Voyages to Vinland

[rognvald]

"Voyages to Vinland: The First American Saga Newly Translated and Interpreted," by Professor Einar Haugen, Thompson Professor of Scandinavian Languages University of Wisconsin, published 1942 /168 pages; reprint: Scholar Select Press available through Amazon Books.

For those of Scandinavian ancestry or others among us interested in Viking Age History, this classic book written by professor Haugen in 1942 before the discovery of L"Anse Aux Meadows Viking site in Newfoundland in 1960 offers the first glimpse by an American academic to evaluate the Viking Sagas and presents an interpretation of their connection to the discovery of North America in the year +/- 1000 AD. The study begins with the classic sagas of discovery and their interesting and vivid Viking characters(Leif, Bjarni, Thorvald, Thorstein, Karlsevni) interspersed with some beautiful woodcuts of the historic figures and ultimately leads to a very readable discussion on the evidentiary aspects of the discovery of Vinland and how it relates to the sagas. This book has historic value since it was written before Helge Ingstad and his wife Anne found indisputable archeological proof of the first Viking settlement in NE Newfoundland and proved, by solid archeological artifacts, that the Vikings were the first Europeans to land in North America. Good luck, good reading and safe sailing.

[rakovsky]

Originally Posted by rognvald

For those of Scandinavian ancestry or others among us interested in Viking Age History, this classic book written by professor Haugen in 1942 before the discovery of L"Anse Aux Meadows Viking site in Newfoundland in 1960 offers the first glimpse by an American academic to evaluate the Viking Sagas and presents an interpretation of their connection to the discovery of North America in the year +/- 1000 AD.

You are right, Rognvald, that the book is interesting because only 18 years later, archaeology showed that in fact the Vikings had traveled to Eastern Canada's Newfoundland province when the Viking settlement remains was discovered there. Since archaeologists found butternuts at the site, and consider that the site was inhabited over about 10 years, and butternuts just grow around New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and farther south, it's likely that the Vikings ventured farther south than the site discovered at L'Anse Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland.

A pretty interesting question is where exactly the Sagas suggest that the Vikings stayed in eastern Canada or the US. It would be especially helpful if scholars listed the directions and coordinates that the Sagas give for the places in Vinland, and drew maps for the locations described in each of the two Sagas. I tried doing this for the Saga of the Greenlanders on the thread linked below, and am attaching my hand-drawn map.
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...visit.1594399/