Proof of early contacts Greenland-North America

© Johansson Inger E, Proof of early contacts Greenland-North America, Gothenburg september 2013

The Canadians ought to be proud to have one of the best proofs of early Norse settlements in North America. No I am not talking about L’Anse aux Meadows. L’Anse aux Meadows never was Wineland. I am talking about the land westward from Greenland, mentioned by Olaus Magnus (1490-1557) in his great work Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus. See below.

Sources from 1100’s up to Columbus days

Sea between Markland and Vinland mentioned by Nicholas Bergthorsson in Leidarvisir och borgaskipan written in first half 1100’s. One copy was given to the Pope 1134) (IEJ July 2015: Please note that a Diss was published 2012 dealing with Leidarvisir, see below)

Leidarvisir and borgaskipan: ”… North of Germany is Denmark. Ocean extending into the Baltic Sea, near Denmark. Sweden is east of Denmark and Norway in the north. North of Norway’s Finnmark. … Beyond Greenland, southward, there Helluland and beyond it Markland, from there it is not far to Vinland. which some people think stretching all the way to Africa. England and Scotland is an island but is separate kingdoms. Iceland is a large island to the north of Ireland …. ”
and
From Biarmaland northward all the way until you reach Greenland. South of Greenland lies Helluland, then Markland , then it is not far to Vinland the Good. Which some believe extends to Africa. and if that’s true, the sea must extend between Vinland and Markland..…

North Americas mainland is mentioned in other medieval documents written before Columbus set sail westward. The diocese Krossnes (Eng. Crossnes) is mentioned in documents about tithes delivered by Ivar Bardarson delivered the tithes from Greenlands See Gardar and the dioceses under Gardar, among them Krossnes, to the Papal delegate visiting Bergen.
Ivar Bardsons delivering of the tithes from Gardar See is mentioned in Finnur Jónsson’s comments to Ivar Bardarsson’s: Det gamle Grønlands beskrivelse af Ívar Bárðarson (Ivar Bårdssön), ed. Finnur Jónsson København, 1930.
For more information please read/translate using Google Translate Ivar Bardsson, Norah4history page

Same mainland that Columbus navigator and brother sailing on Puthurst and Pinnings expedition to Greenland in order to recover an Annual from a monestry in the Mid-settlement. When they there after sailed along the coast of Eastern Settlement they were attacked and had to flee over sea spending the Winter on a mainland southwest of Greenland. (At least Columbus’ navigator and his brother were on board. Some indications in text indicate that Columbus himself might have participated). One globe source Gemma Frisius world globe 1537. Look at ‘Quij pouli ad quos Johannes Scovvus, danus, Pervenit, Ann. 1476’. We know from 1470’s sources that the expedition’s captains were Puthurst and Pinning.

As for the collected Annal. It still partly exist (a few MS-pages in a Swedish Library). I managed to get hold of it and read it in 1990’s, sue to a Swedish Historian Gustav Storm who in late 1890’s mentioned the MS in some lines. His interest in the MS was an other than mine, but it was his lines that made me look for the MS.

Greenlanders in NA – solid proof

Good solid proof for early Scandinavian contacts with North America can be found on two early ‘maps’.
* There exist an early map, edited later on before the first ‘known’ explorer sailed west south of Greenland. That map show beyond reasonable doubts the Hudson Bay before Hudson was born. Where the map is to be found? In Linköping’s Science Library.
The origin of the map’s carthographic data goes back to 1480 at least but an early copy was delivered to the Norwegian King Hakon, son of the Swedish King Magnus Eriksson, in 1364 together with the tithes that Ivar Bardsson collected from the dioces under Gardar See Greenland…. On the edited map I have digitalised and are allowed to use in edited work, Dania Nova is marked on land close to Nelson River in the south of what we know as Hudson Bay….. Hudson was of course not known at that time….

Btw. in 1560 the son of Gustav Wasa ordered a globe to be made to his coronation. That globe has an almost correct map, unfortunatly the engraver graved NA mirror-wise. It’s one of Sweden’s Crown Jewels…..
On the ‘Riksäpplet’ engraved in 1560’s to King Erik XIV:s coronation….. there is the ultimate proof of contacts between not only Norway but Sweden before most of US had seen any of all the known Explorers. In 1560 while most land of US (and Canada) wasn’t explored and hadn’t seen any European settlers at all, our King Erik XIV, son of Gustav Vasa, ordered from Flandern one of our most prestigeos Royal Crown Jewels: King Erik’s ‘Riksapple’.

King Erik XIV said in his official statement on inheriting the Swedish throne, that he [Erik] was entiteled to claim all the Northern Hemisphere. If the Flandern etcher who got the Swedish maps of the world, among the maps one of NA, hadn’t mirrored North America the World would have known that Sweden had the ultimate proof of early explorers of North America due to carthographers back before Columbus had carthographed all land from Florida to California and up today’s US to the Canadian territories. All it takes is a mirror or mirroring NA from a photo of our Swedish Royal Crown Jewel King Erik’s ‘Riksapple‘. Btw. If you hold a photo showing NA in front of a mirror you will find that Mississippi river was known here in Sweden in 1560.

And…. Olaus Magnus, Swedish Geographer and Historian wrote:
Quick English translation from Swedish edition:
‘In 1505 I saw two such leaderboats above the Eastern portal in the Oslo Cathedral, sanctified to Saint Halvord, where they were fastened on the wall for everyone to look at. It’s told that King Hakon[son of King Magnus Eriksson] acquired them, when he with an armed battle fleet[!!!] passed Greenland’s coast,….”
source: Source: Olaus Magnus , Rome 1555 : Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, Romæ 1555
translated by Peter Fisher and Humphrey Higgens ; edited by Peter Foote London Hakluyt Society 1996-1998 3 volumes
As you probably understand it’s not easy passing Greenland’s coast with a battle fleet without going somewhere west of Greenland when you start from Norway and Orkney. As they did. Reason for that was information given to King Hakon in 1364 by Ivar Bardsson.

But that’s not all proof. More can be found researching in Flora and Fauna’s world but that will have to wait. You can start an intersting looking yourself for proofs by looking at: Meaple, Acer platanoides L., Linneaus Virtuella Floran

Please note that Nicholas Bergthorsson’s Leidarvisir och borgaskipan from first half of 1100’s is mentioned in:
Tommaso Marani, Leiðarvísir. Its Genre and Sources, with Particular Reference to the Description of Rome, Diss Durham University 2012
Jón Jóhannesson, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth, Univ. of Manitoba Press, 1974
Finnur Jónsson, Den islandske litteraturs historie tilligemed den old norske
On net you can find him mentioned in Den islandske litteraturens historia, archive.org

Not edited manuscript:
Johansson Inger E, Greenland and the Greenlanders, the ‘lost’ people, manuscript 1995 rev. 2008
some chapters to be found on net Grönland och Grönlänningarna, Norah4history page (PS. Norah is short of Eleonora with and ‘h’ placed in the end)