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Markland () is the name given to one of three lands on North America's
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
shore discovered by
Leif Eriksson
Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson, or Leif Ericson, ; Modern Icelandic: ; Norwegian: ''Leiv Eiriksson'' also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to have set foot on continental North ...
around 1000 AD. It was located south of
Helluland
Helluland () is the name given to one of the three lands, the others being Vinland and Markland, seen by Bjarni Herjólfsson, encountered by Leif Erikson and further explored by Thorfinn Karlsefni Thórdarson around AD 1000 on the North Atlantic c ...
and north of
Vinland
Vinland, Vineland, or Winland ( non, Vínland ᚠᛁᚾᛚᛅᚾᛏ) was an area of coastal North America explored by Vikings. Leif Erikson landed there around 1000 AD, nearly five centuries before the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John ...
.
Although it was never recorded to be settled by
Norsemen
The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the pre ...
, there were probably a number of later expeditions from Greenland to gather timber. A 1347 Icelandic document records that a ship went off course and ended up in Iceland in the process of returning from Markland, without further specifying where Markland was.
Location
Markland has been suggested to have been part of the
Labrador coast in Canada, as Labrador lies in the heavily forested
taiga
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruce ...
region of the Northern Hemisphere north of the location of Vinland on the island of
Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
. The area of
Cape Porcupine
The Cape porcupine (''Hystrix africaeaustralis''), Cape crested porcupine or South African porcupine, is a species of Old World porcupine native to central and southern Africa.
Description
file:Reserve Sigean - Porc-épic du Cap 05.jpg, left, 1 ...
has been suggested as a possible candidate for the site.
The climate and the vegetation in this region may have changed significantly since the sagas were conceived, owing to the
Medieval Warm Period
The Medieval Warm Period (MWP), also known as the Medieval Climate Optimum or the Medieval Climatic Anomaly, was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that lasted from to . Proxy (climate), Climate proxy records show peak warmth oc ...
and
Little Ice Age
The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. Ma ...
.
The particular part of the Labrador coast is difficult to pinpoint, as
Helluland
Helluland () is the name given to one of the three lands, the others being Vinland and Markland, seen by Bjarni Herjólfsson, encountered by Leif Erikson and further explored by Thorfinn Karlsefni Thórdarson around AD 1000 on the North Atlantic c ...
has been placed everywhere from Baffin Island to the northern Labrador coast beyond
Groswater Bay
Groswater Bay ( Inuttitut: ''Kangerliorsoak''), also known by other names, is a bay in south central Labrador, Canada. Its Hamilton Inlet and Melville Lake extensions stretch inland.
Names
Groswater Bay's name is a compound formed from Frenc ...
to the southern Labrador Coast.
Sagas
The ''
Saga of the Greenlanders
''Grœnlendinga saga'' () (spelled ''Grænlendinga saga'' in modern Icelandic and translated into English as the Saga of the Greenlanders) is one of the sagas of Icelanders. Like the ''Saga of Erik the Red'', it is one of the two main sources on t ...
'' tells that
Leif Eriksson
Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson, or Leif Ericson, ; Modern Icelandic: ; Norwegian: ''Leiv Eiriksson'' also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to have set foot on continental North ...
set out in 1002 or 1003 to follow the route that was first described by
Bjarni Herjólfsson
Bjarni Herjólfsson ( 10th century) was a Norse- Icelandic explorer who is believed to be the first known European discoverer of the mainland of the Americas, which he sighted in 986.
Life
Bjarni was born to Herjólfr, son of Bárdi Herjólfsso ...
. The first land that Eriksson went to was covered with flat rocks (
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
: ''hella'') and so he called it ''Helluland'' ("Land of the Flat Stones)". Next, Eriksson came to a land that was flat and wooded, with white sandy beaches, which he called ''Markland'' ("Forest Land"). Eriksson's crew cut down trees and took them to
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
because Greenland has only one small forest and normally relies on driftwood or imports for lumber. The ''
Saga of the Greenlanders
''Grœnlendinga saga'' () (spelled ''Grænlendinga saga'' in modern Icelandic and translated into English as the Saga of the Greenlanders) is one of the sagas of Icelanders. Like the ''Saga of Erik the Red'', it is one of the two main sources on t ...
'' also tells of 160 men and women who settled in Markland for winter protection led by
Thorfinn Karlsefni
Thorfinn Karlsefni Thórdarson was an Icelandic explorer. Around the year 1010, he followed Leif Eriksson's route to Vinland in a short-lived attempt to establish a permanent settlement there with his wife Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir and their fol ...
(''Þorfinnr Karlsefni Þórðarson''), c. 1010.
The ''
Saga of Erik the Red
The ''Saga of Erik the Red'', in non, Eiríks saga rauða (), is an Icelandic saga on the Norse exploration of North America. The original saga is thought to have been written in the 13th century. It is preserved in somewhat different versions ...
'' indicates that Markland is south of Helluland, north of
Vinland
Vinland, Vineland, or Winland ( non, Vínland ᚠᛁᚾᛚᛅᚾᛏ) was an area of coastal North America explored by Vikings. Leif Erikson landed there around 1000 AD, nearly five centuries before the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John ...
off ''Kjalarnes'', northwest of an island called Bjarney, and with a country that Karlsefni thinks may be
Hvítramannaland somewhere opposite its coast.
Non-Norse records
The only known mention of Markland in the Middle Ages outside of the Nordic area occurs in a chronicle written by the
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
ese
friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...
Galvaneus Flamma
Galvano Fiamma (1283–1344) was an Italian Dominican and chronicler of Milan. He appears to have been the first European in the Mediterranean area to describe the New World. His numerous historical writings include the ''Chronica Galvagnana'', ...
in the first half of the fourteenth century. This is the only known mention of the
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...
before
Columbus's voyage in 1492 outside of
Northern Europe
The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe Northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other g ...
.
See also
*
Vikings
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
*
Norse colonization of the Americas
The Norse exploration of North America began in the late 10th century, when Norsemen explored areas of the North Atlantic colonizing Greenland and creating a short term settlement near the northern tip of Newfoundland. This is known now as L'An ...
References
External links
Markland and Helluland Archaeology
{{Germanic peoples
Saga locations
Viking Age in Canada
Labrador
2nd millennium in North America