THE WINELAND VOYAGES 



By JOHN R. SWANTON 

 Collaborator, Bureau of American Ethnology 



INTRODUCTION 



The narratives of the Wineland (Vinland) voyages occupy, in 

 English translation, only 6i pages in the volume of "Original Narra- 

 tives of Early American History" dealing with "The Northmen, 

 Columbus, and Cabot," and the actual material on which studies of the 

 voyages themselves and attempts to identify the landing places must 

 be based is of course very much smaller. In the Saga of Eric the Red 

 6 lines are devoted to Leif's discovery, lo pages to Karlsefni's voyage. 

 From the Flat Island Book not more than i8 pages are given to all 

 the voyages.^ On this narrow basis vast structures of theory have 

 been erected and by it an enormous literature has been created. The 

 first appearance of this problem is thus described by Steensby (1918, 

 pp. 18, 19) : 



Whilst, in the middle ages in the North, it was not doubted that a Wineland 

 existed which had been visited by Icelanders, this information had great dif- 

 ficulty in taking root and maintaining itself in the literar>' circles of Europe. 

 Even Adam of Bremen found it necessary to state that he had got his knowl- 

 edge concerning Wineland "not through a fabulous tale, but through reliable 

 accounts from the Danes." It seemed to be a somewhat incredible thought 

 that an island with vines and self-sowing com should lie on the other side of 

 Greenland with all its ice and cold. 



The knowledge of Wineland therefore died out, and the records about it 

 were practically forgotten for several centuries. It was only in the 17th century 

 that the name Wineland was once more drawn into literature, and it was 

 Thermod Torfseus who first, in 1705, through his treatise "Vinlandia," really 

 seriously drew the attention of the literary world to the Norsemen's ancient 

 discovery of America. Finally, in 1837, C. C. Rafn's Antiquitates Americanae 



1 Throughout this paper I have used the Reeves translations of the Norse 

 documents as given in the volume of "Original Narratives of Early American 

 History" devoted to "The Northmen, Columbus, and Cabot, 985-1 S03," edited 

 by Julius E. Olson, pages 14-66. This is recognized as one of the best. The 

 material covers such a small space that it is considered unnecessary to refer to 

 the particular page that is being quoted. 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. 107, NO. 12 



