NORSEMEN IN NORTH AMERICA— BR0NDSTED 376 



This great uncertainty is the natural outcome of the incredibly elastic 

 possibilities of interpretation contained in the texts of the sagas in 

 the matter of the correct understanding of their various data : nauti- 

 cal, spatial and day-and-night dividing, as well as climatical, botani- 

 cal, and geographical. Whereas there is tolerable agreement on where 

 the Helhiland and Markland of the sagas are roughly to be placed, 

 i. e., BafEnland and Laborador-Newfoundland, it is quite another 

 matter when we are to fix the spot where Leif Ericsson landed and 

 where Karlsefni's colony was. We may safely say that on these points 

 the discussion will go on ad infinitum, unless the basis is widened and 

 new knowledge is added. 



There is one thing, however, on which modern Vinland research 

 seems to be unanimous : that there was actually a "Vinland." Accord- 

 ing to Sophus Bugge, the word "Vinland" appeared in the now missing 

 runic inscription from H0nen in Norway, which he dated to the middle 

 of the eleventh century. This is the first time Vinland is mentioned in 

 our sources, half a century after it was discovered by Leif. Adam of 

 Bremen's mention of it follows shortly afterward. Occasionally, 

 Vinland is still referred to in the written sources of medieval Europe 

 apart from the sagas. This being so, the assumption is most reason- 

 able that the Norsemen in Greenland had intercourse with and tried to 

 exploit this American land, "Vinland the Good," wherever its situation 

 may have been. It is often pointed out that voyaging from Greenland 

 to America Wiis shorter and less hazardous than from Norway to 

 Iceland. The prospect of obtaining timber and other good things 

 must have induced the Greenland Norsemen to maintain conmiunica- 

 tion with America. I am wholeheartedly in accord with the view 

 which a priori considers it extremely likely that the Greenland Norse- 

 men kept up a certain intercourse with Vinland. 



But how regular was this intercourse? Did it have the character 

 of actual colonization, or did it consist merely of sporadic and casual 

 visits ? I scarcely think we should imagine it as being higlily frequent. 

 Greenland, the motherland, was a small and weak (and successively 

 weakening) community. The "home bas^," to adopt modern temis, 

 even if we include in them Iceland and, indirectly, Norway, in the long 

 run were unable to cope with the task of sustaining a viable colony in 

 a region so remote and so large as the American Continent, a region 

 which, be it remembered, was not uninhabited like Iceland and Green- 

 land when the Norsemen first arrived, but was populated with many 

 and, no doubt, mostly hostile tribes (see the sagas). Wliat is more, it 

 has not been possible to find any trace of intrusions of European mate- 

 rial culture among the Indians of North America, such as the introduc- 

 tion of grain or cattle; nor do we find any influence in clothing (weav- 

 ing) or iron extraction. If there was any colonization by Scandinav- 



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