Vikings and mesoamerican indians

My advice is to write a ripping good story. You can get all kinds of free advice about how to write, but only you can write your story. You've got a good premise, it's not too hard to find lots of info on Vikings (easier than Kuna Indians I daresay). Writing is pretty much in the details as they relate to each other, so the trick is to create a narrative that balances the details (historical fact v guesswork, narrative pace, characterization, etc) in a way that satisfies you as an author and readers as well.

Good luck!

I would also be careful about using the term Vikings, as it was term that meant to go pirating, and even the Norsemen, Danes and others all hated Vikings...

I would also add if you want to read some excellent historical fiction about Vikings...lol...Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Series is an excellent read. Start with "The Last Kingdom."

Lastly, most Viking ships did not sail too far out on the open sea's. They tended to stay within sight of the coast.

I would try You Tube for a BBC documentary by Neil Oliver (Orcadian archaeologist) called The Vikings. It's a shame that you are not in the UK as I'm going to an exhibition at The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh next weekend on the Vikings.

Also, Historic Scotland have a book on Viking Scotland, a quick search on Amazon will provide a deluge of books. Edinburgh University and UHI also have departments dedicated to Viking Studies.

Suggest you read the Oathsworn series by Robert Low starting with The Whale Road - historical fiction featuring well researched Vikings.

Read some of the sagas, available on line for free. The best one for your story is The Vinland Saga. There are descriptions of clashes between the locals in what is now Canada and the Greenlanders in that one.

All the above is good advice. I'd ask you to figure out when you're planning to date it before you get too deep in research as the Viking period extended for a long time. I live in the Isle of Man which had Viking Kings for a period of time. In IOM most of the Viking Kings were post Christianity and we have stone crosses which have both runic and latin writing on them. Norway was not forcibly converted until several centuries later so you have quite a wide time span to place your story.

“Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.”
― Jules Renard

Both novels I've queried slash am querying have Vikings in them. Rosedahl's The Vikings is a great general overview book. Then you might look for more scholarly books specific to the intersections of the cultures you're interested in. You might also check out The Viking Answer Lady's website. It's great and has lots of recommendations for further reading.

I know this advice might be a little late, but for general information on the Norse coming to America, the Vinland Saga (as noted above) is probably the most important primary source. The complete Vinland Saga contains the Greenland Saga and Erik's Saga.

In their own words you can see how they reacted and treated the natives of Labrador. For example, their first desire was to trade with the native peoples, rather than fight them. The Norse who landed in America were not really Vikings at all, but were settlers and explorers looking to expand outside the overpopulated Scandanavia.

Notice, the Vinland era was also a time when the Norse were being Christianized and thus were not as ruthless as they were in previous generations. But there was also a struggle between accepting Christianity and keeping the old religion.

If you're interested in other primary sources about the Viking era (if you're trying to capture the tone and atmosphere of the Norse world,) there are several other medieval Icelandic books of prose and poetry. Even Beowulf is a great source for trying to capture the essence of early medieval Scandanavian culture.

The Saga of Harald Sigurtharson by Snorri Sturloson tells about the actual Viking journeys through Russia and into the Mediterranean as they went about looting, using and abusing the kings of Europe to their advantage as they sought power and fame upon their return to Scandanavia. The characters in this saga were the real Vikings and act much differently than those in the Vinland Saga.

A good primary source detailing the scope and ravages of the Vikings from the view of civilized Europe is the Annals of Xanten. The Annals of Xanten is the only of these primary sources actually written at the time the events were taking place. The other Icelandic books were written a couple hundred years after the events they describe, when they are already taking on some mythical elements.