Skraeling

English

Alternative forms

• skraeling, Scraeling, scraeling, Skræling

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈskɹeɪlɪŋ/

Noun

Skraeling (plural Skraelings)

1. (historical, ethnology) 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.

   • 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.

   • 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.

Translations

member of a race

• Danish: skrælling c
• Swedish: skräling (sv) c

See also

• Vinland

Proper noun

Skraeling

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

Further reading

• Skræling on Wikipedia.Wikipedia