Recently, I started reading a counterfactual history book by the name of Civilizations by Laurent Binet. It’s a very fun read so far and I’ve read two stories, one about The Saga of Freydis Eriksdottir and another about Christopher Columbus’s journal. In Binet’s version of Freydis Eriksdottir’s story after she defends herself from “Skraelings” (Who are just native Americans) instead of fleeing safely back to Greenland, they continue sailing more. The Greenlanders sail from island to island initially making allies with Skraelings only for them to die from a disease. Freydis takes advantage of the pattern and “prophesizes” that a disease will fall upon the recent Skraelings they befriended . After the disease infects the natives the Greenlanders stature only increased and Fredyis specifically was seen as a priestess. Over the months Greenlanders learned how to dig canals and grow many vegetables. After Freydis’s death she was buried with jewels and her servants, Gudrid, one of her children now leads the Skraelings and Greenlanders as one. The one thing I found hard to believe about this story is the disease the Greenlanders would bring to the Skraelings that never seemed to infect them. Since that disease played a crucial part into Freydis’s growth I think this story is implausible. The disease itself is never even explained, it wasn’t explained how it was spread nor the symptoms people would get.
As for the journal of Christopher Columbus it goes about a story where Columbus ends up being stuck on an island where the Natives hunt Christians down to torture them under an accusation they were abducting Natives and raping women. Columbus had been taking Natives so he could show them the place where he came from but he tried his best not to separate family and as for the raping of women he knew nothing about. Regardless, as the days went on every time a Christian tried escaping they were tortured and killed. The story ends with Columbus being the last of the Christians wishing only for himself to die. I actually think this story is plausible if Columbus was caught before he reached the main land of North America. Also, while out searching for gold which is something Columbus was really interested in, that is when their ships were stolen from them.
I read about the real Fredyis Eriksdottir here – https://www.historyextra.com/period/viking/freydis-eiriksdottir-life-legend-sagas-real/
