Vikings in America (14 page)

In the autumn there were two further encounters with the Native Americans. At the first of these the Native Americans came to trade, offering furs. However something went wrong, and one of the Native Americans was killed. Shortly afterwards the Native Americans attacked, and a battle ensued. The Vikings had had sufficient notice of the attack to bring their bull within the palisade, presumably along with all their animals. The story told in the sagas is that the noise of battle caused the bull to bellow, and this huge and noisy animal terrified the Native Americans, who fled. While the attackers had been repulsed, the settlers were clearly unnerved by the encounter. It was too late in the year for Karlsefni to risk a voyage to Greenland so the colony over-wintered at Leifsbudir, but in the spring they took the decision to abandon the settlement. They sailed first to Greenland, then to Norway, where Karlsefni sold his cargo of furs. Karlsefni's fame and fortune was made on the basis of his one cargo of American furs, the like of which had never before been seen in Europe. He established his home in Iceland, where ultimately he died. His widow, Gudrid, subsequently made a pilgrimage to Rome, and there gave an account direct to the Pope – still extant – of her journeys across the North Atlantic and to Vinland.
³
She returned to Iceland, and many years later died there, being remembered by the apt name Gudrid the Far-Travelled. Her son Snorri, born in Vinland, stands at the head of many Icelandic genealogies, and is the grandfather of two bishops and the ancestor of many of the Icelandic nobles of the High Middle Ages.

The sixth and final voyage to Vinland, as recorded in the sagas, was a horror story. This voyage was led by yet another relative of Leif's, this time his sister, Freydis. The voyage had two ships, one led by Freydis and crewed with 35 Greenlanders, some of them presumably veterans of Karlsefni's voyage; the other was an Icelandic ship with a crew of 30, and led by the brothers Helgi and Finnbogi. Both Greenlanders and Icelanders travelled as the nucleus of a colony with their wives and their livestock. The expedition again asserted Leif's claim to the land of Vinland through the leadership of his sister and the Greenlandic ship, yet the resources to back the expedition seem to have come from the Icelanders. The saga sets out that the two groups were antagonistic from the outset, and perhaps with
inadequate resources to support them all. Ultimately under the leadership of Freydis, the Greenlanders decided upon the cold-blooded murder of the Icelanders. The saga gives no reasonable cause; today we may speculate that a dispute over ownership of Vinland might be a motive, perhaps exacerbated by shortage of food. The Icelandic men were indeed all murdered, but the Greenlanders refused to kill the women. The saga recounts that Freydis herself then murdered all the Greenlandic women. Following this bloodbath the depleted colony struggled through the winter before returning to Greenland. Freydis attempted to swear the Greenlanders to secrecy, but inevitably the story was told. The saga records Leif's horror, and states that Freydis was afterwards shunned.

These six voyages stand at the very start of the Vinland exploration, when it was effectively Icelanders who were taking part in them.

While Helluland and Markland do seem to be relatively precise locations, Vinland is something rather different. The
Icelandic Geographical Treatise
of about 1300 – based on an earlier manuscript, now lost – sets out a geography of the North Atlantic, which includes the following brief mention:

To the south of Greenland lies Helluland, and then Markland, and from there it is not far to Vinland, which some people think extends from Africa.

This anonymous Icelandic writer was aware of the circumference of the earth and knew that whatever Vinland might be, it could not possibly be part of Asia. The curious concept that Vinland might extend all the way to Africa indicates the size which the geographer attributed to Vinland. Vinland is not a precise location for a single place, but rather a name associated with Leif Eiriksson's land claim, which was as expansive as his ambitions. The writer of the
Geographical Treatise
is suggesting that Vinland is a continent – effectively therefore America.

The saga-writers describe what they believe was the finding of wild grapes in Vinland, and the Vikings cutting down the bushes on which the grapes grew and hanging them from the rigging of their ship for the return journey. The story sounds wrong – if grape vines were hung from the rigging of the ships the grapes would simply fall off. The sagas do not suggest that
the Vikings made wine from these grapes. Probably for the Vikings in Leif's party grapes would have been valued simply as a food, as were the many berries of Greenland, but no special value above this would have attached to them. The identification of these New World berries as grapes belongs not to Leif but to the later saga-writers, whose Christian culture placed great value on communion wine (often in short supply in Iceland) and therefore on viticulture and grapes. A curious possibility is that stories of finding another berry were altered by the saga-writers. Found in profusion on the coasts of New England are gooseberry bushes, producing a berry with a superficial resemblance to a grape. Anyone who has picked gooseberries will know that the bushes have a profusion of thorns, and the concept of transporting such a prickly cargo for a day or two by tying it to the rigging and therefore out of the way of a crowded deck may at least make sense. Gooseberries, unlike grapes, hold firmly to their plant.

The supposed derivation of Vinland as ‘Wine-Land' in this saga story and elsewhere has led many to believe that we should look to identify Vinland with an area where wild grapes grow. Wild grapes do indeed grow in woods in the east of America from as far north as New Brunswick, through New England, and south as far as Florida. In the north they are unusual, and in no area do they grow in the sort of profusion that would be expected if they were the source of the name. Indeed the only reason we say Vinland means ‘Wine-Land' is that this is what the saga-writers tell us it means.

The traditional derivation of Vinland as ‘Wine-Land' is suspect, and almost certainly wrong. Rather,
vin
is a well-established Old Norse word, and a very common place-name element. Looking just at larger settlements which follow the form of Vinland with
vin
as the first element, Norway has Vinnelys, Vinstra, and Vinje (twice); Sweden has Vingaker and Vinlinden; Denmark has Vinblaes. The meaning of
vin
is fertile land or arable land. By calling the land Vinland Leif is stressing that it is good land for farming, exactly what the Vikings were looking for.

Vinland did not, therefore, have a precise location. It was a descriptive term for fertile land which was used for a wide area of the east coast of America.

The one big Viking archaeological site in North America at L'Anse aux Meadows dates from the beginning of the period of Viking America, and is more or less contemporary with the saga stories.

L'Anse aux Meadows stands on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland. The French name for the modern community of around 70 people has been anglicised by the English-speaking residents of the area, and it is now pronounced ‘Lancy Meadows'. The discovery of Viking remains was made in 1961 by husband-and-wife team Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine, explorers and archaeologists, who were cruising the east coast of America looking for confirmation of the Icelandic sagas. What they found has proved beyond any doubt that Vikings lived in North America, though their discoveries cannot be directly related to the saga stories of Vinland or to Leifsbudir, a point that has frequently been overlooked. What we have at L'Anse aux Meadows is not Viking Vinland, but Viking Markland.

The Ingstads' discovery at L'Anse aux Meadows was one that was ready to be made. The community there had long been curious about the regular-shaped mounds in their vicinity, which appeared different from Native American constructions in the area, and it is local people who directed the Ingstads to them. Immediately visible were the remains of five buildings – the number now increased by more detailed study. The first season of excavation by the Ingstads, with villagers recruited to dig trenches, confirmed that they were old, and convinced them that they were indeed Viking. The scholarly community required more proof, and as a result the site has been worked over subsequently by numerous teams of archaeologists, keen both to extract all possible information and to prove beyond any possible doubt that these buildings are indeed Viking. The Ingstads themselves excavated on the site for a further seven summers, until 1968, and work has been virtually non-stop since then. This site is accepted by all as undisputed proof that the Vikings visited. Today it is looked after by Parks Canada, and there is a reconstruction of some of the buildings adjacent to the site itself.

The Viking community at L'Anse aux Meadows was located on a low terrace a few hundred yards back from Epaves Bay, and close to a small river, the Black Duck Brook. Five houses have been found, three of which are standard Viking longhouses, the other two smaller. Additionally there is a workshop, a charcoal kiln, a forge, at least four boat sheds, and a bath-house, as well as a cluster of cooking pits. Nearby are four cairns, two in fair condition still. The site contains a natural deposit of bog iron, which appears to be the reason for the existence of this settlement. With bog iron and charcoal to power a forge, the Vikings were able to produce the iron rivets essential for the maintenance of their ships. The buildings were made
of turf, using a construction technique familiar particularly from Iceland and the Faroe Islands, though rarely encountered in Greenland because of the lack of turf there.

L'Anse aux Meadows was used for about 20 years, from roughly 1000 to 1020. It therefore tells a story which is concurrent with
The Vinland Sagas
, and may take the story on for a few more years.

The site raises very many questions. First of all this is not Leifsbudir, or anywhere precisely identified in the sagas. Leifsbudir consisted of booths and later no more than two houses, and at no time had more than two ships there. Leifsbudir had a palisade for defence, which L'Anse aux Meadows does not. The northern tip of Newfoundland does not resemble the saga description of a fertile Vinland, and its winters could not be described, as the sagas do, as being exceptionally mild. Nothing about L'Anse aux Meadows fits the description of Leifsbudir.

The immediate area has land which would have provided grazing, and is one of the more fertile spots in the vicinity. A bone from a domestic pig has been identified, proving that the Vikings brought at least pigs, and presumably also sheep and perhaps other domestic animals. It is a place where much driftwood is naturally deposited, though it is doubtful whether this could have been sufficient for the activity there. The nearest woodland is around eight miles away, but this does not produce trees remarkable for their height. While their wood could have been used for the manufacture of charcoal, larger timbers would have required voyages to forests with taller trees, which are some distance away. The site is not defensive. The area may have been uninhabited when the Vikings arrived. Later it supported an Inuit population rather than any other indigenous people, a group with whom the Vikings seemed able to coexist. It offered a useful deposit of bog iron, though the geology of Newfoundland is such that this is no rarity. Rather L'Anse aux Meadows appears to have owed its existence to its location. Situated at the very tip of Newfoundland it served three sea routes. To the north a route runs up the coast of Labrador, then across the Davis Strait to Greenland. To the south-west the Strait of Belle Isle leads to the Gulf of St Lawrence, while to the south-east stretches the coast of insular Newfoundland.

The boat sheds were roofed, and each accommodated boats of up to a maximum length of around 30 feet. These are boats, not ships – they are not the size of the ocean-going
knarrs
, and were suitable only for use in coastal waters. The Vikings presumably used them for short-distance voyages around
the northern tip of Newfoundland island and across the Belle Isle strait to Labrador. That provision for such ships exists suggests frequent use of these short-distance routes. Larger ships – the ocean-going
knarrs
– could have been pulled ashore, though there is no direct evidence of them. The presence of sheds for four boats suggests a fleet of boats putting into L'Anse aux Meadows, and a substantial community there.

The houses are large structures, able to accommodate in total upwards of 100 people, and perhaps on occasion as many as 200. They are supported by a collection of cooking pits, suggesting communal cooking on a large scale. The bath-house is of the type familiar today from the Finnish sauna. The water supply is from a man-made channel. The remains do not directly show the means of heating the water – probably it was in an iron cauldron hanging from a chain over an open fire – but they do contain numerous burnt stones. In Finnish style, the Vikings seem to have heated these stones in the fire, then poured water on them, creating clouds of steam. A slate seems to have been used to close the smoke hole, enabling the sauna to reach very high temperatures.

The settlement was used for no more than 20 or so years. The style of turf building is such that in the climate of Newfoundland they would have needed replacing after around 20 years, and at L'Anse aux Meadows this was not done. The abandonment of L'Anse aux Meadows was planned, which is archaeologically disappointing because it leads to rather few artefacts. Almost anything that was left by chance would have been removed over the centuries by the Inuit. The more interesting artefacts that do survive include a soapstone spindle whirl, a ring-headed bronze pin, and a needle hone, all characteristically Viking for the period, and all everyday objects. The spindle whirl demonstrates that weaving was taking place, which can probably be regarded as proof that women were present, weaving seemingly an occupation that Viking men did not take part in. The ring-headed pin would have been used to fasten clothing. Additional items include bone fragments, including whale bone, iron rivets for ships, fire-strikers of jasper, iron pyrites and flint, slag from the kiln and some unidentifiable iron fragments.