Daniel Triumbari

The Viking Greenland journey, survival, and ultimate demise is representative of human history and behaviour. There are parallels that can be made between the history of the vikings, and the rise and fall of other similar groups of people. In the first place, it must be defined who the vikings are. The vikings were a group, who one thousand years ago were led by !rick the red and set sail from "orway for the vast arctic landmass west of #candinavia which came to be known as Greenland.$ The vikings then attempted to build a society similar to what they had back in "orway, with similar structures and a similar diet. The issue with this was that there was not enough food that met there dietary re%uirements, nor enough trees to be chopped down for enough fuel or shelter. Greenland ecosystem was too fragile to withstand that kind of pressure.$ Thus without ade%uate supplies if wood, getting fuel for the winter became increasingly difficult.$ This continued until they died from the cold and hunger. They died from hunger not because of a lack of food, as there was plenty of fish to sustain them. They chose not to eat fish and to die rather than to give up there identity.

&ne parallel between vikings and humanity in general is that their desire for e'ploration remains the same through history. (umanity has a long history of going to e'treme environments for various reasons. The vikings e'ploring Greenland, the )ritish e'ploring the *mericas for new territory, or even humans e'ploring space for e'ample. The vikings were deeply symbolic and representative of this fundamental desire for humans to e'pand their territories. This desire is not only found in modern history, but dates back to the first humans

who moved off the *frican continent. Thus one can state that humans have always had a desire to e'plore new territories, and the vikings are representative of that desire.

*part from the desire to venture into uncharted territory, the vikings e'periences and beliefs also suggest a strong will to retain their identity. *s was stated earlier, the vikings refused to add fish to their diet primarily because it was seen as being food eaten by the uncivili+ed aboriginals. ,e see in other e'amples from humans where they wish to retain their lost identity. -or e'ample, the natives now wish to maintain their identity from what they lost by the !uropeans. .anada is a multicultural nation where many people get to retain their identity and values.

The !aster trees being chopped down one by one is also symbolic of the vikings usage of the various resources around them. They used these resources over a period of four hundred and fifty years. They thought that these resources were unlimited. They were proven wrong when they died because the resource was depleted. This is similar to how today we use up our resources as though they are unlimited, when in reality all resources are.