Norsemen in North America Before 

 Columbus ^ 



By Johannes Br0ndsted 



Director, The Danish National Museum 

 Copenhagen, Denmark 



[With 10 plates] 



This much-debated problem has two main aspects, one turning to old 

 literature — the narratives of the Icelandic sagas about Leif and Vin- 

 land; another concerning archeological monuments and objects in 

 North America and their probable contribution to the question : Were 

 there Norsemen in North America, not only during the late Viking 

 age, about the year 1000, when Leif founded his Vinland site, but also 

 later on, through the centuries of the Middle Ages in the time before 

 Columbus? Let us consider these two aspects closely. 



WHAT DO THE SAGAS TELL, AND HOW SHALL WE INTERPRET THEM? 



The saga stories about Leif Ericsson's and Thorfinn Karlsefni's 

 discoveries of territories in North America in the years round about 

 1000— "Helluland,-' "Markland," "Vinland," "Straimifjord," and 

 "Hop" — have reached us in two parallel versions of rather late date 

 (fourteenth century) ; one is to be found in Eric the Red's Saga (the 

 so-called "Hawks Book") , the other in Olav Trygvason's Saga and the 

 Greenland Saga (in the famous so-called "Flatey Book"). The main 

 outlines and most important details of these old Vinland tales are 

 given below in concentrated form. There are six of them (actually 

 only four, as two are concerned solely with abortive voyages) . 



1. Bjarni Her julf son's voyage. — Bjarni, son of a friend of Eric the 

 Red, the Greenland colonizer, and his men in 986 aim to sail from 

 Iceland to Greenland, but northerly winds and fog drive them off their 

 course. After several days they sight a well- wooded land, which they 



* Translation of the article (expanded) entitled "Problemet om Nordboer 1 Nordamerika f0r 

 Columbus," which appeared in Aarb0rger for Nordlsk Oldkyndighed og Historic, 1950. 

 Here printed by permission of the publishers. 



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