In the geography which under the name of “Gripla” was included in Björn Jónsson’s “Grönland’s Annaler,” it is said of the countries opposite Greenland:
“Furðustrandir is the name of a land, where is severe frost, so that it is not habitable, so far as people know; south of it is Helluland, which is called Skrælingja-land; thence it is a short distance to Wineland the Good, which some people think goes out from Africa....”
With this may be compared another MS. of the seventeenth century, where we read:
“West of the great ocean from Spain, which some call Ginnungagap, and which goes between lands, there is first towards the north Wineland the Good, next to it is called Markland farther north, thereafter are the wastes [i.e., the wastes of Helluland] where Skrælings live, then there are still more wastes to Greenland.” [Cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. pp. 224, 227.]
From this it looks as if Helluland was regarded as inhabited by Skrælings, which agrees with the reality, if it is Labrador. But these MSS. belong to the seventeenth century, and may be influenced by the geographical knowledge of later times. In Gripla there is evident confusion, as Furðustrandir has been confounded with Helluland, and the latter with Markland[34].
Voyage to Markland, 1347
No record is found of any voyage to Wineland after 1121; but on the other hand there is mention more than two hundred years later of the voyage, referred to above, to Markland from Greenland in 1347. Of this we read in the Icelandic Annals (Skálholts-Annals) for that year: “Then came also [i.e., besides ships from Norway already mentioned] a ship from Greenland, smaller in size than the small vessels that trade to Iceland. It came to Outer Straumfjord [on the south side of Snæfellsnes]; it was without an anchor. There were seventeen men on board [in the Flatey-annals there are eighteen men], and they had sailed to Markland, but afterwards [i.e., on the homeward voyage to Greenland] were driven hither.”
As the Skálholts-Annals were written not many years after this (perhaps about 1362), it must be regarded as quite certain that this ship had been to Markland; but on the homeward voyage, perhaps while she lay at anchor, was overtaken by a storm, so that the cable had to be cut, and was driven out to sea past Cape Farewell right across to the west coast of Iceland. It is not likely that they sailed so far as Markland simply to fish, which they might have done off Greenland; the object was rather to fetch timber or wood for fashioning implements, which was valuable in treeless Greenland; the driftwood which came on the East Greenland current did not go very far. It is true that they could not carry much timber on their small vessel; but they had to make the best of the craft they possessed, and they could always carry a sufficient supply of the more valuable woods for the manufacture of tools, weapons and appliances. They must for instance have had great difficulty in obtaining wood for making bows; driftwood was of little use for this.
But if this voyage took place in 1347, and we only hear of it through the accident of the vessel getting out of her course and being driven to Iceland, we may be sure that there were many more like it; only that these were not the expeditions of men of rank, which attracted attention, but everyday voyages for the support of life, like the sealing expeditions to Nordrsetur, and when nothing particular happened to these vessels, such as being driven to Iceland, we hear nothing about them. We must therefore suppose that, even if they had to give up the idea of forming settlements in the west, the Greenlanders occasionally visited Markland (Newfoundland or the southernmost part of Labrador ?), perhaps chiefly to obtain wood of different kinds.
In the so-called Greenland Annals, put together from old sources by Björn Jónsson of Skardsá (beginning of the seventeenth century), it is said of the districts on the west coast of Greenland, to the north of the Western Settlement, that they “take up trees and all the drift that comes from the bays of Markland” (cf. vol i. p. 299). This shows that it was customary to regard Markland as the region from which wood was to be obtained. The name itself (== woodland) may have contributed to this view; but the fact that it survived long after all mention of Wineland had ceased may probably be due to communication with the country having been kept up in later times, and to this name being the really historical one on the coast of America.