User:BergDrake/Vinland

Vinland, Vineland or Winland (Old Norse: Vínland) is the area of coastal North America explored by Norse Vikings, where Leif Erikson first landed in ca. 1000, approximately five centuries prior to the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John Cabot. Vinland was the name given to North America as far as it was explored by the Norse, presumably including both Newfoundland and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence as far as northeastern New Brunswick (where the eponymous grapevines are found) to places as far as New York and Georgia.

In 1960, archaeological evidence of the only known Norse site in North America (outside Greenland) was found at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland. Before the discovery of archaeological evidence, Vinland was known only from Old Norse sagas and medieval historiography. The 1960 discovery proved the pre-Columbian Norse exploration of mainland North America. L'Anse aux Meadows may correspond to the camp Straumfjörð mentioned in the Saga of Erik the Red.

Name

Vinland or "Winland" was the name given to part of North America by the Icelandic Norseman Leif Eiríksson, about year 1000, possibly latter.The earliest record of the name Winland is found in Adam of Bremen's Descriptio insularum Aquilonis ("Description of the Northern Islands", ch. 39) written c. 1075. To write it he visited king Svend Estridson, who had knowledge of the northern lands. Adam implies that the name contains Old Norse vín (Latin vinum) "wine" (rendered as Old Saxon or Old High German wīn):

"Moreover, he has also reported one island discovered by many in that ocean, which is called Winland, for the reason that grapevines grow there by themselves, producing the best wine."

Though the discovery of butternuts were found, the evidence of grapes would still lead southward past New Brunswick and St. Lawrence River.

This pronunciation makes a difference in the interpretation of what was found.

“Vín” is a loan word in Old Icelandic coming from Latin through the word “vinum”. A century or two before the mentioning of Vinland, “vin” occurs within the “Hávamál”, a piece of Old Norse poetry. The high German word of “wini” has a relation to the word “wine” of the Anglo-Saxons. This interpretation means something along “pastures, meadows”. Through this the interpretation of “Vinland” would lead to meadowland and grassland. The word as died out through the years in Old Norse and Old Icelandic.

The sagas

A possible example is the reference to two different men named Bjarni, one being Bjarni Herjólfsson, who are blown off course.

The saga of Erik the Red was written down after the Saga of the Greenlanders during the 1200s, two hundred years after the first sightings of Vinland. Tis saga was rewritten and reinterpreted multiple times over the years.

According to the Saga of Erik the Red, Þorfinnr "Karlsefni" Þórðarson and a company of 160 men, going south from Greenland traversed an open stretch of sea, found Helluland, another stretch of sea, Markland, another stretch of sea, the headland of Kjalarnes (Keel Headland), the Wonderstrands, Straumfjörð and at last a place called Hóp, a bountiful place where no snow fell during winter. The conflict with the natives was short as it was only a couple of years before they turned back leaving the natives to survive.

Saga of the Greenlanders

Bjarni, during his visit to Greenland got off track and found different landmasses past the Greenlandic coast. On his return to Greenland he tells the story and inspires Leif Ericsson to organise an expedition, of his journey to Greenland, which retraces in reverse the route Bjarni had followed, past a land of flat stones (Helluland), Stone Land, and a land of forests (Markland), Wood Land. This is an island off the Canadian coast, possibly in the areas of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia. The grapes that were could be a hallucination from Tyrker as he may have spoke in an older version of German than the Old Norse of the time. A second expedition, one ship of about 40 men, led by Leif's brother Thorvald, sets out in the autumn after Leif's return and stays over three winters at the new base (Leifsbúðir (-budir), meaning Leif's temporary shelters), exploring the west coast of the new land in the first summer, and the east coast in the second, running aground and losing the ship's keel on a headland they christen Keel Head-Point (Kjalarnes). Thorvald, Þorvaldur, was buried on the land near Kjalarnes at Krossanes (Cross Headland).

Spending the winter as a guest at a farm on Greenland with Gudrid, Thorstein dies of sickness, reviving just long enough to make a prophecy about her future as a Christian and the start of a line of great descendants. On arrival, they soon find a beached whale which sustains them until spring and fallen timbur that was stacked for drying. They gathered berries and other foods to help sustain them through the cold. Towards the end of spring, the encounter the natives, skrælingjar, from a distance. In the summer, they are visited by some of the local inhabitants who are scared by the Greenlanders' bull, bulls were never seen before by the natives, but happy to trade goods for milk and other products. Some of the trading would have consisted furs and sables. In autumn, Gudrid gives birth to a son, Snorri, probably the first European born in the New World. The locals were not familiar with the weapons of the Icelander’s.

Gudrid, (Guðriður) continued to travel after the trip to Vinland as the prophecy Thorstein, (Þorsteinn) said before his death. Just as through the prophecy, Gudrid traveled to Rome on a pilgrimage before settling down on her life. Gudrid and Thorfinn, Þorfinnur, had multiple descendents that earned fame and distinction as bishops in Iceland and Greenland. Through this, the Icelanders gained a large documented genealogy from the first settlers of Vinland.

Saga of Erik the Red

In the other version of the story, Eiríks saga rauða or the Saga of Erik the Red, Leif Ericsson accidentally discovers the new land when traveling from Norway back to Greenland after a visit to his overlord, King Olaf Tryggvason, who commissions him to spread Christianity in the colony. Returning to Greenland with samples of grapes, wheat and timber, he rescues the survivors from a wrecked ship and gains a reputation for good luck; his religious mission is a swift success.

No expeditions were undertaken on such grand a scale as Leif, Thorvald, Gudrid or Freydis, though there were travels to the land. These journeys from Greenland were probably for valuable fur and other tradable items found on Vinland. The decline of settlements in Greenland affect the decline of journeys to Vinland.

Medieval geographers

The earliest map of Vinland was drawn by Sigurd Stefansson, a schoolmaster at Skalholt, Iceland around 1570, which placed Vinland somewhere that can be Chesapeake Bay, St. Lawrence, or Cape Cod Bay.

The "Historia Norwegiae" (History of Norway) compiled around 1200 does not refer directly to Vinland and tries to reconcile information from Greenland with mainland European sources; in this text Greenland's territory extends so that it is "almost touching the African islands, where the waters of ocean flood in".

Later Norse voyages

Icelandic chronicles record another attempt to visit Vinland from Greenland, over a century after the saga voyages. In 1121, Icelandic bishop Eric Gnupsson, who had been based on Greenland since 1112, "went to seek Vinland". Nothing more is reported of him, and three years later another bishop, Arnald, was sent to Greenland. No written records, other than inscribed stones, have survived in Greenland, so the next reference to a voyage also comes from Icelandic chronicles. In 1347, a ship arrived in Iceland, after being blown off course on its way home from Markland to Greenland with a load of timber. The implication is that the Greenlanders had continued to use Markland as a source of timber over several centuries. Markland and Vinland were probably used to gain access to materials that are not found on Greenland and Iceland. This would explain multiple journeys that are undocumented to Vinland for the unimportance of what was being done.

Controversy over the location of Vinland

As in a way of Vinland being land of grapes, Helluland being the land of stone, and Markland as the land of wood. This is even shown in names of Iceland, being the land of cce, and Greenland, which was the opposite being the green land full green plains. Even though Iceland and Greenland, are full of glaciers and plains in their own variety.

With L’Anse aux Meadows being a part of Newfoundland’s northern peninsula, this falls at the point where Vinland would be a part of the modern Newfoundland’s territories with interpretation leading to a place that make Vinland fall southwards along the Canadian and American coastline.

These time could be associated the modern “breakfast” and “dinner” times that varied from locations to interpretations.

This leads to the possibility of Vinland being location towards the south, as Newfoundland is just at the border of the sun’s horizon in the morning during the winter.

The degrees of the latitude has an affected on the sun’s horizon to the location of Vinland. As the hours were stated to be equal and longer, the latitude would be closer to the equator but still in the north. At Central Labrador the latitude is 55° and the sun was visible at the winter solstice, which is important for the location of the Vinland, were seven hours. Heading southwards would lead to longer hours on sunlight during the solstice and milder winters as L’Anse aux Meadows is just located on the border of the shortest day with northward having shorter day that do not fit in Vinlands description, while southwards brings more options of where Vinland could actually be located.

L'Anse aux Meadows

In 1960 the remains of a small Norse encampment were discovered by Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad at that exact spot, L'Anse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland, and excavated during the 1960s and 1970s. It is most likely this was the main settlement of the sagas, a "gateway" for the Norse Greenlanders to the rich lands farther south. Many wooden objects were found at L'Anse aux Meadows, and radiocarbon dating confirms the site's occupation as being confined to a short period around 1000 CE. This leads to the evidence of Norse settlement in the New World around 500 years before Columbus set sail to the New World.

In addition, a number of small pieces of jasper, known to have been used in the Norse world as fire-strikers, were found in and around the different buildings. Some of the other pieces of evidence that were found on the site are iron based that are not common with Native American sites located nearby. There were other artifacts that brought information of women being shown to have been at the settlement, spindle-whorls and needle-hones would some of the few artifacts. Along with evidence of men and women were also evidence of children being at the settlement by small wooden arrows being found.

Life in Vinland

Before arriving to Vinland, the Norsemen imported their lumber from Norway while in Greenland and had occasional birch trees for firewood. Therefore, the timber they acquired in North America increased their supply of wood. Timber provided a reason for journeys and settlements being made on the coast of Vinland as ports for ships needing supplies and repairs.

Other possible Norse finds

The Kensington Runestone was found in Minnesota, but is generally considered a hoax due to the inscription of the runes not lining up to the era of the Norse explorers.

The Vinland map that was found in 1957, is a forgery due to the Norse explorers not creating maps of the travels. As the explorers often told tales of the exploits through verbal communication with noticeable landmarks being used to help locate the final destination of the explorers.

BergDrake (talk) 21:36, 5 May 2019 (UTC)