Sylvia Branzei - Rebel in a Dress: Adventurers

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Table of Contents

TO MOM AND DADDY, WHO RAISED
FOUR REBELS IN DRESSES.S. B.

REBEL (n.):

One who is resistant to tradition, one who attacks established beliefs, someone who refuses to conform

WHEN THE HISTORY OF WHAT WOMEN HAVE ACCOMPLISHED IN THE PAST IS IGNORED OR TRIVIALIZED, EACH NEW GENERATION OF ACHIEVING, WOMEN MUST FIRST REINVENT THE WHEEL.

Janet Guthrie,
from Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle

The ladies you are about to meet are not comic book superheroes. They are real people, regular people just like you. Yet, each one is the stuff of legends. These women went above what is typical or expected. They didnt say, I cant do that. Im a girl. They did it, even if it was unacceptable for a lady of those times. They accomplished feats most men could not. They are not just amazing women; they are remarkable human beings. And that is why they are remembered. They are rebels. Rebels in dresses.

GUDRIDUR THORBJARNARDOTTIR

(Pre-1000unknown)

Gudridur Thorbjarnardottir was the most traveled woman of her time. She made eight sea voyages. She lived in Iceland, Greenland, and North America. She walked across Europe, twice. And she did all of this around the year 1000. Her sea voyages were made in long Viking ships. Like sailors she used only the stars and landmarks for directions. This was five hundred years before Columbus would set foot upon North America. Gudridur was adventurous. She was BOLD.

Gudridurs first voyage was tragic. When she was a young woman living in Iceland, Gudridurs father packed up their farm. He decided to move his family to Greenland, where Erik the Reds new colony was settling. Gudridur boarded the long boat, along with her godparents. The voyage was harsh; storms tossed the ship in the sea like it was a toy. Half of the thirty settlers who had set out on the journey died, and both of Gudridurs godparents were left behind in the sea.

Eric the Red, Danish illustration from 17th century.

The Coming of the Norsemen in 1000 AD, tapestry designed and created by Mabelle L. Holmes. 20th century.

Map highlighting the journeys of the Vikings

After such a horrible trip, you would think Gudridur would never want to sail again. However, after only a year, she married Erik the Reds son, Thorstein, and they set to the seas. Their sights were on Vinland.

Vinland

Scientists have uncovered ruins in Newfoundland, Canada, which show that Viking men and women landed there and stayed for a length of time.

Sculpture of Gudridur and her son, Snorri, by Asmundur Sveinsson

Love of learning is a pleasant and universal bond, since it deals with what one is and not what one has.

Freya Stark, French explorer

Thorsteins brother Leif discovered it when he was blown off course. The land was filled with riches, such as timber, giant salmon, and wineberries. Thorstein and Gudridur headed west with a small crew, and again Gudridur found herself aboard a ship in a terrible storm. They got lost.

After months on a rugged sea, they saw land. Only they landed on the west coast of Greenland! They had wandered in circles for the entire summer. Since winter was coming, Gudridur and Thorstein stayed in the remote western part of Greenland with a farmer. Sadly, a fever spread throughout the land. The farmers wife and Thorstein died. A widowed Gudridur returned home, only to find out her father had passed away while she was gone. Gudridur was now a widow and an orphan.

Gudridur remarried at Christmasthis time to a very wealthy merchant with royal blood. His name was Karlsefni. While most women stayed home to run the house and farm, Gudridur had wanderlust. According to the Icelandic Sagas, Making a voyage to Vinland was all anyone talked about that winter. They kept urging Karlsefni to go, Gudridur as much as the others.

Detail of a Viking sandstone pendant featuring a Viking ship and fish.

Icelandic Sagas

The story of Gudridur was told in the two sagas, or epic tales, THE SAGA OF ERIK THE RED and THE SAGA OF THE GREENLANDERS. The stories were spread orally and written down over a century after Gudridur lived. In one saga, Gudridur was married three times, in another, twice. In others, she sailed with Thorstein, in another she just traveled with him around Greenland. But mostly, the stories of her adventures agree.

Gudridur set sail again with her husband and three ships of settlers. The voyage to the new land was calm. They found the shelters Leif Eriksson had left behind. Gudridur gave birth to a son in the land beyond the world. His name was Snorri, the first European born in North America.

Even with a young child, Gudridur was not to be left behind. She and Karlsefni left the settlement in Vinland (present-day Newfoundland) behind. They sailed south. Some think they arrived in Quebec, others believe New York. Regardless, they ended up in a land where butternuts grew and where the birds and the trees were not familiar. The land was good. There was plenty.

When the skraelings, or native people, arrived, it seemed like they might make good trading partners, but that soon changed. A fight eventually broke out. Soon after the skirmish, Gudridur and her family returned to Vinland and then they eventually went back to Greenland.

As a woman, I have no country.... As a woman my country is the whole world.

Virginia Woolf, novelist and essayist

Gudridur would not stay put for longshe and Karlsefni later sailed to Norway to visit the royal court. Gudridur had never seen such lavish living. But they didnt stay. They soon voyaged to Iceland and set up a farm.

After Karlsefni died, Gudridur left her son, Snorri, and his family in charge of the farm. She had one last trip in her.

Around 1000

The symbol zero is invented.

Gunpowder is perfected in China for fireworks, not guns.

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