It is pretty well known that the European Explorers of the early 1500s ended up setting off smallpox and I believe flu epidemics that devastated the natives. I’ve never seen where anything similar to occurred with the earlier interactions between the Norse and the Natives.
Was this simply as they interacted with more remote tribes or that we just don’t have any good records or signs of such an epidemic?
Conversely, why weren’t the Europeans struck down with strange to them viruses that wiped the crews and armies? I mean I know syphilis or at least syphilis variants was brought back, but that is a slow killer.
This, plus the pre-Columbian Norse who reached North America were also remote tribes, not well connected to the larger populations in Europe. The population and disease flow through Norway to Iceland to Greenland to Vinland was tiny. The North American natives were also low population. The chances of disease transmission were minimal.
The post-Columbian Europeans who reached the Americas in the 1500s were coming from major port cities with large populations and endemic diseases. And then going to large populations in the Americas. The chances of disease transmission were a near certainty.
In addition to the very good points noted by @Pleonast, my understanding is that was very little interaction between the native Americans and the Norse when they arrived around the 10th century, and what little interaction there was, was invariably hostile. So there was not much opportunity for disease transmission when your main interaction consisted of shooting arrows at each other.
The Europeans picked a few “gifts” from the indigenous inhabitants of North and Central America. There was an STD (gonorrhea?) that was not endemic to Europe, and maybe yellow fever as well. The American populations were generally small and spread out enough that outbreaks were contained, thus there weren’t as many endemic diseases for the Europeans to suffer from and bring back to the homeland.
In addition to the low incidence of disease among the Norse, no one has ever found any genetic signals from the Norse were in North America, which is a pretty good indication that their interactions were minimal. Or, I suppose, that anyone they did get close to died out. But the consensus seems to be they just didn’t have much interaction.
Since there is not historical records on the First Nations’ side the best you can do is infer some things.
In particular the Dorset Culture was active to the west of Greenland for centuries before the Norse showed up and died out at or shortly after local-Norse interactions started.
The end of the Dorsets has been attributed to one or more of: Inuit incursions (but there was no genetic mixing), climate change ending the Dorsets’ ice hole hunting or (per Wikipedia) “… that they were vulnerable to newly introduced disease.”
So … maybe they got a bug from the Norse. Maybe.
The origins of the Dorsets is even more puzzling than their end. The candidate proto groups had technology that the Dorsets didn’t have such as bow and arrow and their ice hole hunting method didn’t seem to stem from earlier people.
When did smallpox and measles emerge in Europe? Could it be that these contagions simply were not on the scene yet? I am in agreement with what has been posted so far regarding lack of intimate interactions, but just curious as to when these diseases emerged in Europe - perhaps the Vikings visited North America before smallpox and measles existed?
I have read this as well, but thought it emerged in Europe later than the Viking expeditions, around the time of the Spanish explorations.
Smallpox in general has been around since early classical times, but when it fully entered Europe is uncertain. The Antonine Plague in the 2nd century may have been smallpox, may not. Some have argued it didn’t become fully entrenched in Europe until the Crusades. So it is remotely possible the Norse didn’t have it.
Measles is a little younger having evolved from cattle-specific rinderpest. The timing of the jump is again uncertain. Some put it in the late classical period - it has also been speculated the Antonine Plague was measles . However eruptions aside, it too may have only become entrenched around the period of the Crusades. So it is quite possible the Norse had no experience with it either.
Timing-wise they’re both on a teeter. But it’s really hard to trace specific diseases that far back, so both, one or neither are all possibilities.
. However eruptions aside, it too may have only become entrenched around the period of the Crusades. So it is