VIKINGS IN NEWFOUNDLAND
When I was in school we would often at school Christmas concerts have skits where we were featured as Vikings. Vikings were a popular theme in the area because of the nearby viking site at L’Anse aux Meadows. The local shopping mall in St Anthony was named the Viking Mall (Which I named and in a contest after the owners (Lundrigans) had a contest where all the school kids in the area’s schools could suggest a name for the mall. My fifty dollar winnings was my very first paycheck.
In school I was always a bit in shock how history said that Christoper Columbus discovered America and John Cabot discovered Newfoundland. There wasn’t even a footnote about how they might have decided to go. If you believe history books you would think that Columbus sailed off into the unknown reaches of the earth in the same way that Arya did in the final episode of Game of Thrones and John Cabot took his information and explored just a bit further north a few years later. It clearly wasn’t correct. To start with the Basque Whalers were going to Newfoundland a good twenty years before Columbus. To think that both Columbus and Cabot wasn’t aware of this stretches the realm of credibility. They didn’t know a continent was there. Newfoundland might have been the rapids at the end of the earth where you fell of the edge for all they knew. But history books don’t hint at the fact that they were not traveling blind.
They would surely also have known about the old Viking writings about the 11th century. Astonishingly semi accurate maps from the 14th century shows Eastern Canada. HistorianWilliam A. Munn studied literary sources in Europe and suggested in his 1914 book Location of Helluland, Markland & Vinland from the Icelandic Sagas that the Vinland Vikings went ashore at Lancey Meadows. He got the settlement location from the wrings. There was plenty of information in the late 1400s that Newfoundland was there.
But the Vikings went to Newfoundland. They were the first Europeans to visit the new world and probably the first to interact with North American Indians. The reason they went is open to debate. One argument is that they were looking for a new place to colonize. Personally I don’t buy this argument as there was no land shortage where they lived and only 2000 to 3000 people lived in Greenland and Iceland was not populated to the point where resources was getting scarce. A more likely arguement is that they were there to harvest Lumber – a commodity that was in short supply in Greenland and Iceland but abundant in Newfoundland. Its also a bit of a debate how long they were in Newfoundland. Some speculate that it was as much as twenty years (Some historians even speculated that they were coming sporadically for two hundred years top harvest Lumber – although that theory is a bit dodgy). There is also debate about how many came. Estimates range from 30 to 150 or more and given that there were needles found suggestions are that there were also women – if true that would lend support to the theory that they were looking for new lands to colonize. Personally I doubt they were there for twenty years. Don’t underestimate how harsh Northern Newfoundland winters can be. However, the early 11th century when they were here was a little warming period. So it could have been a couple decades of not so nasty weather that motivated them to hold out longer than expected before throwing in the towel. I still think the most likely scenario is that they were there looking for Lumber.
The sagas were written from oral traditions two hundred years after Vinland was inhabited and the whole story might well have been a discarded legend had L’Anse aux Meadows not been found – providing some proof of the sagas accuracy. While L’Anse aux Meadows is clerly not Vinland (See another of my articles on Vikings “Where is Vinland located” we have proof that Vikings landed in Northern Newfoundland. The Vikings sailed in a ship called a “Longboat” which was thinner and longer than most sailing ships and had oars which made it possible to move even if there was no wind. They also made for good maneuverable battle ships which helped make the vikings successful warriors. The longboat was astonishingly seaworthy for the time period.
As with why they came we don’t know why they left. But the weather might have had something to do with it. Tree ring analysis at L’Anse aux Meadows tells that they were cut in AD1021. Carbon dating of items shows a mean carbon date of AD1014. The authors of the tree ring study wrote:
Our result of AD 1021 for the cutting year constitutes the only secure calendar date for the presence of Europeans across the Atlantic before the voyages of Columbus. Moreover, the fact that our results, on three different trees, converge on the same year is notable and unexpected. This coincidence strongly suggests Norse activity at L’Anse aux Meadows in AD 1021.
So Vikings were definitely in Newfoundland in AD1021. There were apparently some anomalies with other dates in their study but this appears to be toward the end of their time in Newfoundland. No more solid evidence of Newfoundland contact by Europeans occurs until the late 15th century Basque Whalers showed up.