydis jumped ashore. She came to some houses that she thought must belong to fishermen, but the occupants fled in terror. In one of the houses, she found a dog that didn’t bark.

  The Greenlanders brought their animals ashore and the Skraelings, intrigued by the horses, reappeared. They were naked and short, but muscular; their skin was dark and their hair black. Freydis advanced towards them, thinking that they would not be frightened of a pregnant woman. She let one of them mount a horse and she walked the horse around the village. The Skraelings were all thrilled and amazed. They offered their guests food and welcomed them into their homes. They also offered them rolled leaves, which they burned and brought to their lips to inhale the smoke.

  So Freydis and her companions moved in with them, and the Skraeling village became their village. They built their own houses, round and covered with straw, just like their hosts’. They also built a temple to Thor, with wooden pillars and beams. The Skraelings showed them how to get water from the large nuts that grew in the trees with the big leaves, because that water was delicious. They taught them the names for things: for example, the crunchy barley was called corn in their language. They showed them how to sleep on nets hung between two trees, which they called hammocks. It was so warm all year round that they didn’t know what snow was.

  It was here that Freydis gave birth. Her husband, Thorvard, treated Gudrid like his own daughter, and Freydis was touched. She began to think less harshly of him.

  The Skraelings became good horsemen and they learned to forge iron. The Greenlanders learned to recognise different animals and to shoot arrows. There were turtles and all sorts of snakes, as well as lizards with scales of stone and very long jaws. In the sky flew red-headed vultures.

  The two groups mixed so well that other children were born. Some had black hair, others blond or red. They understood both their parents’ languages.

  But once again the Skraelings came down with a fever and died. As the Greenlanders were spared, they realised that they had nothing to fear from the disease, but that they had brought it with them. They realised that they were the disease. The men from the north gave the dead graves on which they carved runes. They prayed to Thor and Odin. But the Skraelings kept falling ill. The Greenlanders understood that if they stayed, their hosts would all perish and they would be left alone. They took pity on them and, reluctantly, decided to leave again. They dismantled the temple to Thor and took it with them, but left the Skraelings a few animals as a farewell gift.

  After their departure, the fever did not end. The Skraelings kept dying, until they were almost extinct. Taking their animals, the survivors dispersed over the rest of the island.

  6. Chichen Itza

  As for Freydis, she now travelled west, hugging the coastline, with her daughter, Gudrid; her husband, Thorvard; and their companions. Once they discovered that the land they were leaving behind really was an island, Freydis wanted to head south again. But her companions refused to sail a single day longer without knowing where they were going, so Freydis suggested that they throw the beams from Thor’s temple into the sea, allowing the pieces of wood to show them the way. They would land wherever Thor took the beams, she declared. As soon as
they drifted away from the boat, the beams headed towards the land far in the west, and it appeared to the people on the boat that they moved less slowly than might have been expected. After that, a sea breeze arose; they sailed west past the cape of an island that they named the Isle of Women. Then they reached a large landmass that they thought must be the mainland and entered a fjord. They saw that the fjord was inordinately wide and long, and bordered on each side by very high mountains. Freydis named the fjord after her daughter. After that, they explored the area and discovered that Thor had landed the beams on a headland jutting into the sea at the north of the bay.

  There was a shallow river that the knarr was able to navigate due to its low draught. They sailed up the river until they came to a village. It was late and, since the sun was about to set, Freydis led her people to the sandbanks on the opposite shore. The next day, several Skraelings arrived in a small boat; they brought with them some red-headed chickens and a small amount of corn – barely enough to feed a few men – and told the foreigners to take this food and go away. But, this time, the Greenlanders wanted to stay because Thor had brought them here. So the Skraelings returned, dressed for war and armed with bows and arrows, lances and shields. Too weary to flee, the Greenlanders decided to fight. But they were soon overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of Skraelings. Ten of the Greenlanders were wounded and all were taken prisoner.

  Had it not been for an unexpected event, they would all have been killed. One of the Greenlanders fell from his horse. This terrified the Skraelings, who began making strange cries. They had thought that the rider and the horse were a single being. After conferring, they lined up the Greenlanders and tied them together before leading them back to their home, along with their animals and their weapons.