﻿164 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 59 



(9) The various attempts that have been made to bring the natural conditions 

 of the North American coast into agreement with the saga's description of 

 Wineland are more or less artificial, and no natural explanation has been offered 

 of how the two ideas of wine and wheat, both foreign to the Northerners, could 

 have become the distinguishing marks of the country. 



The coast line has changed in nine hundred years by the lifting 

 of the northern part, which probably included Straumey and all 

 above it and by the depression of the lower part, which probably 

 included Hop and all below. I believe I am the first one to call atten- 

 tion to this change in the coast line in connection with the present 

 subject. 1 There has also been error in confusing the little squirrel 

 grapes with the large fox grapes, which were probably not plentiful 

 along the shore above southern Maine and only locally there. We 

 find also a like error as to wild rice, which ought not to be expected 

 in any quantity on or near bold shores like those along the Atlantic 

 above the Kennebec. 



It may be that Norsemen could not raise wheat or make wine 

 at home, but they were acquainted with both from their service in 

 more southern countries and their hostile expeditions, even as early 

 as the fifth century (see Nansen's In Northern Mists), into the mid- 

 dle of the Mediterranean. Some of their men would be sure to have 

 a general knowledge of wine-making. The very fact that these things 

 were not to be had at home, but grew wild in the new world would 

 make them prized and held as characteristic of the new found lands. 

 That the " wheat " was not real wheat, but only a wholesome and 

 abundant substitute, would make no difference ; though the wine 

 would take first place. The country where such things were to be 

 had for the gathering could be nothing but " Wineland the Good/' 

 with no need for aid from fairy attributes, though the peculiar form 

 of the name perhaps might be influenced by the Fortunate Islands, 

 namely the Canaries or Madeira (d'Legname — that is, Markland), 

 Porto Santo and perhaps Pico and companions, with their undeniable 

 beauty and the half classical half northern-pagan myths, which per- 

 sistently clung to them. •* 



(10) In Ireland long before the eleventh century there were many myths and 

 legends of happy lands far out in the ocean to the west; and in the description 

 of these wine and the vine form conspicuous features. 



As a matter of fact the vine is not very conspicuous in Irish voyage 

 legend. Still Irishmen often reached countries which had the vine 



1 See Chapter 16 herein, also article in the Smithsonian Report for 1897 on 

 the Rising of Land Around Hudson Bay, by Robert Bell, of the Geological 

 Survev of Canada. 



