5.3.3 Iceland: Vinland; L'Anse aux Meadows
Description
This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
5.3.3 Iceland: Vinland; L'Anse aux Meadows
According to the sagas, Vinland was discovered when ships went off course
during one of the long journeys from Iceland or Norway to Greenland. The
Saga of the Greenlanders attributes the first sighting of America to Bjarni
Herjólfsson who had emigrated with Eiríkr the Red to Greenland, although
Bjarni didn't actually set foot on Vinland; the Saga of Eiríkr the Red, on
the other hand, says that the discovery was made by Leifr the Lucky,
Eiríkr's son. Leifur grew up in Greenland but in ca. 999 he visited Norway,
where he was converted to Christianity. According to one saga, he was then
commissioned by King Olaf I to convert the Greenlanders to Christianity, but
he was blown off course, missed Greenland, and reached North America (this
story, however, is now known to be fiction, made by up by an Icelandic
priest called Gunnlaugr in the 13th century). The other, more probable
version of the story describes Leifur sailing on a planned voyage to lands
to the west of Greenland that had been sighted 15 years earlier by Bjarni.
He landed at places called Helluland and Markland and wintered at Vinland,
and returned back to Greenland.
After Leifr's journey an expedition led by Þorfinnr Karlsefni, a wealthy
Icelandic trader, returned to settle Vínland in c.1010 and wintered there.
The Scandinavians, both men and women, first traded but then fought with the
native Skrælings. The descriptions of Skræling culture in the sagas are
consistent with American Indian life. Because of Skræling attacks, the
settlement was abandoned after three winters.
There is some disagreement on where exactly the places visited by Leifr
were. Vinland (Vine Land) was presumably Newfoundland, Markland (Wood Land)
Labrador Island and Helluland (Flat Rock Land) Baffin Island. The only firm
evidence of Scandinavian presence in North America has been found in
Newfoundland at L'Anse aux Meadows, where excavations begun in 1961 have
revealed the remains of eight turf-walled houses, one of which was a
longhouse 22 m by 15 m (72 ft by 50 ft) containing five rooms including a
"great hall," and a smithy, where bog iron was smelted. Several of the
houses had stone ember pits identical with those found in Norse houses in
Greenland. Among the artifacts unearthed was a soapstone spindle whorl
similar to those discovered in Norse ruins in Greenland, Iceland, and
Scandinavia; this find suggests that women as well as men were present at
the site, which is also consistent with the sagas. Other artifacts point to
a brief, much earlier occupation of the site by Maritime Archaic Indians and
a later occupation by Dorset Eskimo. L'Anse aux Meadows may have been the
place of Þorfinnr's settlement. The site was a good one for a pioneer
community; the soil was fertile, there was plenty of fish and game, the
climate was mild and there was iron ore available, but the area wasn't
previously uninhabited; the local Indians seem to have made long-lasting
settlements impossible.
The journeys to Vinland continued into the Middle Ages, but apparently only
to obtain raw materials for the Greenland colony. Some scholars have
suggested that L'Anse aux Meadows was a transit station to journeys further
south, but apart from a Norwegian coin from King Olaf Kyrre's reign
(1066-80) found on an Indian settlement in the state of Maine, there are no
traces early Scandinavian presence further south. The various rune stones,
such as the Kensington Stone, and other similar Víking objects 'found' in
North America are all faked. Similarly, the New World portions of Yale
University's Vinland map, a world map supposedly made about 1440 which
includes Vinland and Greenland, was in 1974 revealed as a modern forgery.
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