Online Encyclopedia

Make a correction

Your email address will not appear on the site. Note, comments may take some time to be approved.

Back to article: VINLAND (Old Norse, Vinland, i.e. Vineland or Wineland)

Your email: Article name: Article content:

VINLAND (Old Norse, Vinland, i.e. Vineland or Wineland), some region on the eastern coast of -North America, visited and named by the Norsemen in the beginning of the 1th century. The word first appeared in print in Adam of Bremen's Descriptio Insularum Aquilonis, an appendix to his Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum, published by Lindenbrog in 1595. In pursuit of historical study, Adam visited the Danish court during the reign of the well-informed monarch Svend Estridsson (1047-1076), and writes that the king " spoke of an island (or country) in that ocean discovered by many, which is called Vinland, because of the wild grapes [rites] that grow there, out of which a very good wine can be made. Moreover, *hat grain unsown grows there abundantly [fruges ibi non seminatas abundare] is not a fabulous fancy, but is based on trustworthy accounts of the Danes." This passage offers important corroboration of the Icelandic accounts of the Vinland voyages, and is, furthermore, interesting " as the only undoubted reference to Vinland in a medieval book written beyond the limits of the Scandinavian world " (Flake). Adam's