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In this Bonus episode, hosts Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson discuss the president elect Donald Trump's recent remarks that the USA should acquire Greenland. 

Greenland and Iceland are not members of the EU but are on the front lines as disputes erupt between NATO states. We dive into the history of the Danish Empire, ponder the connotations of Trump's remarks and what they may mean for Greenland, its next door neighbour Iceland, for Denmark,  the EU and NATO.

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WHO ARE WE?
The Reykjavík Grapevine is an alternative monthly magazine, bringing you all the news and views on Icelandic society, music, travel, culture and more. Grapevine.is #rvkgrapevine

Hosted by historians and The Reykjavík Grapevine founders Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson

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Icelanders discovered America, and lost it again. Or did they? How long did the Viking voyages to the new continent last? How did the first longship vs. canoe battle go? And where - and what- was the legendary Vinland that the Sagas speak of? 

Hosted by historians and Grapevine founders Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson this episode features an interview on the subject with History Professor Sverrir Jakobsson.

The likeness of Leifur Eriksson in front of Hallgrímskirkja is probably the most photographed statue in the most photographed spot in all of Iceland. And yet Leifur’s appearance in the Sagas is somewhat underwhelming.

In the Saga of the Greenlanders, he’s not even the man who discovers North America for the Vikings. Instead, the story goes that one Bjarni Herjólfsson accidentally stumbled across the continent upon getting lost en route to visiting Erik the Red (Leifur’s dad) in Greenland.

Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson — a historian and a history nerd, respectively — delve into the saga and the reality of how Icelanders found North America and then lost it. Did that actually happen? How long did Viking voyages to the new world continue? How about that longship v. canoe battle? And where even is the legendary Vinland that the Sagas speak of? 

Hosted by historians and The Reykjavík Grapevine founders Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson

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The Last Viking Mystery: Erik the Red; the worst neighbour in history

The Vikings sailed across the North Atlantic, from Norway to Iceland to Greenland and all the way to North America. They only stayed for a few years in the New World but in Iceland, their descendants live to this day. In Greenland, however, a Norse colony survived and even thrived for almost five hundred years. 

Then, at around the time Europeans were re-discovering North America for themselves, the Greenland Norse mysteriously disappeared. What happened? No one knows, but we will try to find out. Our story begins here in Iceland, where Eric the Red once lived and had a habit of getting into trouble with the neighbours.

Hosted by historians and The Reykjavík Grapevine founders Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson

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What happened in the autumn of 2008 that made the country's whole economy seemingly go under? 

What had brought a country with very little experience of banking to believe it could be

the financial capital of the world? And how did an erupting volcano eventually save Iceland? 

Hosted by historians and The Reykjavík Grapevine founders Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson

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Iceland had a rather comfortable war, being occupied by the British and later Americans. 

Yet, it was a time that changed everything, the beginning of modernity and Iceland emerged from the war as one of the richest countries in the world. But what if the Nazis had come instead? 

Valur and Jón explore what did happen and what could have.  

Hosted by historians and The Reykjavík Grapevine founders Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson

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The Nordic Countries are prosperous but small countries on Europe's periphery, peaceful now but given to feuding in the past. What if they had united? Would they play a greater part on the world stage as a single power? Could a united Nordics have stayed out of World War II? Or even averted the rise of Germany or Russia? There were several instances in history when they very nearly united, and once they actually did. What if they had stuck together? 

Hosted by historians and The Reykjavík Grapevine founders Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson

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In the autumn of 1921, Ólafur Friðriksson came back home from Moscow where he had attended the 9th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. With him he had a boy whom he intended to adopt. When the 15- year-old  was diagnosed with glaucoma, an eye disease which was feared could be contagious the authorities decided to deport him. 

This was seen as a political act by Ólafur and other socialists who barricaded themselves in Ólafur’s home at Suðurgata. When the police attempted to apply force, they were beaten back. For the next few days it seemed anything could happen. Both sides began to arm themselves and the stage was set for a bloody showdown.  What happened next would determine the fate of Iceland in the 20th Century. 

Hosted by historians and The Reykjavík Grapevine founders Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson

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In Tasmania, off the coast of Australia, there is a grave marked "King of Iceland." Even more bizarrely,  the title of the person was  actually real. Sort of.  During the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark and Britain found themselves fighting on opposing sides. An English soap salesman and a Danish POW decided this was an opportune time to conquer the Danish colony of Iceland. This could have led to Iceland being incorporated into the British Empire. Or Sweden. But what actually happened was stranger still.   

Hosted by historians and The Reykjavík Grapevine founders Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson

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For almost a thousand years, nature had been torturing the poor residents of Iceland. Then, in 1783, it decided to finish the job. A volcano erupted that was felt around the world, nowhere more so than in Iceland itself. About a third of the population perished and the Danes considered transporting the survivors to Denmark. What if they had? How would they have fared? And what would have become of the unpopulated island? 

Hosted by historians and The Reykjavík Grapevine founders Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson

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There is little arguing with the maxim attributed to Oscar Wilde that Icelanders are the smartest people in the world, they found America but had the good sense to lose it again. Wisely or not, how exactly did Icelanders manage to misplace a whole continent? Did they do it on purpose? Why didn’t Icelanders settle in North America as later Europeans were to do? What if a religious war in Iceland in the year 1000 had induced them to do just that? 

Hosted by historians and The Reykjavík Grapevine founders Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson