The Vikings and the contested discoveries of Greenland and America

In 1965, Yale University in the United States announced the acquisition of an antique map dated 1440. It depicted the world in the style typical of the period, but with two startling differences—it showed Greenland in remarkable detail and included the island of Vinland, an area in coastal North America.

“Naturally, everyone was very excited. Someone else had reached America more than 50 years before [Christopher] Columbus and had known the name Vinland and had drawn a map!” notes academic Dr Anne Millard in Eric the Red: The Vikings Sail the Atlantic (1994). But who were they? How did they reach America, and why was Greenland so prominently depicted?

If the sagas are to be believed, it was a group of Vikings who founded the first European colony in Greenland and eventually landed in America—before Columbus crossed the Atlantic. Yet another school of thought argues that this history stems from colonial-era entitlement, whereby English migrants, believing in their own ethnic superiority, promoted a historiography claiming that America was discovered by Vikings.

At a time when US President Donald Trump has reiterated his desire to take control of resource-rich Greenland, this is a look at a contested history—the founding of the island, and perhaps even America.

Viking, Millard explains, is the name given to the inhabitants of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden during the years from A.D. 750 to A.D. 1100. Their activities as pirates and raiders had earned them a poor reputation. “It is generally agreed that it was a large growth in population that caused the explosion of the Norsemen from their homelands,” Millard writes. Some moved north in search of trade and work, whilst others decided to seek new homes abroad.

Interestingly, much of their history was passed down through spoken stories known as sagas. It was only around the 13th century that scholars began collecting these sagas and writing them down.

Among those who travelled overseas was Eric Thorvaldsson, or Eric the Red. He and his father, Thorvald Asvaldsson, were forced to leave Norway after becoming involved in a feud. They went to Iceland and settled at a place called Drangar, where Thorvald later died. Eric eventually married and moved south, but his continued involvement in feuds landed him in trouble.

“When Eric was outlawed, he and his men set sail for the island of Gunnbjarnar Skerries. They landed on the east coast, near a glacier they named Blueshirt. Leaving this unpromising area they sailed south, and entered warmer waters on the southwest side of the island. They spent three years there. Each summer they went off exploring again…,” notes Millard.

It was during one of these summer voyages that Eric discovered an island he would later call Greenland.

Twenty-five ships set out with him the following year, A.D. 986, but only 14 reached their destination. Some were lost at sea, while others returned to Iceland. According to Millard, “Though much of Greenland is covered with snow and ice, the southern tip is actually farther south than Iceland…The new arrivals were able to farm the land at this end of the island.”

Greenland, unlike Iceland, already had a native population—Eskimos. However, they lived farther north than the Norse colonists and survived by seal hunting. “Eric and his wife Thjodhild chose the best site available to build their farmstead of stone and turf, which they called Brattahlid,” Millard writes. Interestingly, archaeologists have found remains of Brattahlid at the Eastern Settlement, believed to have been founded by Eric the Red.

Following in his father’s footsteps was Eric’s eldest son, Leif. On one of his sails, Leif and his sailors set sail to the southwest. After a short voyage, they reached a land of ice and rock, which Leif named Helluland (Slab-land). “They set off again till he came to the low-lying coast with forests. This he called Markland (Forest-land), and sailed south once more till he reached a most attractive stretch of coast. The climate was mild, there was grass for their cattle, and salmon to catch in the rivers. They also found grapes, which caused Leif to name it Vinland (Wine-land),” notes Millard.

Opinions differ over the location of Vinland, but many scholars believe it was located in what is now the New England area. “Between 1960 and 1968 excavations were carried out at a site in Newfoundland called L’Anse aux Meadows [a Canadian province],” Millard writes. The foundations of buildings discovered resembled those found in the Viking settlements in Greenland. Moreover, small items belonging to the Vikings were also found.

While there is consensus that this was a Viking settlement, whether it was the one built by Leif, Millard reckons, cannot be stated with certainty.

The map found by Yale University also appeared to suggest knowledge of Vinland long before Columbus, yet opinions differ sharply. Millard argues, “In 1972 tests were run on the map. The ink was found to contain a coloring substance called titanium dioxide in a form that was not available until the 20th century. The Vinland Map was a fake.”

However, the map also had enthusiastic supporters. In 1984, more sophisticated tests were done on the ink. The titanium dioxide present was in such minute quantity that it could not have been the primary ink used to colour the map. This evidence, too, proved inconclusive.

Over the years, a few genuine, isolated Viking objects have been found in North America. However, they appear to have been brought over from Scandinavia in the 19th century. The question therefore remains: Did Columbus discover America, or was he building on Leif’s earlier findings?