|
Vinland, pronounced: "Winland" was the name given to part of North America by the Icelandic Norseman Leif Ericson, about year 1000. Later archeological evidence of Norse settlement in North America was found in L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada. Whether this was the Vinland of the Norse accounts is the subject of debate.
Historical accounts
Vinland was first recorded by Adam of Bremen, a geographer and
historian, in his book Descriptio insularum Aquilonis of approximately 1075. To
write it he visited king Svend Estridson, who had knowledge of the
northern lands.
The main source of information about the Viking voyages to Vinland can be derived from two Icelandic sagas, Eirik the Red's Saga and the Saga of the Greenlanders. These sagas were written down
approximately 250 years after the settlement of Greenland and are open to significant interpretation. Combining those two, it
seems that there were a few separate attempts to establish a Norse settlement in Vinland, none of which lasted for more than two
years. The disbandment of the small Viking colony probably had several causes. Disagreements among the men about the few women
that followed on the trip, and fighting with the Skrælings already living on the
land, are both indicated in the written sources.
The story tells that after the settlement of Greenland by the Vikings, a merchant by the name of Bjarni Herjólfsson, who was on his way to Iceland from
Greenland, strayed off course due to a storm and thus accidentally discovered the east coast of America in 985 or 986. He then
afterwards told the story and sold the ships to Leif Ericson, who, according to the stories, sailed back to those areas. It was
late in the summer, and he did not want to stay over winter in this new land, which he noted was covered with forests, so he did
not land and managed to reach Greenland before winter fell. With wood being in very short supply in Greenland, the settlers there
were eager to explore the riches of this new land. Some years later Leif Eriksson explored this coast, and established a
short-lived colony on a part of the coast that he called Vinland.
The first discovery made by Leifur was according to the stories Helluland ("flatstone land"), possibly Baffin
Island. Markland ("wood land"), possibly Labrador Peninsula was discovered next (there is some evidence that the tree line in northern
Labrador has been diminished or eroded since circa 1000 CE) and lastly Vinland (commonly interpreted as "wine land", but interpreted as "pasture land" by others, see
localization discussion below), possibly Newfoundland. The expedition
included both families and livestocks and the aims were to begin new settlements. Straumfjord was the name of the northern
settlement and Hóp was the name for the southern settlement. However, according to the stories it was cancelled soon due to
conflicts with the "Skrælings" (possibly the later Beothuks, or Inuits). New voyages for woodcutting etc. seem to have
been discussed even as late as the 1300s.
Until the 19th century, the idea of Viking settlement in North America
was considered by historians to be the product of mere folk tales. The first scholarly theory for the idea was put forth in
1837 by Danish archaeologist Carl Christian Rafn in his book Antiquitates Americanæ. Rafn
had made an exhaustive examination of the sagas, as well as potential settlement sites on the North American coast and concluded
that Vinland was a real place in North America that had been settled by the Norse.
Localisation debate
Historians do not agree on the location of Vinland. Rafn
believed that Vinland was probably in New England. In the 1960s a Viking settlement was discovered and excavated at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, and many
historians believe that this was Leifur's settlement, thus connecting Vinland to Newfoundland. Others have followed Rafn in
sharing the belief that Vinland was farther to the south. In this view, L'Anse aux Meadows was perhaps part of an undocumented
later attempt at settlement.
Those who believe Newfoundland is the location of Vinland generally think that settlements further south are unlikely, because
maintaining such a distant lifestyle from the Norse homelands would have been far too
difficult for the Vikings of the time. Iron and other European convenient resources would have been too difficult to sustain on any workable level, as the later English
settlers in New England would experience on the pain of many deaths, much to their dismay. Costly fights with native populations
so far from supply lines would have been another deterrent.
An argument for placing Vinland further south is Adam of Bremen's
account. In his Descriptio insularum Aquilonis he wrote that the name Vinland comes from huge amounts of grapes growing there (Praeterea unam adhuc insulam recitavit a multis in eo repertam occeano,
quae dicitur Winland, eo quod ibi vites sponte nascantur, vinum optimum ferentes). He received this information from king
Svend Estridson. However, grapes do not grow in the sites commonly
seen as possible locations of Vinland.
There are a number of theories to explain this discrepancy:
It was an early marketing attempt, something like the naming of Greenland by Erik the Red. In this theory, Leif's naming of Markland and Vinland was to encourage others to explore and
settle there.
A theory subject to much debate among scholars is that there was a misinterpretation of short-i Vinland as long-i Vinland
(Viinland). In this theory Vinland's naming is based on the Old Norse word (short-i) 'vinja' meaning cereal grass. This theory can be combined with the
previous one: Estridson might have embellished Adam's mistake if he believed it would increase the fame of Vinland for
joint-financed ventures he would no doubt claim for himself. One problem with this theory is why it was not called
vinjaland or vinjarland instead; a contraction needs to be posited to explain this. Another problem is why the
sagas outside of Adam of Bremen's account also refer to double-i Viinland and mention vines as well. Since the sagas
were written later, an explanation for this could be that the sagas were somehow influenced by Adam of Bremen's account.
Alternatively Estridson was joking or lying, or even referring to similarly sounding Wendland instead in an earlier account, where grapes did grow, and this was later confused with Vinland by Adam of
Bremen.
Another theory is that we have not discovered the true location of Vinland yet, and it is further south, where grapes do grow.
More subtly Vinland could be seen as a gateway or northern part, in reach of more temperate areas where grapes grew. Another
possibility is that later, longer voyages further south, reporting Concord
style grapes confused the story told about the settlement, as there were individuals of the crews who had ventured out on
their own to return with tales.
Finally it has been speculated that grapes did in fact grow in the area in the past, but not anymore due to climactic changes.
But while it may indeed have been warm enough for grapes to grow further north than in present times, it is unlikely that they
were able to grow as north as Newfoundland.
While the theory that Vinland was further south is a legitimate line of inquiry, for some the motivation to search Vinland
further south could have been more personal to justify or romanticize the later (post-Columbian) history of Swedish and Danish
colonization of areas in the present-day United States. There have been several instances where evidence of pre-Columbian
presence of Norse explorers in the United States was determined to be fake by most researchers, such as for example the Kensington Stone. So far, the only evidence of the Norse in the United
States that is generally accepted is the Maine Penny.
Other Usages
Vinland is also the symbolic name for the cultural landscape of Canada (Upper Vinland) and America (Lower Vinland) which
modern Germanic Heathens and Ásatrúar use to distinguish themselves from other ethno-cultural groups who share the same
geographical areas of North America.
See also: Vinland map, Helge Ingstad, Maine Penny, Kensington Stone
External links
|