WINELAND THE GOOD 



for we hear no more of him, and in 1122 and 11 23 the 

 Greenlanders made efforts to obtain a new bishop, who was 

 consecrated at Lund in 11 24; but it is curious that nothing 

 is then said about any earlier bishop; moreover, the entry in 

 the annals about Eric dates at the earliest from the thir- 

 teenth century. 



Some years ago It was asserted that a stone with a runic inscription had 

 been found in Minnesota, the so-called " Kensington " stone. On this is narrated 

 a journey of eight Swedes and twenty-two Norwegians from Wineland as far 

 as the country west of the Great Lakes. But by its runes and its linguistic 

 form this inscription betrays itself clearly enough as a modern forgery, which 

 has no interest for us here [cf. H. Gjessing, 1909; K. Hoegh, 1909; H. R. 

 Holand, 1909; O. J. Breda, 1910]. 



The name of Wineland occurs extremely rarely in mediaeval 

 literature and on maps outside Iceland, and as a rule it is 

 confused with Finland, as already mentioned (Vol. I, p. 198), 

 or again with Vindland (Vendland). Ordericus Vitalis (1141) 

 gives " The Orkneys and Finland, together with Iceland and 

 Greenland " as islands under the king of Norway.^ As the 

 passage seems to be connected with Adam of Bremen, who 

 also erroneously mentions these islands and Wineland as 

 subject to the Norwegians (see Vol. I, p. 192), this Finland may 

 be Wineland. It was pointed out in Vol. I, p. 198, that the 

 Latin " vinum " was translated into Irish as " fin." Ordericus 

 (1075-1143), who lived in England until his tenth year, and 

 wrote in an abbey in Normandy, may well have had com- 

 munication with Irishmen. In Ranulph Higden's " Poly- 

 chronicon" (circa 1350) the following are described as 

 islands in the outer ocean (surrounding the disc of the earth) : 

 first the " Insulae Fortunatas " (see Vol. I, p. 346), imme- 

 diately afterwards " Dacia " (=Denmark), and to the west 

 of this island " Wyntlandia," besides " Islandia," which has 

 Norway to the south and the Polar Sea to the north, " Tile " 

 (Thule) the extreme island on the north-west, and " Nor- 

 uegia" (Norway). As this "Wyntlandia," which in the 



1 Cf. Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Eccles., iii. i, x, c. 5; Gronl. hist. Mind., iii. 

 p. 428; Rafn, 1837, pp. 337» 460 f.; A. A. Bjornbo, 1909, p. 206. 



31 



