372 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1953 



Vinland means that here, on the shortest day of the year, the sun 

 rose in the east-southeast and set in the west-southwest. Accuracy on 

 the point, however, is impossible owing to the obliquity of the earth's 

 axis; even at the Equator there will be a slant of 1°. Accordingly 

 we must reckon with an error of observation which is less the more 

 to the south we imagine the situation of Leif 's observation spot to be. 

 If we place his Vinland in Florida (26° N.), the error is only 3°, in 

 south Georgia (31° N.) it is 5°, and so forth. 



In other words, the results of the astronomical interpretations and 

 calculations are not strictly encouraging: Leif's Vinland cannot be 

 more northerly than Newfoundland and more southerly than Florida. 

 Wide limits, most certainly! One might almost have set them up 

 oneself in advance. 



But then, the nautical reports? Well, these are quickly disposed 

 of. The incredibly short times given for the expeditions of Bjarni 

 and Leif in the sagas ("two days," "three days," etc.) are impossible 

 to accept for voyages in waters with such enormous distances as 

 those between Greenland and America. There is much in the saga 

 descriptions to suggest that seafarers then had to adjust their speed 

 and course to currents and ice conditions such as those we know today. 

 From Ericsf jord in Greenland's East Settlement Leif and the other 

 Vinland travelers proceeded north, to the West Settlement, westward 

 from there out to the open sea, and then southward, with the cold 

 north-south offshore current which runs between the east coast of 

 America and the Gulf Stream. These were voyages that took time. 

 The fact that the Vikings always wintered in Vinland also indicates 

 that the trip could not be done in 10 days or so. Renter has calculated 

 that the Vinland-farers had about 7,000 kilometers to sail and that 

 they were 5 or 6 weeks doing the distance. This is quite credible, 

 but the calculation is so rough and approximate that it cannot be 

 applied in working out just where Vinland may have been. And let 

 the same be said of other authors' interpretations of the saga voyage 

 records. 



Then let us have recourse to the culture-geographical clues in the 

 saga accounts. What are we told about Vinland's scenery and climate, 

 its vegetation and animals, its inhabitants, that may help toward 

 localization ? First of all we must remember that from north to south 

 we are concerned with various "lands": "Helluland," "Markland," 

 and "Vinland," named by Leif, then what Thorfinn Karlsef ni found on 

 his further voyage, i. e. "Stream Fjord," and farthest south, the land 

 of "Hop." For we must not overlook the fact that whereas the expe- 

 ditions of both Thorvald and Freydis came to Leif's camp in the Vin- 

 land he had discovered and named, the position is different as regards 

 Karlsefni. It is true that he visited the more northerly of the coastal 

 tracts where Leif went ashore: "Helluland" (which most likely is 



