CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

THE DISCOVERY OF VINLAND

Birgitta Wallace

I

n 1837 Carl Christian Rafn published the Vinland sagas in his Antiquitates Americanae
(Rafn 1837 ), followed in 1838 by Discovery of North America (Rafn 1838 ), the English
translation. Ever since, there has been speculation, on both sides of the Atlantic, as to
the location of Vinland and the two other areas of Norse landfalls, Markland and
Helluland. Archaeological work at L’Anse aux Meadows, in Newfoundland, in the 1960 s
and 70 s provides compelling evidence that Vinland was, in fact, the Gulf of St Lawrence
in eastern Canada. While situations and events described in the sagas have been ritual-
ised, conflated and adjusted for the political biases of their day, the L’Anse aux Meadows
site proves that Vinland was indeed a physical reality. The site is Leifsbúðir-Straumfjo ̨rðr,
and Vinland itself the coastal region encircling the Gulf of St Lawrence, extending from
the Strait of Belle Isle in the north to New Brunswick in the south.

THE NAME VÍNLAND

The name Vínland, written and pronounced with a long /ı ̄/, means ‘Land of Wine’.
Suggestions that the name should be Vinland with a short /ı ̆/, translated as ‘Grasslands’
or ‘Land of Pastures’, have never been accepted by philologists. Where intended, there
are instances of the long /ı ̄/ in the actual saga manuscripts (Crozier 1998 : 39 ). Theories
that the sagas’ vínber does not refer to grapes but to other berries, such as cranberries or
currants, are untenable since the Norse had specific terms for these berries. Furthermore,
none of these theories explains the sagas’ equal emphasis on vínviðr ‘grape trees’. Another
notion, that the reference to wine was simply an invention to lend Vinland a paradisiacal
quality (Nansen 1911 ; Keller 2001 ), is contradicted by archaeological evidence that
proves the Norse had indeed visited regions where grapes grew wild.

THE LITERARY EVIDENCE – THE

VINLAND MANUSCRIPTS

Although Vinland is mentioned in passing in several sources, the real descriptions of
Vinland are to be found in Grœnlendinga saga (‘The Greenlanders’ Saga’) (hereafter GS)
preserved in the larger Flateyjarbók (‘Flat Island Book’), dated to the first half of the