: In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times (Volume 2 of 2) by Nansen Fridtjof Chater Arthur G Translator - Arctic regions Discovery and exploration; America Discovery and exploration Norse; Discoveries in geography Scandinavian; Arctic regions Di

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CONCLUSION 379

LIST OF THE MORE IMPORTANT WORKS REFERRED TO 384

INDEX 397

WINELAND THE GOOD, THE FORTUNATE ISLES, AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

A confirmation of the identity of Wineland and the Insulae Fortunatae, which in classical legend lay to the west of Africa, occurs in the Icelandic geography which may partly be the work of Abbot Nikul?s of Thver? , where we read:

"South of Greenland is 'Helluland,' next to it is 'Markland,' and then it is not far to 'V?nland hit G??a,' which some think to be connected with Africa ."

This idea of the connection with Africa seems to have been general in Iceland; it may appear surprising, but, as will be seen, it finds its natural explanation in the manner here stated. It also appears in Norway. Besides a reference in the "King's Mirror," the following passage in the "Historia Norwegiae" relating to Greenland is of particular importance:

"This country was discovered and settled by the Telensians and strengthened with the Catholic faith; it forms the end of Europe towards the west, nearly touches the African Islands , where the returning ocean overflows" .

It is clear that "Africanae Insulae" is here used directly as a name instead of Wineland, in connection with Markland and Helluland, as in the Icelandic geography. But the African Islands were in fact the Insulae Fortunatae, in connection with the Gorgades and the Hesperides; and thus we have here a direct proof that they were looked upon as the same.

It might be objected to the view that "V?nland hit G??a" originally meant "Insulae Fortunatae," that several sorts of wild grape are found on the east coast of North America; it might therefore be believed that the Greenlanders really went so far and discovered these. Storm, indeed, assumed that the wild vine grew on the outer east coast of Nova Scotia; but he is unable to adduce any certain direct evidence of this, although he gives a statement of the Frenchman Nicolas Denys in 1672, which points to the wild vine having grown in the interior of the country. He also mentions several statements of recent date that wild-growing vines of one kind or another have been observed near Annapolis and in the interior of the country, but none on the south-east coast. Professor N. Wille informs me that in the latest survey of the flora of North America Vitis vulpina is specified as occurring in Nova Scotia; but nothing is said as to locality. The American botanist, M. L. Fernald , on the other hand, thinks that the wild vine is not certainly known to the east of the valley of the St. John in New Brunswick , where it is rare and only found in the interior. From this we may conclude that even if it should really be found on the outer south-east coast of Nova Scotia, it must have been very rare there, and could not possibly have been a conspicuous feature which might have been especially mentioned along with the wheat. But even if we might assume that the saga was borne out to this extent, it would be one of those accidental coincidences which often occur. It must, of course, be admitted to be a strange chance that the world of classical legend should have fertile lands or islands far in the western ocean, and that Isidore should describe the self-grown vine and the unsown cornfields in these Fortunate Isles, and that long afterwards fertile lands and islands, where wild vines and various kinds of wild corn grew, should be discovered in the same quarter. Since we have the choice, it may be more reasonable to assume that the Icelanders got their wine from Isidore, or from the same vats that he drew his from, than that they fetched it from America. Again, even if the Greenlanders and Icelanders had found some berries on creepers in the woods--is it likely that they would have known them to be grapes? They cannot be expected to have had any acquaintance with the latter. The author of the "Gr?nlendinga-??ttr" in the Flateyjarb?k is so entirely ignorant of these things that he makes grapes grow in the winter and spring , and makes Leif's companion Tyrker intoxicate himself by eating grapes , and finally makes Leif cut down vine-trees and fell trees to load his ship, and at last fill the long-boat with grapes ; in the voyage of Thorvald Ericson they also collect grapes and vine-trees for a cargo, and Karlsevne took home with him "many costly things: vine-trees, grapes and furs." It is scarcely likely that seafaring Greenlanders about 380 years earlier had any better idea of the vine than this saga-writer, and we hear nothing in Eric's Saga about Leif or his companions having ever been in southern Europe. No doubt it is for this very reason that the "Gr?nlendinga-??ttr" makes a "southman," Tyrker, find the grapes.

Wheat is not a wild cereal native to America. It has therefore been supposed that the "self-sown wheat-fields" of Wineland might have been the American cereal maize. As this proved to be untenable, Professor Sch?beler proposed that it might have been the "wild rice," also called "water oats" , an aquatic plant that grows by rivers and lakes in North America. But apart from the fact that the plant grows in the water and has little resemblance to wheat, although the ripe ear is said to be like a wheat-ear, there is the difficulty that it is essentially an inland plant, which is not known in Nova Scotia. "Though it occurs locally in a few New England rivers, it attains its easternmost known limit in the lower reaches of the St. John in New Brunswick, being apparently unknown in Nova Scotia" . For proving that Wineland was Nova Scotia it is therefore of even less use than the wine.

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