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The Vikings discovered America

Please also refer to
Icelandic sagas
Eiric the Red's Saga
Saga of the Greenlanders
Hauksbók
Flateyjarbók

Year What
around 932 Norgegian Gunnbjörn Ulfsson also named Gunnbjörn Ulf-Krakuson was sailing from Norway to Iceland when blown off course to Greenland but did not land. The exacte date of his jurney is not known.

978 Norgegian Snæbjörn Galti was very likely the first European who placed his feet on Greenland. He tried to settle but without success.

981 Vikings under Eric Thorvaldsson (Eiríkr Þorvaldsson or Eric the Red) came to Greenland. Eric the Red was exiled from Iceland for punishment. They settled for three years at what is now Julianehaab, Greenland.

985 or 986 By accident Bjarni Herjólfsson arrived at the Canadian coast but did not land. He was on the way to Greenland to see his parents when he was drifted west by a storm. Bjarni was son of Bard Herjólfsson and Thorgerd. His parents lived in Iceland but went to Greenland so about 985. His findings of land was known in Greenland and in Norway but did not found interest for more than 10 years.

1000 Islandic sagas which were written in the 13th century give different versions how Life Ericsson (son of Eric the Red) arrived to America. But it is most likely that in or about the year 1000 he landed with his ships and a crew of 35 peoples at different spots in north America which were called
Helluland (Land of stones) - probably Baffin Island
Markland (Land of Forest) - probably Labrador Island and
It is believed that this was Labrador and Baffin Island
Vinland (Land of vin and warm). First time written in 1075 by Adam von Bremen. Archeologist now believes that this refers to L'Anse aux Meadows in the almost north of Newfoundland. A viking settlemend is documented at that place

Sagas sais Leif Ericson bought Bjarni's ship for this voyage.
1001 Leif's winter camp 1000/1001 was probably at Cape Bauld (Newfoundland) and was called Leifsbúðir. The sagas sais that he spent also the following winter there before returning to Brattahlíð in Greenlan.d
Tyrker or Tyrkir a German and probably a thrall one was found drunk on what Life is was calling "wine-berries". (This could be squashberries, gooseberries or cranberries grewing wild in the area and which can undergo a fermentation.)
1003 or 1004 Thorvald Ericson (brother of Leif Ericson) and 30 men sailed to Vinland and spent the winter at Leif's camp. It is said that Thorvald attacked nine local peoples sleeping. Eight were killed but the ninth escaped. When he was comming back with force they (Skrælingsas the Sagas naemed them - means means savages) killed Thorvald in 1005. The other vikings returned to Greenland in spring 1006.

1007 or later Thorstain Ericson (brother of Leif Ericson) sailed to Vinland to retrieve Thorvald's body and came back the same year.

1009 or 1013 Thorfinn Karlsefini (Þorfinnr Karlsefni, Icelandic trader) arrived with three ships and 160 (or 250) settlers and established a settlement in Vinland. Due to a cruel winter they went south to Straumfjord and later changed to Straumsöy. they four traded with the Skrælings for milk and red cloth. But finaly went into conflicts with the natives and left.

Freydis Eiriksdottir and Thorvald Eriksson (half-sister and half-brother of Leif Eriksson) were among these settlers.

Snorri Guðriðsson (Snorri Thorfinnsson, Snorri Þorfinnsson and sometimes named Snorri Karlsefnisson) born by Karlsefni's wife Guðríðr Þorbjarnardóttir (Guðríðr Eiríksdóttir) is believed to be born in the Americas. In the Vinland sagas it is said that Snorri was 3 years old, when his family left Vinland.

Later he became important for the Christianisation of Iceland. It is said that he has build the first church of Glaumbaer. The first bishops of Iceland were descendants of Snorri. Thorlak Runolfsson, bishop of Skalholt, was a son of Snorri's daughter Hallfrid and Brand Sæmundarsson, bishop of Hólar, was the son of Yngvild, wife of Snorri's son Thorgeir.

1075 In his work "Gesta Hammaburgensis" of Adam von Bremen the name "Vinland" appeared for the very first.

1117 or 1121 Eric Upsi (Eric Gnupsson), bishop of Greenland went to Vinland to reform and returned in 1118 (Island Annals of 1121)

1347 There came also a ship from Greenland, less in size than small Icelandie trading vessels. It came into the outer Stream-Firth (western coast of Iceland). It was without an anchor. There were seventeen men on board, and they had sailed to Markland, but had afterwards been driven hither by storms at sea. (Older Skalholt annals - so called because the manuscript was found in Skalholt, South Iceland)

until 1400 Though sporadic voyages for timber could have lasted as long as 400 years ther was no more settlement attempt. Prouve are a Norwegian coin from King Olaf Kyrre (1066 - 1080) found in an archeological site in Maine. In 1347 a ship with timber back to Greenland was blown to Iceland (Iceland Annals form 1347).

Today About 350 Icelanders carry a C1 line (specific DNA lineage), which is normally only found in Asians and Native Americans. The best explanation for this divergent ancestry is that of an American Indian woman who was brought back to Iceland about 500 years before Columbus.



Vinland was mentioned by Adam of Bremen, a geographer and historian in his work "Description insularum Aquilonis" which was written about 1075. Further he mentionned that King Svend Estridson (Sweyn II Estridsson Ulfsson King of Danmanrk from 1047 to 1076) had knowledges of the nothern lands.

Vinland map



This is a translation of the text written above the Island of Vinland from the Vinland map.

("By God's will, after a long voyage from the island of Greenland to the south toward the most distant remaining parts of the western ocean sea, sailing southward amidst the ice, the companions Bjarni and Leif Eiriksson discovered a new land, extremely fertile and even having vines, the which island they named Vinland. Eric [Henricus], legate of the Apostolic See and bishop of Greenland and the neighboring regions, arrived in this truly vast and very rich land, in the name Almighty God, in the last year of our most blessed father Pascal, remained a long time in both summer and winter, and later returned northeastward toward Greenland and then proceeded [i.e home to Europe?] in most humble obedience to the will of his Superior.")

Two historical events are here described: first, a voyage of discovery by Bjarni [no patronymic] and Leif Eiriksson "southward" from Greenland to Vinland; and second, a visit to Vinland by Bishop Eirik [Gnupsson] in a specified year, viz. A.D. 1117, his stay in the country, and his return.

It is still unsure that this map is real. Carbon 14 dating analyze dats the map around 1434. However, comparing this map to other documents of the 15th century there is a chemical difference titanium doxide) which would date the drawing to the late 1920s.

An in-depth analysis of the map was carried out by scientists and conservators at Yale University and published in 2021. According to this, it can be assumed with certainty that it is a 20th century forgery but on paper from around 1400 - 1460. Matching wormhole patterns indicated that the map was originally located at the front of the Speculum Historiale (a short description can be found at at the end of this page) and was likely drawn on one of the volume's end sheets. But when the map arrived at Yale, it was bound inside the slim copy of the Tartar Relation, which had a modern binding. The university subsequently acquired the Speculum Historiale. The recent discovery of a 14th-century copy of the complete Speculum Historiale in Lucerne, Switzerland that had a copy of the Tartar Relation bound in its last volume shows there is historical precedent for combining the two manuscripts. The original Latin inscription on the reverse side of the map, written in iron gall ink, translates to "second part of the third part of the Speculum." It could be a bookbinder's note on assembling the Speculum Historiale, which is a massive work containing 32 sections that are usually bound in four volumes. But in this case, the inscription was overwritten in a titanium-containing ink to roughly translate to "drawing first-part, second-part of the third part of the Speculum." Yale's copy of the Speculum Historiale consists of books 21 to 24, which is the second half of the encyclopedia's third volume. "That constitutes pretty strong evidence of a motive to deceive - to make the map look like something it is not."

The Vikings did indeed settle in North America for a short time. Archaeology has identified a site in L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. The site appears to have been deliberately abandoned with no valuables or tools left behind. Some wood fragments and nuts (butternuts) in the Norse remains came from plants that are not native to Newfoundland, but to the mainland on the other side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. No other settlements in Canada and no settlements on the North American mainland have been clearly identified as Norse.

Reasons why L'Anse aux Meadows was abandoned.

* The resources in and around L'Anse aux Meadows/Fjord of Currents were not attractive. With the exception of forests, they were the same as those in Greenland. The forests were softwoods and could be had from Labrador or Markland, closer to Greenland.
* The desirable resources, hardwood, grapes, and nuts were so far away that they were not worth the labour and time required. Island to L'Anse aux Meadows about 2800 km whereas the distance to Norway is only about 1400 km.
* Vinland had little of interest compared to Europe. In addition to lumber, nuts, and wine, Greenlanders needed luxury items, various metals, spices, flour, as well as personal, religious, and political contacts.
* The desirable parts of Vinland were inhabited by large indigenous populations. The Norse were outnumbered and, unlike later Europeans, had only minimally superior arms.
* There was no population pressure in Greenland. Unlike the situation in Iceland, there was no need to settle elswhere.

The existance of lands east of Iceland was certainly known to the church (Greenland, Iceland and of course Rom) and maybe to a few scholars when Columbus lived. In nordic lands the knowledge of lands behing Iceland and Greenland was maintained by the Sagas which were firstly written in the 13th and 14th century.

It is more than likely that Columbus did had copies of old maps with land in the west or did know that such land would exist.


*
Speculum Historiale by Vincent of Beauvais (1190 - 1264)
'The Mirror of History', is a history of the world down to the 1240s in thirty-one books comprising 3,793 chapters. It is the third part of the Speculum maius, 'The Great Mirror', a monumental encyclopedia which was an attempt to encompass all forms of knowledge. The other two parts are Speculum naturale, 'The Mirror of Nature', a compendium of scientific knowledge in 32 books comprising 3,718 chapters, and Speculum doctrinale, 'The Mirror of Doctrine', a compendium of scholarship covering all manner of human affairs in seventeen books comprising 2,374 chapters. The production of this vast work was overseen by Vincent of Beauvais (c. 1190-1264), a friar attached to the Dominican houses in Paris, Beauvais, and later Royaumont on the Oise (which is near Paris). His activities as a writer had the support of the Capetian royal house, or at least this much is implied by the prefaces to his shorter tracts.

Speculum historiale has been included for discussion because it illustrates the trend towards 'exhaustiveness', the trend, that is, towards the accummulation of material on every possible historical subject which is one of the dominant tendencies in historical writing in the later Middle Ages. The production of compendia of this kind was largely achieved through systematic 'plagiarism': that is, by the copying out and aggregation en mass of material from other texts with some abbreviation but little other editorial intervention. Speculum historiale is itself based on an earlier chronicle of the same type compiled by the Cistercian monk Helinand of Froidmont (d. c. 1229). Though some discrimination in the selection of content is often apparent (typically where the material has some bearing on the reputation of the order or religious house under whose aegis such a chronicle was being produced), these compendia can seem like works whose size-the amount of space that they would occupy on the shelf-counted for more than the quality of their contents.