Skræling

[2] William Thalbitzer (1932: 14) speculated that skræling might have been derived from the Old Norse verb skrækja, meaning "bawl, shout, or yell".

The term is thought to have first been used by Ari Thorgilsson in his work Íslendingabók, also called The Book of the Icelanders,[4] written well after the period in which Norse explorers made their first contacts with indigenous Americans.

By the time these sources were recorded, skræling was the common term Norse Greenlanders used for the Thule people, the ancestors to the modern Inuit.

[3] Norse exploration of the New World began with the initial sighting of North America by an Icelander named Bjarni Herjólfsson, who spotted land after drifting off course on a journey to Greenland in 985 or 986.

Upon his return to Greenland, There was great discussion of Leif's Vinland voyage, and his brother Thorvald felt they had not explored enough of the land.

"[6]Thorfinn Karlsefni was the first Norse explorer to attempt to truly colonize the newly discovered Vinland, on the same site as his predecessors Thorvald and Leif Eriksson.

They spent a very hard winter at this site, barely surviving by fishing, hunting game inland, and gathering eggs on the island.