We bring you the past.ДЄdrian Spendlow вЂ“ from the words of my chieftainДedicated to Njardarheimr Viking Town in Gudvangen, Norway. Be potter, be carver.ДЄs you sit you are of us. Except the unwelcoming.Д¬ome join in the building. вЂњPiracy is gone.вЂќ вЂњNo need to go plunderвЂќ Being here is strong. Way of Living вЂ“ From our Viking Chieftain He taught this word to all who came near him.ДЄnd those settlers, all those years onwards were welcome.ДЄll along the coast of the Americas his one true word echoed. The only way to survive in this вЂnewвЂ™ larger world was to welcome. Long was his walk, it took him years, but he got down that coast, till he started to recognise where he wasвЂ¦ДЄnd was he welcomed, he who had come back from the dead, all these years gone.ДЄs an older wiser man, he taught all around him. And he knew one word more than any other.

The captain agreed, yes he was going to the вЂnewвЂ™ world and yes he would employ him.ДЄll Squanto required in payment was nourishment. So he asked and he asked, and one of these ships said yes. The ships that landed here could go anywhere. Time went by and he had what he needed to know. More beings in one glimpse than he had ever seen in his life.Д«ut he saw his life ahead of him and he jumped ship. To a port, as he learned they called them. To yet another alien vessel, in an alien world, at an alien port.ДЇrom there he sailed with this new crew to another world. Hard they treated him, and hard he worked. Squanto the slave had to work had to work on an alien vessel, doing alien things. Many, many years before, other strangers had come, they had come to take, and they took him.

This was the doing of one person, one person on this earth Squanto. In years to come, they would be all along the coast, coastal settlement to coastal settlement welcoming the new arrivals in English, just like the tribal band before them, вЂњWelcomeвЂќ вЂњWelcomeвЂќ вЂњWelcomeвЂќ He taught them how life was different here. It was Squanto who took them in, who travelled with them, who settled with them for a while. They took them to a вЂnationвЂ™ where Squanto lived. All along the coasts were settlements where it was the language and new arrivals from Germany, Poland, Spain, The Ukraine, from the known world heard and adapted.ДЇor that welcoming band (that small вЂnationвЂ™) led the poor settlers to another tribe but their own. This is the reason that as new settlers arrived they heard English. This was the moment which gave the Americas English. They cautiously walked towards the struggling settlers and spoke the one word of English they knew вЂњWelcomeвЂќ all this way from the homeland. How could that small band of travelling originals know one word of English, вЂњWelcomeвЂќ but they did so. A small band went out looking for game and they met with something totally unexpected. As many laid sick and indeed dying, they gave it one more try. This was a new country where God had made things other than they had believed would be possible. They even tried hunting, but even that was other than they had known.

They came down with all of the things that were just like at home but different, different enough to do them real harm. Nothing grew, all the seasons were wrong. Those pilgrims they landed they tried and they struggled. Thanksgiving, made possible by only one wordвЂ¦

Squanto friend of the pilgrims