Civ4: TDS Scandinavia Mod

This mod improves the Viking Civilization and adds two new leaders, Leif Ericson and Cnut the Great. Leif Ericson was a Norse explorer who was probably the first European to land in North America. Cnut the Great, also known as Canute or Knut, was a Viking king of England, Denmark and Norway.

Compatible with Beyond the Sword.

Leif Ericson

Leif Ericson (Old Norse: Leifr Eiríksson) (c. 970 - c. 1020) was a Norse explorer who was probably the first European to land in North America (excluding Greenland). According to the Sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at Vinland, which has been tentatively identified with the L'Anse aux Meadows Norse site on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is believed that Leif was born about AD 970 in Iceland, the son of Erik the Red (Old Norse: Eiríkr inn rauði), a Norse explorer and outlaw and himself the son of an outlaw, Þorvaldr Ásvaldsson. Leif's mother was Thjodhild (Þjóðhildr). Erik the Red had founded two Norse colonies in Greenland, the Western Settlement and the Eastern Settlement, as he named them. Leif Ericson had two brothers, Thorvald and Thorsteinn, and one sister, Freydís. Leif married a woman named Thorgunna, and they had one son, Thorkell Leifsson. During a stay in Norway, Leif Ericson converted to Christianity, like many Norse of that time, at the behest of the King of Norway, Olaf I. When he returned to Greenland, he bought Bjarni Herjólfsson's boat and set out to explore the land that Bjarni had seen to the west of Greenland, which was likely coastal Canada. The Saga of the Greenlanders tells that Leif set out in the year 1002 or 1003 to follow Bjarni's route with 35 crew members, but going north. The first land he went to was covered with flat rocks (Old Norse hella). He therefore called it Helluland ("Land of the Flat Stones"). This was possibly Baffin Island. Next he came to a land that was flat and wooded, with white sandy beaches. He called this Markland ("Wood-land"), which is possibly Labrador. Leif and his crew left Markland and again found land, which they named Vinland. They landed and built a small settlement. They found the area pleasant as there were wild grapes and plenty of salmon in the river. The climate was mild, with little frost in the winter and green grass year-round.

Cnut the Great

Cnut the Great, also known as Canute or Knut (Old Norse: Knútr inn ríki; died 12 November 1035) was a Viking king of England, Denmark and Norway. His successes as a statesman, politically and militarily, prove him to be one of the greatest figures of medieval Europe. With his kingship over England's archdioceses, and the continental diocese of Denmark - with a claim lain upon it by the Holy Roman Empire's Hamburg-Bremen archdiocese - and the high status he found among medieval Christendom's magnates, Cnut enjoyed considerable leverage within the Church, winning a number of concessions for his people from the Pope at the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor. On a journey to Rome, after his victory against Norway and Sweden, in a letter, Cnut proclaims himself king of all England and Denmark and the Norwegians and of some of the Swedes. The struggles of the kings of Denmark for preeminence within Scandinavia, though, meant Cnut held a considerable overlordship across other areas of the British Isles too, in line with his Anglo-Saxon predecessors, and the leader of a very strong Viking regime. Uncertain though the extent of his dominance over the British Isles is, we can say Cnut's rule was felt by the sea-kingdoms of the Viking settlers among the Celtic nations, known as the Gall Gaidel. These were the Kingdom of the Isles (probably under direct overlordship through one of his lieutenants, in the Sea of the Hebrides, and the Kingdom of Dublin (probably on the terms of vassal and suzerain), in the Irish Sea. His main aim here was for control of the western seaways to and from Scandinavia, and to check the might of the Earls of Orkney. At the height of his reign, certain Gaelic kingdoms and the dominant Ui Imhair sea-kingdom were in clientage with Cnut too. Henry of Huntingdon, the 12th-century chronicler, tells how Cnut set his throne by the sea shore and commanded the tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes; but the tide failed to stop. According to Henry, Cnut leapt backwards and said "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws." He then hung his gold crown on a crucifix, and never wore it again.This story may be apocryphal. While the contemporary Encomium Emmae has no mention of it, it would seem that so pious a dedication might have been recorded there, since the same source gives an "eye-witness account of his lavish gifts to the monasteries and poor of St Omer when on the way to Rome, and of the tears and breast-beating which accompanied them". Goscelin, writing later in the 11th century, instead has Cnut place his crown on a crucifix at Winchester one Easter, with no mention of the sea, and 'with the explanation that the king of kings was more worthy of it than he'. However there may be a "basis of fact, in a planned act of piety" behind this story, and Henry of Huntingdon cites it as an example of the king's "nobleness and greatness of mind". Later historians repeated the story, most of them adjusting it to have Cnut more clearly aware that the tides would not obey him, and staging the scene to rebuke the flattery of his courtiers; and there are earlier Celtic parallels in stories of men who commanded the tides, namely Saint Illtud, Maelgwn, king of Gwynedd, and Tuirbe, of Tuirbe's Strand, in Brittany.

Technologies

Starting technologies have been swapped with Spain. Both civilisations start with Fishing but Spain originally started with Mysticism and the Scandinavians started with Hunting. The Scandinavians developed there own Norse mythology and the Spanish were good explorers and so it makes sense to swap.

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