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Vinland was the name given to a part of North America by the Icelandic norseman Leif Eiríksson, about the year (AD) 1000. In 1960 archaeological evidence of Norse settlement in North America was found at L'Anse aux Meadows on the island of Newfoundland, in what is now the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Although this proved conclusively the Viking's pre-Columbian discovery of North America, whether this exact site is the Vinland of the Norse accounts is still a subject of debate. It must be recognised that the Vikings did not perceive the exploration and settlement of Greenland and Vinland as any different from that of founding Iceland. It was merely an extension of their homeland, and notions of a different world only surfaced upon meeting the natives, noticeably different from Irish monks in Iceland. There is a consensus among scholars that the Vikings encountered North America before Christopher Columbus, although the continent was already inhabited for over 11,000 years by what are now called the First Nations people in Canada, or Native Americans in the United States.
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, The Saga of Eric the Red 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, including one led by Thorfinn Karlsefni, 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 skrælingar (Native Americans) already living in the area, 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 set sail from Iceland to Greenland to visit his father, a new settler in Greenland. His ship was blown off course by a storm and thus accidentally discovered the east coast of America in 985 or 986. 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. He then afterwards told the story and sold the ships to Leifr Eiríksson, who, according to the stories, sailed back to those areas. 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 Leifr Eiríksson explored this coast, and established a short-lived colony on a part of the coast that he called Vinland. The first discovery made by Leifr was according to the stories Helluland ("flatstone land"), possibly Baffin Island. Markland ("wood land"), possibly Labrador, was discovered next (there is some evidence that the tree line in northern Labrador has been diminished or eroded since circa 1000) 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. Straumfjörðr was the name of the northern settlement and Hóp was the name for the southern settlement. Only two Viking leaders actually overwintered in Vinland, the second being Thorvald Eiríksson, Leifr's brother, who was killed the second summer. However, according to the stories, the idea was soon abandoned due to conflicts with the "skrælingar" (possibly the later Beothuks, or Dorset people). 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 literary historian and antiquarian 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. Localization debate
Possible Locations Including some of the possibilities mentioned above, popular locations for the possible site of Vinland generally include, in order from north to south: Other usages Vinland is also the symbolic name for the cultural landscape of Canada (Upper Vinland) and America (Lower Vinland) which some adherents of modern Germanic Neopaganism and some Neopagan groups use to distinguish themselves from other ethno-cultural groups who share the same geographical areas of North America. Some Neo-Nazis also use the name Vinland to describe all or part of North America, and the Vinland flag has become a popular symbol among white supremacist groups. See also See also | ||||||||||
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