Dictionary

Skraeling en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈskɹeɪlɪŋ/

Etymology

After Old Norse skrælingi (of disputed etymology), the Norse name for the native inhabitants of Greenland and continental North America (Eastern Canada).

Meanings

1. (historical) A member of a race of native people encountered by early Norse settlers to Greenland, often equated with Inuit or American Indians.
   • 1974, H. F. McGee, Native Peoples of Atlantic Canada, Carleton University Press, page 2, This time all the staves were being swung anti-sunwise, and the Skraelings were all yelling aloud, so they took red shields and held them out against them.
   • 2014 [1911, William Heinemann], Arthur G. Chater (translator), Fridtjof Nansen, In Northern Mists, [1911, Nansen, Nord i Tåkeheimen], Cambridge University Press, page 80, A valuable piece of evidence of the Norsemen having early had intercourse with the Skrælings in Greenland is a little carved walrus, of walrus-ivory, which was found during excavations on the site of a house in Bergen, and which appears to be of Eskimo workmanship.
   • Discrepancies between the Haúksbók and the 557 Mss. exist also in the narrative of the encounter of Karlsefni's men with the Skraelings, and always in the sense that the Haúksbók uses expressions magnifying the events, which seems suspicious. 1960, Corrado Gini, The Location of Vinland, Bergen: The Insitute of Economics, via National Library of Norway, page 39:
   • 2005, Jonathan Clements, A Brief History of the Vikings, Constable & Robinson (Robinson), unnumbered page, The Skraelings were soon back in greater numbers, and openly hostile. The Vikings killed many of them in the ensuing battle, and witnessed a Skraeling chief hurling a captured Viking axe into the lake – purportedly in fear of its magical properties.

Forms

Relateds

Vinland

Translations (2)

da skrælling (member of a race) · sv skräling (member of a race)

Skraeling en · PROPN

Pronunciation

• /ˈskɹeɪlɪŋ/

Etymology

After Old Norse skrælingi (of disputed etymology), the Norse name for the native inhabitants of Greenland and continental North America (Eastern Canada).

Meanings

1. A little-known language once spoken by the now extinct Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland (also called Beothuk or Red Indian).

Forms