Vinland

Vinland, unknown region on the eastern coast of North America, possibly part of the Canadian maritime provinces, which is described in several Norse sagas. It was reached by the Norse explorer Leif Eriksson (fl. 11th century), the son of Erik the Red, who set out from Greenland in about the year ad 1000 to search for a coastline which had been reported some years earlier. It was, apparently, thickly wooded, and the Norse settlers colonizing Greenland, made possible by climate change, needed timber. Eriksson landed first on what could have been Baffin Island and on sailing south found a more hospitable place which he named Markland—a land of forests—which was possibly Labrador. He continued to sail south until he reached what seems, from the sagas, to be Nova Scotia or the northern coast of Newfoundland. However, Eriksson's description of the coastline has been the cause of much speculation, for he noted that ‘wild grapes’ grew there which is why he named the area Vinland. Since it was impossible for grapes to grow so far north some historians have suggested that Eriksson must have travelled further south, but it has also been suggested that what he described as grapes were in fact berries, possibly cranberries. According to the Norse sagas, further expeditions to colonize the area were undertaken but were unsuccessful.

Excavations on the northern tip of Newfoundland (L'Anse aux Meadows) in the 1960s, spurred by the fact that Vinland could also be interpreted as meaning ‘grassland’, conclusively proved that Norsemen had reached the island around ad 1000. Of particular interest was that butternuts, and pieces of carved butternut wood, were found on the site, and though grapes could never have grown in Newfoundland they do grow further south where butternuts can be found. As further confirmation of the presence of Norsemen in North America, a species of soft-shelled clam (Mya arenaria), identical to one that grows in low-salinity waters in North American estuaries, has been found in 12th-century Viking excavations in Denmark.

What is known as the Vinland map was published in 1965. Owned by Yale University it was valued at $20 million (£13 million) and was supposed to date from about 1440. Its publication aroused tremendous controversy, and in 1973 it was declared a fake by the chemical analyst Walter McCrone. In 2002 his judgement was confirmed by chemists at University College London, who agreed with him that the map was drawn with synthetic ink that was not available until 1923. See also exploration by sea.