Surest historical evidence
The surest historical evidence that voyages were made to America from Greenland is the chance statement, referred to later, in the Icelandic Annals: that in 1347 a ship from Greenland bound for Markland was driven by storms to Iceland. This reveals the fact that, occasionally at any rate, this voyage was made; and if the sagas about the Wineland voyages must be regarded as romances, or as a kind of legendary poetry—which therefore made no attempt whatever to give a historical exposition of the communication with the countries to the south-west—then many more voyages may have been made thither than the sagas had use for. A prominent feature of the different tales is that of the Greenlanders bringing timber from thence; this appears already in the story of Leif’s discovery of the country—he found various kinds of trees and “mǫsurr,” and brought them home with him—and still more in the tales of the Flateyjarbók, where on each voyage it is expressly stated that they felled timber to load their ships, as though that were their chief object. In the Icelandic geography mentioned on [p. 1], there is an addition, probably of late date:
“... It is said that Thorfinn Karlsevne felled wood [in Markland ?] for a ‘húsa-snotra,’ and then went on to seek for Wineland the Good, and arrived where this land was thought to be, but was not able to explore it, and did not settle there ...”[19]
In the Flateyjarbók’s “Grönlendinga-þáttr” it is stated that Karlsevne, in Wineland, cut down timber to load his ship, and that he had a “húsa-snotra” of “masur” from Wineland. Both accounts show how highly timber was prized in Greenland and Iceland. It is likely enough that this was so, since they had no timber in Greenland but driftwood, dwarf birch and osiers. But in order to find timber the Greenlanders need have gone no farther south than Markland (Newfoundland ?); and this name (perhaps also Helluland) may therefore have the surest historical foundation.
Are Frode’s evidence
If Adam of Bremen (circa 1070) mentions no more than Wineland, this is doubtless because he has only heard of that legendary country; the belief in its existence may already have been confirmed in his time by the discovery of new lands. More remarkable is the statement of the sober Are Frode (circa 1130) as to the Skrælings who “inhabited Wineland” (“Vínland hefer bygt”). This looks as if Wineland was familiar to him; it may be the mythical name that has passed into a common designation for the countries discovered in the south-west (cf. vol. i. pp. 368, 384). But there is also a possibility that only the mythical country is in question, and that, as suggested above (vol. i. p. 368; vol. ii. [p. 16]), its inhabitants are merely the Skrælings of myths, since this mythical land and its inhabitants were the best known and most talked of. If this be so, it does not exclude the possibility of Are’s having heard of other, less well known, but actually discovered countries in the south-west, which he does not mention. To make use of a parallel, let us suppose that Utröst with its fairy people was better known in Nordland than the islands to the north with their semi-mythical Lapps. If then we had read of a discovery of Finmark that traces had been found there of the same kind of folk (“þjóð”) who inhabit Utröst, then we should no more be able from this to conclude that Utröst was a real land than that Vesterålen and Senjen, for instance, had not been discovered. It must be remembered that it does not appear with certainty from Are’s words where he got his Wineland from (cf. vol. i. p. 367).
Another document of a wholly different nature, wherein possibly the name of Wineland is mentioned, has been found—namely, the runic stone of Hönen.
Runic stone from Hönen
On the estate of Hönen, in Ringerike, there was found at the beginning of last century a runic stone, which was still from to be seen there in 1823, when the inscription was copied. Afterwards the stone disappeared.[20] The drawing made in 1823 is now only known from a somewhat indistinct copy; but from this Sophus Bugge [1902] has attempted to make out the runic inscription, and he reads it thus:
“Ut ok vítt ok þurfa
þerru ok áts
Vínlandi á ísa
í úbygð at kómu;
auð má illt vega,
[at] döyi ár.”