About The Program

The year is 1008. Stand on the deck of the Viking knarr with Gudrid and her son Snorri as she looks back at her turf-roofed house. Feel the wind whip her cloak where she has lost its pin in the meadows of Newfoundland. Seek through her eyes through the tall grass where, in her haste to catch the tide, she has dropped her spindle whorl. On that stone spindle she spun three wedding dresses, square woolen sails to cross the icy sea, shrouds for her three sailor husbands, and the swaddlings for the first European child in the New World. But Gudrid's colony has failed, and its thread lies broken in the grass. Her ring-headed pin and spindle whorl are lost to her, and to history. It will be ten centuries before they are found.

Where was Leif Ericsson's fabled Vinland? What did the New World look like to the explorers of a thousand years ago? Relive the saga of Gudrid Thorbjørnsdottír, sister-in law of Leif Eiriksson, wife of Icelandic merchant Thorfinn Karlsefni, and explorer of Vinland the Good. This enthralling retelling of traditional Icelandic saga in song skilfully interweaves Icelandic sagas with medieval poetry and Scandinavian music in the oral tradition. Celebrate the second millennium of adventurous women with a uniquely North American perspective on Norse exploration of the New World.

Bio

Lynn Noel has a voice of striking clarity and power, enthralling stage presence, and a captivating storyteller’s style that brings history to life. Gudrid the Wanderer is part of a living history program series A Woman’s Way: The First Millennium of Adventurous Women that tells true tales of Vikings, voyageurs, pirates, and other traditional women’s roles. The program was originally developed at the Dartmouth College Institute of Arctic Studies, and has gone on to be featured at major Viking museum exhibits, conferences, and festivals.

Lynn is an internationally known heritage interpreter, award-winning author, and living history professional whose Crosscurrents: Bluewater and Whitewater Music series has received awards of excellence from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the Canadian Parks Service. Her book VOYAGES: Canada's Heritage Rivers was voted Best Conservation Publication of the Year by the Natural Resources Council of America. Lynn is also a CDSS Local Hero community leader for sea chanteys and pub sings, a close harmony singer with a repertoire from medieval to maritime to music hall, and a co-founder of the AFTer Hours Adult Folktale Telling Series in Somerville. Lynn lives outside Boston with her husband and produces the Mermaid's Tavern online folk club.

Selected Appearances

  • Smithsonian Vikings in the New World exhibit, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Ottawa, ON

  • Dartmouth Institute of Arctic Studies Honoring Our Elders: A History of Eastern Arctic Archaeology, Hanover, NH

  • Seabourn Cruise Lines, Labrador-Boston

  • The World Cruise Lines, Reykjavik-Boston

  • Gudrid's Farm, Arnarstapi, Iceland

  • Mystic Sea Music Festival, Mystic, CT

  • Mystic Seaport Viking Days, Mystic, CT

  • VIKINGS: BEYOND THE LEGEND exhibit, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA