Lögberg-Heimskringla - 07.07.2000, Side 4

4 » Lögberg-Heimskringla « Friday 7 July 2000
Vínland
Continued from page 3
Ari’s time.
In 1960 when Anne and Helge
Ingstad found archaeological remains at
L’Anse aux Meadows, at the northern
tip of Newfoundland, they soon realized
that the remains were of Viking Age
people from Greenland and Iceland.
This was the first confirmation of Nordic
people’s occupation in North America.
Helge Ingstad later connected the loca-
tion to Leifur’s Vínland as it was
described in the sagas, through some-
what doubtful reasoning—believing Jón
Jóhannesson’s theory that the Saga of
Eiríkur the Red was a kind of rewriting
of Greenlanders’ Saga, which is no
longer considered likely. In this way he
was able to fit all the descriptions of the
sagas to L’Anse aux Meadows, or
“Leif’s-booths,” by rejecting some
information and choosing first and fore-
most information from Greenlanders’
Saga, which sends all expeditions, after
Leifur’s trip, to the so-called “Leif’s-
booths.” Thus Ingstad considered him-
self to have found the true Vínland.
Later archaeological studies done at
L’Anse aux Meadows show that the
structures found there were used as a
kind of easy-to-find stopover on the
sailing route from Greenland to destina-
tions further south. People wintered
there, pulled their ships ashore for
repairs before and after a strenuous
voyage to and from Greénland, and
gathered together the wares they
planned to transport back home to
Greenland and Iceland. The northem tip
of Newfoundland does not fit the
descriptions given in the sagas of
Leifur’s Vínland.
However, the stories of Þorvaldur
and Freydís’s travels from
Greenlanders’ Saga could fit L’Anse
aux Meadows, as can be seen from the
following.
Descriptions of the land, growth,
and wildlife have been helpful in the
search for Vínland. Assuming that the
sagas’ descriptions of vines are those of
actual wild grapes (Vitis riparia) and
not just any berries, it becomes clear
that the northern limit where wild
grapes are found is at the southem end
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but
Newfoundland closes the gulf and
makes it a kind of inshore sea. In the
sixteenth century at the arrival of
Europeans, wild grapes were a promi-
nent feature of the area’s growth, and
the French explorer Jacques Cartier
(1491-1557) named an island at the
mouth of the St. Lawrence River, close
to Quebec city “íle de Bacchus” (Ilse of
Bacchus) and settlers referred to “Baie
de vin” (Bay of Wine) which is now
Miramichi Bay, New Brunswick. The
naming could hardly be closer to
Leifur’s Vínland.
Self-sown wheat, mentioned in the
sagas, could refer to wild rye (Elymus
virginicus) which grows in the same
area and resembles wheat. The northern
limits of these varieties are similar to
the northern limits of the butternut
(Juglans cinerea), three of which were
found at L’Anse aux Meadows along
with viðarnýra (maple—mörsuviði, as
it is called in the sagas) from a butternut
tree which had been cut into with a
metal tool. Thus it is certain that these
nuts were transported lo L’Anse aux
Meadows by the Nordic people living
there, from the areas where large
amounts of wild grapes grew.
In Vínland Leifur’s men also found
larger salmon than they had seen
before. The Canadian archaeologist
Catherine Carlson has demonstrated
that because of the warm climate in the
eleventh century salmon did not swim
into the rivers in the state of Maine,
USA nor south of there. On the other
hand, the rivers at the southern end of
the Gulf of St. Lawrence were full of
salmon then, as they are now. What is
more, today the salmon only visit the
rivers in this area every other year, but
every year in Newfoundland. Thus the
salmon are truly larger at the southern
end of the gulf. Keeping this all in mind
these descriptions place Leifur’s
Vínland in the aiea between Maine,
north to the southem end of the Gulf of
St. Lawrence. Karlsefni sailed far south
from Leifur’s Vínland, but there is no
mention of his fishing for salmon at
Hope, although it was full of other types
of fish. We can assume that he was then
located below the southern limits of the
salmon.
Vínland’s saga descriptions are very
general but nevertheless fit reality.
Bjarni could have seen Newfoundland,
Labrador, and Baffin Island, and
descriptions of Leifur’s voyage point to
the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Descriptions
of “Leif’s-booths” visited by Þorvaldur
(and later Freydís’s in Greenlanders’
Saga) could fit L’Anse aux Meadows at
the northem tip of Newfoundland; and
Karlsefni and Guðríður’s route (in the
Saga of Eiríkur the Red) indicates a
journey south along the east coast of
Nova Scotia, possibly all the way to the
Bay of Fundy and cven further. The Bay
of Fundy is rightly named
“StraumQörður” where the difference
between ebb and flow is greater than
anywhere else on Earth (average 15-16
m). As a result it has strong currents. An
island is located at the end of the gulf,
and the gulf does not freeze. The
descriptions of each expedition add
some to the former. The quality of the
land at Vínland and the island separated
from the mainland by the gulf through
which Leifur sailed cannot possibly fit
the landscape at L’Anse aux Meadows.
This means that the “Leif’s-booths,”
mentioned in later expeditions, cannot
fit both the descriptions of Leifur’s
Vínland in Greenlanders’ Saga, and the
one at L’Anse aux Meadows.
If we scrutinize descriptions of
Leifur’s journeys in Greenlanders’
Saga, it is safe to say that we get a pret-
ty good description of how to sail a
Viking longship from Newfoundland
across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, or
Cabot Strait, to Prince Edward Island
and into Northumberland Strait
between the mainland and the island. It
is possible to land a ship northeast on
the island, as Leifur did, but after enter-
ing the strait it is not clear whether the
saga writer is describing a landing on
the island itself or the mainland. There
is shallow water on both sides, great
ebbing and lagoons and the story indi-
cates that they sailed all the way to
Miramichi Bay in New Brunswick
which opens on the port side shortly
after sailing west out of the strait
between Prince Edward Island and the
mainland. At Miramichi Bay all the
descriptions of Vínland are as stated,
vine bushes and large salmon in one of
the best known salmon rivers at the bay;
though the winters are usually some-
what harder than the description
given—which would be the only mis-
representation of this considerably
detailed description.
IF WE ACCEPT THE DESCRIPTION in
Greenlanders' Saga, that Leifur’s
Vínland was Iocated at the southern end
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, all the
directions given in the Saga of Eiríkur
the Red regarding the travels of
Karlsefni and Guðríður can be
explained according to present day the-
ories on Leifur’s Vínland. It is reported
that Karlsefni sailed north from
Straumfjörður, in search of Þórhallur
the hunter, who felt he would find
Vínland by sailing around Kjalarnes.
Karlsefni sailed north around Kjalames,
heading west, with the mainland to
port—thus the story indicates he was
heading for Leifur’s Vínland. These
directions fit if Straumíjörður is located
in southem Nova Scotia and Kjalarnes
at northem Nova Scotia. This is also
understandable if Karlsefni sailed far
south to Hope where he found no
salmon—but in the Middle Ages
salmon did not run in rivers south of
Maine.
It is impossible to say how far south
from Strauiníjörður Karlsefni sailed,
but various rivers and ocean lagoons on
the coast of New England have been
suggested, even in the area of New
York today, as Páll Bergþórsson’s theo-
ry has it. In order to sail that far south
these seafarers must have used com-
pletely diflferent sailing technology than
they were used to, according to familiar
schooner skippers in this area.
However, keep in mind that this voyage
was only undertaken once and it was
highly dangerous as only one ship of
three returned to Greenland.
Many lived long enough to retum to
Greenland to tell stories of adventure in
the unfamiliar lands, west of Greenland.
In Iceland, a few generations later, their
stories were gathered into books, and
today these books are our main sources
of information on the first journeys by
Europeans to the North American con-
tinent. Remains from their stay in North
America have already been found at
L’Anse aux Meadows at the noilhern tip
of Newfoundland. These remains con-
firm that the people from Iceland and
Greenland who lived there obviously
travelled further south to the areas
where butter-nuts and vines grew. And
where would the people most likely
have gone, those who stayed at L’Anse
aux Meadows in the year 1000, with a
readied ship at the bay and a whole
summer ahead of them to explore
unknown lands and gather the gifts of
the land to bring back home to
Greenland and Iceland, or to sell in
Norway? It would have been easiest for
them to continue south into the Gulf of
St. Lawrence. There they could have
gathered fruits and other goods which
were lacking in Greenland; and some
might have entertained thoughts of
staying behind to spend their lives in
the land of plenty. However they must
soon have found out that the desirable
land was already densely populated by
Native people who did not give it up
easily. Thus, they had no choice but to
head back to their ships and return
home, to spend the rest of their lives
telling stories of sailing the seven seas
to explore unfamiliar resourceful lands
where adventure and danger lay at
every footstep—as reported in
Vínland’s Saga.
Translated from Morgunblaðið
Vílcíng;s ín (^.anada Cjala
I\iesday, August 1
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