Finding Vinland

The Sagas Continued

 for

Anne & Helge

who lead the way
 Norway
Home of the Vikings
 It’s easy to understand why Norwegians have
always been attracted to the open sea! With limited
land available for farming, the first Vikings set out
from the fjords of west central Norway with
“a wild, pagan energy; driving them to explore,
colonize and trade in lands beyond the horizon,”
according to Norwegian historian, Ann Mette Heindorff.
These “devils from the sea,” as the English author
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow described them, were
not merely warriors though. Most Vikings lived
peacefully - farming, fishing and hunting.

The many chiefdoms throughout Norway controlled

resources and trade both at home and overseas. Viking
chiefs were skillfull organizers, effective military leaders
and great explorers. Their conquests and discoveries
would stretch the boundaries of the known world and
would lead the way for others later, including Christopher
Columbus, John Cabot and Jacques Cartier.
 Kaupang
Vestfold, Norway
900 A.D.
 Birka
Stockholm, Sweden
900 A.D.
Other Viking Era Sites in Norway
In Search of New Lands
 One of the greatest Viking pioneers in its
Golden Age of Discovery (800 A.D. to 1250 A.D.)
was Skalla-Grimr Kveldulfsson and his son,
Egil Skallagrimsson – who were from west central
Norway. They would venture west across the
open sea to Iceland. Their adventures would
become part of the great Norse Sagas.
In Iceland they would meet other Norwegians
who would press on to Greenland, and from there,
the New World. These included the great Erik
the Red and his son, Leif Erikson, who discovered,
and established a colony in Vinland.
The New World
First discovered 15 years before, Leif Erikson
ventured west from Greenland at the beginning of the
10th Century A.D. in search of new lands to colonize.
He first passed a land of ice and rock,
Helluland – today’s Baffin Island.
Next, he encountered a wooded land;
Markland – modern day Labrador.
Eventually he reached a land of grassy
meadows, containing rivers full of salmon and
enough other resources to support his colony,
including berries to make wine from. He named
his colony for these, calling it Vinland.
Most believe it to be the island of Newfoundland.
 Vineland

A Viking Paradise!
L’Anse Aux Meadows
In the spring of 1960 a husband and wife team
from Norway, Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad,
found ruins on the north coast of Newfoundland.
Islanders assumed that they were the remains of an
ancient Indian camp, but they were wrong!
In the first excavation season, six houses were
identified as being of Norse origin, the largest
being 60 ft. long and containing several rooms.
Radiocarbon dating put the site at 1080 (+/- 70) A.D.
 Over the next several summers an international team
excavated the site. The remains of more buildings were
uncovered. They also found many unique artifacts.
Iron nodules were found along with lumps of iron slag:
evidence of the Viking colonists producing a form of
metal called “bog iron.” This process had been
developed in Europe and dates back to 2000 B.C.
In 1964 several small household items were dug up.
These included a stone lamp, a whetstone (for
sharpening utensils), but most importantly, a stone
Norse-style spindle-whorl. This would have been used
exclusively by women for making fabric.
 UNESCO World Heritage Site
In the 1970s Parks Canada recreated what the Norse
community at L’anse Aux Meadows would have
looked like. Today, tourists can visit there and
experience, first-hand, what it would have been like
to be a Viking colonist or New World explorer.
 L’Anse Aux Meadows is the only Viking settlement to
be discovered in North America. But, is it Vinland?
The sailing directions giving in the Sagas suggest
that Newfoundland was Vinland, but L’Anse Aux
Meadows hardly fits the descriptions given.
The Sagas speak of a land of lush vegetation,
capable of growing crops like wheat. Likewise, they
speak of another valuable natural resource important to
the Vikings, both for use in its colony and for export
back to Greenland and Iceland; forests for timber!
The sagas tell of at least four separate voyages
from Greenland to the Viking New World. In fact,
Leif Erikson’s brother, Thorvald, is said to have
been the first European buried in North America.
He died from being struck by an arrow during
a battle with “Skraelings,” the local natives.
And, Eric’s brother-in-law, Thorfinn Karlsefni,
is said to have lead an expedition which established
two settlements, one near a lake. With Thorfinn came
his wife, Gudrid, and other settlers from both Iceland
and Greenland, including several women,
who also brought livestock with them,
according to the Sagas.
But, no evidence of domesticated animals has
ever been found at L’Anse Aux Meadows,
which is situated on an exposed headland.
 The archaeological evidence at L’Anse Aux
Meadows points to a small settlement that supported
no more than 75 people for less than 10 years.
The Ingstads believed that it was Leif Erickson’s camp.
Today, experts generally agree that it was probably a base
camp for repairing and maintaining Viking ships. It’s
also easy to find, making it the perfect “gateway”
community for Vikings arriving in the New World.
The question then is were there other colonies?
And, if so, is there any archaeological
evidence of their existence.
The Arctic
 Evidence of Viking occupation in North America has been
reported since the arrival of Europeans on its shores.
However, hard proof of this has been difficult to come by.

But, in recent years archaeologists have discovered

Viking sites in the High Arctic. A stone inscribed
with Norse runes was discovered on Kingigtorssuaq
Island, Greenland, just below 73 degrees North.

Viking artifacts have also been discovered on Canada’s

Ellesmere Island - as far up as 79 degrees North. These
included a decorated barrel bottom, an iron rivet from a
boat, pieces of woolen cloth and even a bit of chain mail.
A Inuit artifact was also found at Lake Harbour on Baffin
Island. It’s a wooden carving, believed to depict a
Norseman wearing a “strut-hette,” a foot-length man’s
robe made of wool – which was popular in the
Middle Ages.
A number of these were recovered, along with their
wearers, in the permafrost, at the cemetery of
Herjolfsnes Church in Greenland.
Helge Ingstad speculated that the unique Inuit
art object depicted a New World colonist and
not a Norse mariner or hunter.
The Other Side of the World!
The Near East
 Viking sites and monuments have been
reported in other parts of North America,
from the coast of Maine to the Gulf of Mexico.
Probable New World sites
Newfoundland

Thorvard & Freydis

 Nova Scotia

Thorvald’s Grave
Thorvald died while exploring Vinland, the Sagas say.
He and his men are said to have landed at a place
which was so beautiful that Thorvald wanted to
build a farm and remain there for the rest of his
life. The site was at a headland between the mouth of two
fjords.
But, the Skraelings swarmed down one of the
fjords towards Thorvald’s party and a terrific
battle ensued. Before he died though Thorvald
commanded his men to bury him on the spot
and to establish a colony there, the Sagas say.
Coincidentally, modern-day Kelly’s Mountain on
Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, is also the traditional
home of the Mi’kmaw. Their legends tell of a creator,
Glooscape, who was a foreigner; but lived with them,
teaching many things, before leaving for a far off land.

In recent years, a Canadian author has claimed

that stone ruins found on top of Kelly’s Mountain are, in fact,
Chinese from the 15th Century, following the success of the
book, 1421: The Year China Discovered the World.

The Mi’kmaw are unique amongst the peoples of the

Americas, both in their traditions and dress. Prior to
the arrival of Europeans, they had a written language of
symbols, which some say resembles ancient Norse.
English and French historical records show
no occupation of the headland by
Europeans prior to the 18th Century.
Archaeologists from the Province of Nova
Scotia have stated that there are no
man-made features on Kelly’s Mountain.
However, this doesn’t explain the large quantities
of rocks which exhibit unusual “cleavage.”

Geologists use this term to describe how rocks

break apart due to geological processes.
Cleavage at right-angles is very unusual in nature!
The Vikings were very adept at using rock to
build structures at their colonies in both Iceland
and Greenland, such as Hvalsey Church.
New Brunswick

Thorfinn & Gudrid

Oklahoma
Near the town of Heavener, Oklahoma, stands a slab
of rock, “the Heavener Runestone,” with what, some
believe, are Norse runes carved on it. Originally named,
“Indian Rock,” it was known to the local Choctaw
Indians and was first seen by white settlers in the 1830s.
In 1970 the Runestone State Park was created
by the State of Oklahoma to protect the
monument.
In 1923 the Smithsonian Institution identified
the letters as being Norse runes. Since then, a
number of different experts have dated the message
as being written between 750 A.D. and 1012 A.D.
Texas
 In 1993 noted history professor,
Dr. Valentine Belfiglio, from
Texas Women’s University, at
Denton, put forward the theory
that a Roman shipwreck had been
discovered at Galveston.

His source, an article from an 1886

newspaper; which stated that an
unusual shipwreck had been
discovered there, “composed of the
most massive and solid oak, six or
seven inches in thickness, and the
pieces laid crosswise over each
other, secured with iron spikes.”

The ship was reported

to have been 15 feet wide.
Dr. Belfiglio theorized that ancient
Romans traveled across the Gulf of
Mexico and entered Galveston Bay,
which the Trinity River flows into.

He also pointed out that Roman

coins are reported to have been
found in an Indian burial mound at
Round Rock, Texas. These are
reported to date to 800 A.D.

An otherwise distinguished scholar

and historian, Dr. Belfiglio has
largely been ridiculed for his
“Roman ideas!”
Interestingly, the Trinity River flows
north through Dallas and into
Lake Texoma on the border with Oklahoma.
Lake Texoma is southwest of Heavener!
Heavener can also be reached from the Gulf of Mexico
by traveling up the Mississippi River, and its tributaries,
to the Arkansas River, and then, the Poteau River.
The Sea Stallion is a reconstruction of a 30-meter
Viking longship, modeled after the largest of five Viking
ships discovered at Skuldelev in Roskild Fjord, Denmark,
in 1957. The original ship was constructed in 1042 A.D.

Sea Stallion sailed from Denmark to Ireland in July

and August, 2007. It was built using the same tools
and techniques the Vikings used and took four years
to build. Three hundred oak trees were used, along
with 7,000 iron nails and 112 square meters of sail.

When it first sailed, the Sea Stallion displaced 25 tons,

was equipped with 60 oars and had a crew of 80.
It’s average speed was 6 knots, but could manage a
top speed, under full sail, of 20 knots. It displaced less
than a meter of water. And, it’s only 4 meters wide!
Maine
 The Goddard Norse Coin
Found at Penobscot Bay, Maine, (near the
New Brunswick border) in 1957 during the
archaeological excavation of a Native American
site, possibly the largest native settlement in
the area of Maine 600 to 900 years ago.
The coin, a Norse Penny, minted in Norway and issued
during the first half of King Olaf Kyrre’s reign (A.D.
1065 to 1080), is considered to be authentic. But,
because no other Norse artifacts were discovered at the
site it’s believed that the coin’s presence there is due to
it being obtained by natives from
somewhere else. And, it eventually ended
up where it did through trade.
Massachusetts
 Roman Coins
A number of early Roman coins from the 4th Century
A.D. have also been found to the south, from several
sites around Beverly, near Cape Ann, Massachusetts.
Some believe that they are from a Roman
shipwreck located off the coast nearby.
But, could it have been a Viking ship?
Ancient Old World coins have been reported found across
the United States in Indian burial mounds, on farms and
homesteads, in river beds, from the bottom of wells and
at building sites - mostly during the 19th Century.
The Return Home
Around 1250 A.D. North
America’s climate got
colder. A lot colder!

This was due to, what

Climatologists call
Medieval
Glaciation (1200
A.D. to 1460 A.D.) –
which proceeded the
Little Ice Age (1560 A.D.
to 1890 A.D.).

This was the coldest

period of the last 10,000
years (the Holocene).
There were also fewer merchant ships arriving from Norway each
year as a result of Germany’s Hanseatic League growing stronger.

The last reported shipment of lumber

from Markland to Iceland was 1347.

And, by 1372 A.D. the Vikings no longer had North

America to themselves. Basque whalers had followed
them to Newfoundland and were competing for resources.

English and German pirates also become a

problem, attacking Iceland in the 15th Century.

By 1450 A.D. the Vikings had left Greenland for

good! But, where did they go? The Sagas don’t tell of
them returning to either Iceland or Norway though.

Could they have sought out new territories and warmer

climes beyond Vineland, disappearing into the New World?
“The only way of finding the limits of
the possible is by going beyond them!”
Arthur C. Clarke
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