For a thousand years, legends claimed that Vikings settled in North America. In his new book American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed into the Lands and Imaginations of America (here), Martyn Whittock explores the evidence for this in the literary sources and archaeology; and, also, in the way this idea has fed into the cultural DNA of North America and especially the USA.
Summer in the Greenland coast circa the year 1000. Painting by Carl Rasmussen from 1875.
The basis of the American claim: the discovery of “Vinland”
Old Norse sagas, first recorded in Iceland, tell of voyages to a land west of Greenland. These are Erik the Red’s Sagaand The Saga of the Greenlanders. The earliest surviving manuscript dates from shortly after 1264, in the case of Erik the Red’s Saga, and 1387, in the case of The Saga of the Greenlanders. While separated from the events they claim to describe by centuries, both clearly drew on much earlier material. While they differ over details, the role of individuals, and the ordering of events, they never disagree about the central claim: Norse settlers moved from Iceland to Greenland; and from there to a land, they describe as “Vinland.”
The lands described in the sagas appear under the names Helluland (Stone-slab Land), Markland (Forest Land), and Vinland (Vine Land or Wine Land). The most likely location of Helluland is the east coast of Baffin Island and may also have included the mountainous region of northern Labrador. Markland almost certainly refers to the southern coast of Labrador. Vinland – the name derived from winemaking fruits – probably refers to the area from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to as far south as northern New England. The sagas say that wild grapes and wheat were located there.
Several settlement sites are referred to by name in the sagas and for each of them there are contested possible locations. What is clear is that the western explorers were operating at the extreme end of their supply lines and constituted a very small number of settlers. Relationships between them and indigenous peoples ranged from trade to conflict (including unprovoked killings carried out by some of the Scandinavians). The saga evidence indicates that long-term settlement was unsustainable. However, the matter may be a little more complex.
Continuing voyages to Vinland?
Norse involvement with Vinland did not end with the failure of the settlements described in the sagas. The Annals of the Kings of Iceland (compiled 1300–28) record that in “1121 Bishop Erik from Greenland went to look for Vinland.” The Law Man’s Annals (written sometime after 1412) mention Erik leaving Iceland in 1112, with the enigmatic words: “Voyage of Bishop Erik.” This tells us nothing more about Vinland or anything else for that matter.
Other medieval accounts also refer to ongoing connections with North America. It seems that these voyages went as far as the coast of Labrador, to collect wood that was lacking in Greenland. Voyages also took place to Helluland (probably Baffin Island). The intention here may have been to trade with indigenous peoples. The Elder Skalholt Annals, compiled c. 1362, contain an entry (under 1347) that reads: “There came also a ship from Greenland . . . It was without an anchor. There were seventeen men on board, and they had sailed to Markland, but had afterward been driven hither by storms at sea.”
Helluland appears, in passing, in mythical sagas, which illustrate how the far-west had entered a twilight world where history mixed with mythology. An example can be found in the Saga of Halfdan Eysteinsson, c.1350. It contains an enigmatic statement that “[a ruler named] Raknar brought Helluland’s deserts under his sway, and destroyed all the giants there . . .”
Finally, the Icelandic Book of Settlements enigmatically refers to a mysterious place named “White Man’s Land” (Hvitramannaland) or “Ireland the Great” and its discovery, allegedly c. 983. It was considered to have been somewhere in the vicinity of Vinland.
What all this evidence reveals is that the connection of Norse adventurers with North America did not end with the abandonment of the settlements there, as recorded in the famous sagas. Subsequent journeys seem to have occurred. The idea of Vinland was kept alive.
The archaeological evidence for “American Vikings”
It is in Newfoundland that securely dated evidence of this settlement has been unearthed. The site in question— L’Anse aux Meadows—lies at the northern tip of Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula. Several archaeological investigations have occurred there. These confirm the existence of four building complexes.
The construction styles, combined with a limited number of artifacts, indicates that the site was Norse. Finds of wood and butternuts (or white walnuts) suggest voyages occurred down the eastern coast of what is today Canada and the USA. How far south – and how far into the North American continent – is a matter for conjecture, sometimes heated.
Tree-ring analysis of worked-wood from the site has dated them to the year 1021. However, research published in 2018 suggests that Norse activity at the site could have lasted for a century. This does not imply a continuousoccupation. That, given the sparse evidence left behind, seems highly unlikely. Instead, it indicates the possibility that occasional Norse activity occurred there beyond the early eleventh century. We can imagine the final ships putting in at L’Anse aux Meadows as late as the first quarter of the twelfth century, having originally established the settlement c. 1021.
While L’Anse aux Meadows is the most famous site with archaeological evidence of Norse activity west of Greenland, it is not alone. On Ellesmere Island, Canada’s most northern island, stray finds suggest indigenous people trading with the Norse from as early as the twelfth century. Similarly, an indigenous site at Port Refuge, on Devon Island, situated between Ellesmere Island and the northern coast of Baffin Island, was the find-spot of part of a cast bronze bowl and some smelted iron. The context has been dated to the fifteenth century. On Baffin Island, a carved wooden figure appears to depict a Scandinavian wearing a characteristic hooded robe. Less dramatic than these finds, is the spun cordage, like that found on medieval European sites, which was recently recognized during a re-examination of an archaeological collection excavated from Baffin Island.
Similar material has been identified from two other sites on Baffin Island and another one in northern Labrador. These various sites indicate the widespread nature of the Norse interaction with native peoples in the Canadian Arctic and sub-Arctic. They join a growing list of artifacts – from tally-sticks to willow baskets – which suggest they were made by Greenland Norse. Whether these indicate the actual presence of Scandinavians, or items traded over a long distance, is open to question.
As striking, is the coin found, in 1957, at a Native American site at Naskeag Point, in Maine. It is a coin of Olaf Kyrre, king of Norway, and was minted by 1080. While questions have been raised concerning the authenticity of the find itself, recent study of the condition of the coin suggests it had lain in the position found for a very long period before its discovery. Consequently, it is reasonable to consider it a genuine find, which was probably traded down to its find-spot via indigenous intermediaries.
However, none of the other claimed Viking finds, currently known from North America (particularly in the USA), are convincing. Instead, these items – mostly runestones – are almost certainly fakes, manufactured from the nineteenth century onwards to make connections with medieval Norse explorers.
The enduring fascination with the Vinland Vikings
The interest in the Vinland Vikings in the USA began to gain traction from the 1770s, was encouraged by the availability of the sagas in English translation in North America from the 1830s, and accelerated with Scandinavian settlement (especially in the Midwest) after the 1860s. They were presented as an alternative European origin myth to Columbus, who himself had never made it to North America. Arguably, the ongoing popularity of the Norse in later US comic-book culture, films, games, and branding, owes a great deal to a particular American interest in “Vinland Vikings,” alongside stimulus from the wider global fascination with the Viking Age.
Norse symbolism is also now utilized by some alt-right groups as part of modern culture wars. Viking symbols were displayed at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, and at the Capitol Building on January 6th, 2021. This is evidence of how much further “American Vikings” have sailed into some modern imaginations, compared with into the North American continent itself.
Martyn Whittock has written numerous educational and history books, including titles on Viking and Anglo-Saxon history. In addition, as a commentator and columnist, he writes for several print and online news platforms, and has been interviewed on TV and radio news programs exploring the impact of history on current events in the USA, the UK, and globally. His latest book, American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed into the Lands and Imaginations of America, is published by Pegasus Books, New York, in November, distributed by Simon and Schuster. Find out more here: http://pegasusbooks.com/books/american-vikings-9781639365357-hardcover
