"Vikings vs Skraelings" Topic

I am thining about this. Was wondering what type of Indians should I use for this period? What companies should I be looking at?

What scale? I believe "Buckeye AKA Darryl" investigated this in 15mm(?) a few years ago. You can send him a PM if he doesn't pop in.

I was going with 28mm.

Gladiator Games made 28mm Skraelings. They are listed on the Black Hat website, but do not appear to be available for purchase:

link

A review here:

TMP link

They match up very well with Foundry Vikings.

Freikorps had Skraelings as well…my review here:

TMP link

In 15mm you might try MY Miniatures. They have ancient North American Indians as well as Inuit:

link

A review:

TMP link

Somewhere at home I have a set of simple skirmish rules for the "period". Email me at preds81 at yahoo dot com and I will email them to you.

In re-reading some old posts, looks like the Copplestone Inuit would be the way to go in 28mm. Many folks did not like the Gladiator representation (I personally think they are cool figs).

The Gladiator figures are more accurate. The Skraelings were the historical Thule, ancestors to the Inuit. Culturally they resembled stone age Eastern Woodland Indians more than 20th century Inuit.

I have collected Copplestone Inuit just because I think they are wicked cool. My Skraelings cast spells also and ride in polar bear drawn sleds if that reveals my regard for accuracy.

How's anyone gonna prove that your interpretation is not accurate?

I think the archeological record contradicts my interpretation.

No, that simply means that evidence has not been found YET to support your interpretation. It doesn't mean that you are wrong…..

In 15mm you might try Khurasan Iroquois

link

It's hard to ID the Skraelings accurately because it turns out starving Vikings are third rate anthropologists and they didn't make careful observations. Worse, they may have wiped some small groups that we'll never know about.

The Skraelings were probably from several groups (the Vikings wouldn't have noticed the differences), all either Inuit ancestors or "cousins" descended from the same group. In any case you care more about the clothes than the language and the lifestyle of the Skraelings seems to be ver similar to Inuit so you should assume the clothing is also.

They should probably be wearing more clothes than those cool Iroquois. On the other hand one possible derivation of "Skraeling" is "written skin" which I would take to mean tattoos, which are hard to see on Inuit.

I think The Sword And The Flame would be an excellent rules set for this, but then I think that about everything.

I am also a fan of Vikings and Skraelings. I'm in the school of thought that the Skraelings and Vinland were further south than the site in Newfoundland. As such, I've also been looking for some primitive woodland Indians to rumble with the Norse.

Lost Pict

Hey, I have that Osprey book!

I still think more clothes.

link

Yeah, less clothes. The medieval warm period….

MWP, granted, but that looking at that wikipedia page you can see that the MWP had temperatures similar to or slightly below those of today. Also, the swing of mean temperatures shown is all within 1° C, enough to change weather and ice patterns but not enough to effect clothes.

On the other hand these nifty charts:

link

…suggest that only during Summer would you go without jacket, and rare would be the day that would encourage shirtless warfare.

I know some stone-age tech peoples have a different expectation of warmth than we do, but they also had to worry about getting enough calories. I may be alone in my opinion, but I don't see how the data supports shirtless Skraelings (say that three times fast).

I will say that both the miniatures and the artwork are very cool. I would be very happy to be wrong about this.

Algonquin!

link

I have a vague memory that the Sagas mentioned that the Skraelings were fond of red cloth, and wore items of it (maybe even traded it from the Vikings initially?), and if you're covering this conflict, don't you need a giant topless female warrior beating her breast with the flat of her sword…..which apparently scared the heck out of the aforementioned natives….

link

(This thread needed more Norse bo*bies!)

I was not familiar with that incident.

Whoa. Crazy. You can't make stuff like that up.

I wonder what that "noisy ball" thing was.

Hornets nest on a pole?

I always assumed that the Osprey picture of the Viking woman reaching for the sword was taken from that saga. In a few moments, the Norse boobs would be showing and the Skraelings would be routing for their canoes.

Here is the text from the old Gladiator site. Gives you what thought process they had when making them. Perhaps if folks start an email campaign to Black Hat they will make them available.

The Skraeling was the Viking name for the Indian tribes they encountered during their attempts at starting colonies in North America. Eric's saga records skirmishes with the Skraelings as being the reason the colonies were abandoned, "that although the land was excellent they could never live there in safety or freedom from fear, because of the native inhabitants." Anthropologists have tentatively identified the tribes as Micmac and Beothuk Indians. Our range is based on these tribal types.

Code Description
SKR 1 Skraeling command. Three chieftains or war leaders
SKR 2 Skraelings with spears
SKR 3 Skraelings with war clubs
SKR 4 Skraelings with bows

All codes contain three different figures.

PAINTING INFOMATION
From later written sources; the Beothuk and Micmac tribesmen were dark skinned swarthy individuals, usually with dark hair. They wore a variety of animal skins including seal. Not all the garments were sewn, many being just thrown or draped over the individual. Both tribesmen coloured themselves and their weapons with red ochre. Sources do not say if this was patterns or a total covering; but it was the original descriptive source of the term – "Red Indians!"

Was able to do a bit of digging on my external drive. This is a pic from Zippy that he sent me many moons ago. These are the Gladiator (now Black Hat) Skraelings. I like 'em, big, beefy types, really go well with the larger 28mm figures out there.

link

Based on the artwork above, one would need Vikings with very little armor, other than perhaps a helmet. Tunic, shield, sword or bow, helmet or hat, and you have your Vikings. I guess bondi types would be the best for that.

Note that the rightmost figure on the top row of the scan that Darryl posted is a Dixon Apache, included to contrast size and sculpting style.

Also in 15mm one now has Splintered Light Miniatures doing Skraelings.

link

the poster did say he was thinking 28 mm..so don't forget about Footsore skraelings..very nice!