Constructions: joyce audy zarins

As part of my research for a historical novel about Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir, we went in search of one of the places she traveled to in the early 1,000s. It was more than intriguing.

Leif Eiriksson discovered something big around 1,000 A.D. You can still see the footprints of his longhouses at L’Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland, Canada. He and his men are thought to be the first Europeans to build in North America.

But scholars argue about exactly where his Vínland is, which is puzzling. Maybe they don’t have a GPS?

His sod longhouse at Leifsbudir, which means Leif’s booths (tents) – his ironic name for these buildings with six foot thick walls – was at least twice the size of his father’s house in Greenland. You know his father… Eirik the Red, pioneer of Greenland. Leif obviously inherited his father’s place-naming humor. Gudrid, the m.c. of my YA novel, was Leif’s sister-in-law and went to Leifsbudir a couple of years after he did. It is easy to imagine her there. The small spindle whorl found by archeologists might actually have been hers.

The nearby peat bog provided the blocks of sod stacked over a framework of timber from the nearby forest, which is the same form of construction in Iceland and Greenland at the time. Clayton Colbourne, who grew up in the contemporary village of L’Anse aux Meadows and as a kid played on what were thought to be Indian mounds until archeologists arrived, helped build the reconstructions. It was laborious.

Inside, Egill Egilsson (aka Wade Hillier) played a lyre based on one from a Víking site in Sutton Hoo, then a flute with a single hole that elicited a lovely, lively melody, and lastly a small whistle made from a pig or sheep bone. He also had a wooden panpipe for use in a pinch. A local woman meanwhile did some mending by the longfire on one of the sleeping benches that lined the two long walls.

The blacksmith whose shop is next door showed the type of iron ore that the Norse dug from the nearby bog and a bar of smelted iron, a piece of which he then forged into a nail. In true Viking fashion, he did not bother with gloves while working the metal. Perhaps the Norse uncovered the ore while cutting the peat blocks they used for construction? The process of smelting the small, surprisingly lightweight, lumps of ore into useable iron involves felling lots of trees to make the charcoal that was used for firing up the forge. The paired bellows keep the temperature high enough that the blacksmith can work the purified iron into a nail or other item. Leif’s men made 100-200 nails in this way to repair an accident with one of their boats.

The views the Norse saw surrounding Leifsbudir are reminiscent of places in Iceland and Greenland, only better. There is plenty of fog, rain and high winds at times, and yes there are icebergs; this one is 175 feet tall by 600 feet long and grounded in 420 feet of water. But there was longer daylight and warmer temperatures in winter, and millions of flowers – irises, harebells, pitcher plants, baked apple (cloudberries), partridgeberries and some cotton grass. Dense forests called tuckamore grew near the shore and more mixed deciduous and evergreens read more »

You work alone developing something that has never before existed in the world. You see it from a unique perspective, but what about the rest of the world? Is this newly created entity ready for exposure? Is it balanced and complete? Does it say what you think it says?

What you need is a good critique group of peers experienced in the genre you are working in. They should be people read more »

Cheryl Klein, Senior Editor at Arthur A. Levine Books, hopped on a train from NYC to Andover, MA to give an informative talk recently to our children’s book writers’ critique group. She fielded questions we had previously submitted. She also read and gave read more »

Here is a message from Bob Emser, the noted sculptor, about an exciting new project he is initiating. The Winged Project aspires to install large scale art pieces Bob has designed in major cities in the U.S. He is working with USAproject.org, a Not-for-Profit art organization on the initial aspects of this project.

http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/project/the_winged_project

As with everything in this business, there are costs to cover. If you would like to be an “angel” in support of Bob Emser’s vision for this project, you can easily do so here:

http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/projectDonation/new/project_id/85

Donations are tax deductible. But you will need to hurry! The deadline for contributions is Feb. 5th.

This is an ambitious project at a pivotal point in Bob’s career. Additionally, it is an opportunity for you to support the work of an artist with an international resume.

Currently I am working on a young adult novel based on an intriguing character and events set in 999 AD, Vikng era Iceland, Greenland and Vinland. It is based on two of the Icelandic sagas: The Greenlanders and Eirik the Red’s Saga. I had been using an anthology given to me by my son Eric and his wife Inga, who live in Iceland, but a friend recommended the versions translated by William Morris in the 1800s. Since I don’t speak Icelandic, I must rely on translations and have learned during research that they can be quite different. The following are excerpts from  Eirik the Red’s Saga.

The tone of William Morris’s writing is appropriately heroic, reflecting a past era where the characters are larger than life, where magic, super human strength and superstitions are read more »

Like many other writers, I committed myself to the National Novel Writing Month website’s competition on November 2 and started a new young adult manuscript now titled What else is there?. The goal for each of the thousands of writers who also took the plunge was to write a 50,000 word novel between Nov. 1 and 30. Well, I only got to 26,000 words because life does get in the way, but NaNoWriMo did give me the excuse to get a good beginning going. What else is there? is about a young Norsewoman and is set in Viking era Iceland, Greenland and the new world. More on that later.