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The Grapes of Vinland: A Medieval Myth?

9/12/2013

35 Comments

 
First, a bit of news: America Unearthed was in Wisconsin last Friday to explore the Rock Lake, Wisconsin underwater “pyramids” near the mound site at Aztalan State Park. Any guesses what they’ll attribute the Mississippian ruins to? Giants? Aztecs? A Lost Tribe of Israel? All have appeared as explanations in the alternative literature.

Anyway, on to today’s topic.

Yesterday I discussed a bit about Vikings and Vinland, and I talked a moment about the origins of the wine-producing grapes of Vinland in medieval ideas about the Fortunate Islands. I thought it was worth expanding on this to bring together the textual evidence for a tradition of a grape-filled land beyond the Western Ocean that I think played a big role in creating the literary vision of Vinland.

Pliny the Elder in his Natural History (6.37) describes the geography of the Fortunate Islands and says that they abound in fruit, but he does not specify anything about grapes. That honor falls to Isidore of Seville, who in the early 600s CE produced the medieval world’s most influential reference to the Fortunate Islands, one that echoes down through later myths and legends. Isidore wrote:

The Fortunate Islands signify by their name that they produce all manner of good things, as if they were happy and blessed with an abundance of fruit. For suited by their nature they produce fruit from precious trees; grape vines of their own accord clothe the hillsides; instead of grass, crops (i.e., wheat) and vegetables are common. (14.6.8, my trans.)

Ah, grapes! And wheat! This idea of a vine-covered land of plenty spread very quickly. Here is Rabanus Maurus in De universo (12.5) about a century later:

The Fortunate Islands … by their very nature they produce fruits of the most precious trees; the slopes of their hills are covered with unplanted vines; there is grain in place of grass and kitchen vegetables everywhere. (trans. George Boas)

Compare this to the Voyage of Saint Brendan (chapter 25), believed to have been composed around 900 CE. Brendan crosses the sea and finds a magical island filled with grapes:

Three days after, they saw near at hand an island covered all over with trees, closely set, and laden with such grapes as those, in surprising abundance, so that all the branches were weighed down to the ground, with fruit of the same quality and colour, and there was no tree fruitless or of a different kind in the whole island.

Such texts set the stage for the expectation that any land found across the sea must perforce be rich with perpetual grapes. This description of the island of grapes seems to inform Icelandic literary descriptions of Vinland centuries later.

The oldest text about Vinland is that of Adam of Bremen, written around 1075 CE. “Vines grow there naturally, producing the best of wines. That unsown fruits grow there in abundance we have ascertained not from fabulous reports but from the trustworthy relations of the Danes” (Gesta Hammaburgensis 4.38, my trans.). In so saying, Adam was very clearly conscious that his audience would relate the story to the well-known tales of the Fortunate Islands. In fact, Adam specifically relates Vinland to the Thule of Romans—which was the last stop before Hyperborea, where enchanted people live for a century or more in a land where fruits grow from the ground (Pliny, Natural History 4.26; Pindar, Pythian 10). We know, though, from Icelandic authors like Snorri Sturluson a century later that the northern people were well-aware of Greco-Roman mythology and had taken to interpreting their history and civilization through this lens. For Snorri, Odin and his crew were Trojans, and Norse history entwined with that of Rome.

If I had to guess, though, I would think that the story came about when Adam tried to find out why the place was called Vinland, a name that could mean either “wine-land” or “pasture-land.”

Less than a century after Adam wrote, King Arthur was promoted to voyager through northern waters when Geoffrey of Monmouth made conqueror of Iceland in his History of the Kings of Britain (9.10). In his later work, the Life of Merlin, Geoffrey describes a Fortunate Isle, the Isle of Apples, in language borrowed from the Fortunate Islands of Isidore of Seville, and a bit about the long-lived Hyperboreans taken from Pliny:

Of its own accord it produces grain and grapes, and apple trees grow in its woods from the close-clipped grass. The ground of its own accord produces everything instead of merely grass, and people live there a hundred years or more. There nine sisters rule by a pleasing set of laws those who come to them from our country.

Geoffrey also describes Sri Lanka as having perpetual grapes and rocks covered in gems, a description very similar to the Island of the Saints in the first chapter of the Voyage of Saint Brendan.

Obviously, at the time lands over the sea were expected to have wild fruit, specifically the grain and grapes Isidore specified. Now let’s turn to the Icelandic sagas and see what we find.

In the Saga of Erik the Red (chapter 8), known from two slightly differing manuscripts of the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries from a presumed twelfth century original, there is a brief mention of grapes. Upon arriving at the new land across the sea from Greenland, Leif Erikson puts ashore two Scots, and they return days later: “And when three days were expired the Scotch people leapt down from the land, and one of them had in his hand a bunch of grapes, and the other an ear of wild wheat.” Grapes and wheat… the two boons of the Fortunate Islands. What a surprise. Indeed, more than one scholar connects Vinland to Isidore’s Fortunate Islands.

Given how paltry the saga’s reference is, and the fact that there was no wheat in pre-Columbian America (though native peoples of eastern Canada cultivated maize), this may well be either (a) a fictional application of the Fortunate Islands or (b) the application of Old World terms to New World fruits, such as the blueberry (particularly Vaccinium angustifolium), which looks like small European champagne grapes and is native to the circumpolar regions of Canada. After all, the Spanish called turkeys “peacocks.” Technically, the saga does not say that Leif’s men found grapes and therefore called the land Vinland; instead, it says they purposely went in search of a place called Vinland the Good and then found grapes at an unnamed spot.

The same chapter relates that “Karlsefni and his people sailed to the mouth of the river, and called the land Hop. There they found fields of wild wheat wherever there were low grounds; and the vine in all places where there was rough rising ground.” I think you can see how this is a fairly direct translation of Isidore’s Latin text, right down to the vines on the hills and the wheat in the low ground. That this does not correlate to the facts on the ground in the known Viking settlement area in eastern Canada does not bode well for Vinland as a land of grapes.

We turn next to the Greenlander Saga from the Flateyjarbók, written around 1387. It offers a more expansive version of the story, but one that differs in its details. Here is the material:

“I have not been very far, but I have something new to tell you; I have found vines and grapes!” “Is this true?” asked Leif.  “Yes, indeed it is,” answered Tyrker, “for I was brought up in a land where vines and grapes were in abundance.” “Then there are two matters to be attended to on alternate days to gather grapes and to fell timber, with which we may load the ship,” said Leif; and the task was at once commenced. It is said that their long-boat was filled with grapes. And now, having felled timber to load their ship, and the spring coming on, they made ready for their departure. Before he left, Leif gave the land a name expressive of its good produce, calling it Vinland—land of wine. (trans. James William Buel)

I’m not sure what kind of grapes grow in winter, as the narrative says, but the saga claims that the grapes of Vinland are perpetually ripe all the year round. These are clearly the magic grapes of the Fortunate Isles, not a real species.

Literary critics note that many of the readings in the Flateyjarbók are expanded and more fully developed versions of texts found in other sources. In fact, the Greenlander Saga appears to be an interpolation in the text and cannot be dated certainly. Since it is more elaborate than the Saga of Erik the Red, there is therefore reason to suspect later mythic expansion of an older, simpler text. Indeed, the Greenlander Saga has several points of contradiction with a version of Erik the Red included in the same book.

However, traditionally, scholars have argued on internal evidence that the Greenlander Saga is the oldest Icelandic account of Vinland—largely because Bishop Brand is given his name without the sobriquet “the Elder” found in the Erik the Red, implying the text was composed prior to 1263 when the second Bishop Brand was consecrated. Similarly, Greenlander preserves an older name for Blacksarck not found in the other texts.

At the same time, however, the inclusion of mythological motifs in the Greenlander narrative suggested to twentieth century critics that whatever truth there was to the account, it had been purposely or by chance corrupted in the telling. The magic grapes that ripen at all seasons were cited specifically as evidence of this corruption, as they match no known species.

Let’s recall that Erik the Red, in his Saga, supposedly named the frosty wastes of Greenland after the verdant valleys of paradise “‘because,” said he, ‘men will desire much the more to go there if the land has a good name.’” I’m not entirely sure that Vinland does not follow the same pattern—whether pasture land or wine land—with the name attracting to it the myth of the Fortunate Islands that then informed the “history” of the place.

35 Comments
Mo
9/12/2013 08:19:43 am

Don't be silly, Jason. Those underwater pyramids were built by refugees from the lost continent of Mu. My psychic told me so.

As for year-round grapes, researchers in Israel have developed a method of forcing wine grapes in winter for year-round yields. Cue the alternative historians citing this as proof.

Reply
The Other J.
9/12/2013 08:51:07 am

Are you a KLF fan?

Reply
Mo
9/13/2013 04:27:28 am

I'm old enough to get that reference. *sigh*

Actually, I'm a fan of this blog. Every time I think it would be a hoot to turn on one of these pseudo-everything shows... a few minutes in and I'm given over to despair. This blog and Skeptical Inquirer keep me going.

The Other J.
9/12/2013 08:45:42 am

Aztalan... Rock Lake... dammit. Let's see if the Beast of Bray Road also shows up on that episode.

There seems to be an odd parallel between the ancient saga writers and today's alternative history revisionists: In the past, it appears there was an emphasis on adopting mythical elements from previous cultures (like the forever-grapes) and locating them within their own myth-making attempts (whether those past mythical elements had a bit of truth in them or not). It serves to help place the myth-makers within a larger tradition of those grand enough to have a myth, which is also becomes a kind of ethnic pride celebration.

That seems similar to what you've identified again and again in these posts: Someone adopting another culture's past mythical elements (some of which may not be all that mythical) into their own attempts at revisionist history and revisionist myth-making. The stakes of that revisionism seem fairly low -- it wouldn't materially change much of anything today, but it does become a kind of ethnic one-upsmanship.

Maybe the alternative historians should just move to Milwaukee; there's more ethnic celebrations there than just any other city in the country, and they can get their fix. It's the only place I've ever been that celebrates Bastille Day with a city-sanctioned block party.

Reply
Shane Sullivan
9/12/2013 12:04:48 pm

I think you might get a kick out of this website

http://www.truthhere.com/Ancient-Civilizations/wisconsin-rock-lake-pyramids-aztalan.html

Some choice excerpts:

"Preserved human fecal droppings in the cave reveal to us that the original inhabitants ate cultivated foods identical to the specialized crops harvested by the original inhabitants of Aztlan. These people were of large stature with red and blond hair."

"The trade routes to North America were considered National Secrets. After the destruction of Atlantis, the knowledge of the Copper producing country was lost..and thus ended the Bronze Age."

At the bottom of the page is a photograph of one of the mounds at Aztalan which is captioned as such, but with no indication that the picture directly below it is actually Cahokia.

Have a good laugh.

Reply
The Other J.
9/12/2013 12:44:09 pm

That made my head hurt. As soon as I read that somehow hair color could be determined from ancient fecal remains, the first thing I said -- un-ironically -- was "you're shitting me."

I like how they "manufactured" gypsum and hixtonite. Also wasn't aware that the Toltecs were in Mexico AND South America -- that's a lot of ground to cover, a country and an entire continent. And here I thought they were centered in the area outside of Mexico City.

Those crazy Toltecs.

Dave Lewis
9/12/2013 04:45:09 pm

Ha ha, fooled 'em. I deposited those fecal droppings when I couldn't get to a restroom fast enough after eating 3 chili cheese burgers with onions. I guess you could call me ancient and I am of large stature (around the middle at least) and used to have blonde hair before I turned ancient.

Jonathan
9/12/2013 08:51:11 am

Rock Lake is near Aztalan State Park, but is not a part the park. Aztalan is located on the Crawfish River.

Reply
The Other J.
9/12/2013 10:12:38 am

It's only like 3 miles away from Aztalan, right? So it's within walking distance. The tribe who built the monuments in Aztalan probably didn't recognize any boundary between the two locations (if indeed the same culture built both Aztalan and the Rock Lake structures).

Reply
Jonathan
9/12/2013 12:11:12 pm

See my reply below. I forgot to click reply to your reponse!

H.
9/12/2013 09:25:32 am

Jason, just curious- how do you always know what 'America Unearthed' is doing?

Reply
Jason Colavito link
9/12/2013 09:43:14 am

Magic.

Actually, Google. You can search for things by the past 24 hours, and that usually gives the latest information.

Reply
Jonathan
9/12/2013 12:09:21 pm

They are close--not sure of the exact distance. I just wanted to point out that the lake is not part of the state park. If you go to the state park you will see mounds, a partially reconstructed stockade, and the Crawfish River, but not the lake.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
9/12/2013 12:15:07 pm

I fixed the post to correct the error.

Reply
The Other J.
9/12/2013 05:56:50 pm

Jonathan, do you know when the Rock Lake structures were discovered? (I'm sure it was well after Aztalan was made into a state park.)

And isn't there supposed to be some kind of stone dolmen-type structure on an island down there? Not something similar to a Celtic structure -- a circle of raised megaliths, but not huge. I can't remember if that was on an island in Rock Lake or someplace else -- just know it was in that region. Turtle Lake?

Gah, I can't remember. I stumbled across it months back when trying to look up stone structures Native Americans made after Wolter suggested Native Americans never made stone structures. I was and I wasn't surprised to find it in Wisconsin, but just can't remember where it's at.

Reply
Jonathan
9/12/2013 06:05:50 pm

Based on memory (so not necessarily reliable) there were some type of stone structures o served in the lake by people who first settled in the area but rising water obscured them from view(?). I have not read about Rock Lake for a long time. I will have to check wikipedia tomorrow when I can use my computer. I will be driving past the area on Sunday. Maybe I will take a detour and check it out. I have been to Aztalan several times this year. It is a fantastic site. Hopefully it is unsullied by AU!

Jonathan
9/12/2013 06:14:30 pm

Definitely do not quote me on that. The more I think about it as I lay here trying to fall asleep, the less confident I am in my memory!

Varika
9/12/2013 12:09:45 pm

"Any guesses what they’ll attribute the Mississippian ruins to? Giants? Aztecs? A Lost Tribe of Israel?"

Well, he's denied the Lost Tribe before to put Templars in its hoax...I mean, place. And Aztecs aren't white enough for that show. So I'm going with Viking Giants, Precursors to the Knights Templar.

As for the meat of the article, Snorri Sturluson wrote down the Prose Edda (in much the same way as the Brothers Grimm did fairytales much later) at least in part because of how indirectly referential Scandinavian literature was at the time. I would suggest that this is some evidence that strongly supports the theory in your last paragraph, that the area was named after a key feature of paradise. This would ALSO neatly explain the references in the earliest saga you quoted to grapes and wheat; Scandinavian literature, particularly poetry, loved to make their references oblique in exactly that fashion.

So there we have it: the Vinland Sagas were medieval real estate advertising brochures.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
9/12/2013 01:36:41 pm

You mean you don't know that the Toltecs were the first "white" inhabitants of America, that they conquered both North and South America, and that they invented pyramid-building? That, sadly, was a prominent nineteenth century claim related to the Mound Builder myth. Yes, it was argued that the Toltecs were "white" because it was the only way Native people could have learned civilization.

Reply
Shane Sullivan
9/12/2013 02:34:06 pm

And it wasn't even the advanced trappings of civilization like pictographs and metalworking, but things as simple as mound-building. That's right, the native Americans were considered so primitive that *piling dirt* was too advanced for them to figure out without European influence.

Varika
9/12/2013 06:25:56 pm

Shane, I think that says more about the average European than it does about the average Native American. If you know what I mean.

The Other J.
9/12/2013 10:33:04 pm

Have you seen Dead Man?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvrwhZUHaKg

(I mean that in reference to those who think Native Americans weren't capable of piling dirt.)

Gerard Saylor
9/13/2013 05:44:44 am

I posted the above linked photos from the TV show production in the library.

There are plenty of theories in Lake Mills regarding the bottom of the lake and whether there are man made structures or not. The TV crew brought in mini-submarines to film and a local guy has done a lot of diving and underwater photography. Rock Lake has pretty clear water, but not that clear.

The center of Rock Lake to Aztalan Park is 3.6 miles on a straight line (according to an internet map). There are plenty of areas around here with multiple arrowheads but I doubt anyone has accurately dated the refuse and relics that have been found outside the Park.

There was a dig at the Park this summer: http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/archaeologists-seek-to-unearth-mysteries-at-aztalan-state-park-b9942962z1-213712021.html

Reply
The Other J.
9/13/2013 07:57:50 am

I've never been IN Rock Lake, only by it; how clear is the water? I know a while back (1990's?) there was a guy who led dives down to the structures, but the problem was the water was so silty a short ways below the surface that you really only had a couple meters of visibility on most days -- which made getting the full Rock Lake pyramid experience a problem. That may even be why those dives ceased; looking through three feet of murk to see a few stacked rocks wasn't drumming up business.

And thanks for the link. (That grad student, Pfaffenroth -- what a Wisconsin name.)

Reply
Gerard Saylor
9/13/2013 10:49:40 am

Rock Lake water is pretty clear. Our watershed delivers a lot less pollution than some other lakes. It is still silty at the bottom though, I recall someone telling me that.

There is a local guy who self-produced a DVD listing his theories on the lake bottom but I never got around to watching it and do not know how much footage he has of the lake bottom.

Gunn
9/13/2013 06:45:15 am

Good information about Vinland.

I wonder how diffused information was about Vinland in the late 1800's immigrant region of MN? Would references to Vinland be readily available for public consumption?

I eat wild grapes this time of the year along the MN River valley. They really are good...seedy, but good. I usually put about a dozen in my mouth at a time and then mash down on them, getting just the juice and spitting out the bitter outer shells and seeds. Very delicious, but staining on the mouth and hands. I was in the UP of MI a few weeks ago and picked and ate plenty of blueberries, which grow in small bushes close to the ground. In lower MI, they grow wild, too, but in taller bushes. In MN here, there are wild grapes in abundance, and wild rice (not wheat) grows in shallow water. It is a bit like Vinland, one could say.

I notice Bremen and Lief used the word Vinland a few hundred years before "Vinland" was actually mentioned on Jason's Waterloo. Apparently, Vinland was located pretty much directly to the far east of Kensington, MN.

Why am I not surprised?

Reply
Only Me
9/13/2013 07:51:04 am

Another lame reference to Da Rock of 'Sota. Why am I not surprised?

Reply
Gunn
9/13/2013 12:32:23 pm

Only You, you must have noticed that Jason flipped a suitable door open. My comments are on subject. Your comment here reflects seagull poop...flyby crap. Nothing added but Blog Rat insults. I like how some here would like to define my degree of respect or disrespect, while overlooking their own. But then, I guess someone already pointed out what a hypocrite you are. Rather than make a crass comment, why not simply butt-out? I added food for thought; you added nothing...blank...used food...poop. You, like poop, are discharged.

Reply
Only Me
9/13/2013 03:10:20 pm

*Yawn*

Reply
Blog Rats Bite Back
9/14/2013 05:26:31 pm

Gunn, you added diet soda for thought: provides nothing of value and having a whole load of additives that just need to be washed out.

Reply
Gunn Is Great
9/15/2013 03:55:07 am

what? What! Many of us drink nothing but diet soda, and we're not a bunch of fatties. Value is in the eye of the beholder.

william smith
9/16/2013 01:18:54 am

Vinland and the KRS have one thing in common. The KRS indicates they were in the west of Vinland. It also indicates they were on a land acquisition. Vineland is said to come from the land of wild grapes. This land goes from the east coast to Minn. The west boundary of Vinland and the KRS both are located on the zero variance line of magnetic declination in 1362. During the same year 1362, Denmark was on another zero line of magnetic declination. When Paul Knutson sailed west he was instructed to find the (North Pole) (place of zero magnetic declination). When Josh Cort real sailed west in 1472 he was instructed to go as far as the eye can see (90 degrees on the earth). Because of the 50 mile drift to the east every 100 years of the zero magnetic declination line, could it be that the west boundry of Vinland was marked by the KRS in 1362 near the N. Dakota, Minn. border. Then when Cort real found the marker in 1472 he relocated it to its finding location. This means of navigation to determine longitude has been in use since 1250.

Reply
Gunn link
9/17/2013 01:12:04 pm

Gunn, up above: "In MN here, there are wild grapes in abundance, and wild rice (not wheat) grows in shallow water. It is a bit like Vinland, one could say."

Pretty good. Now someone comes here to say Vinland extended to MN. Who am I to argue...except that the stone says far to the west from Vinland. I do believe Vinland was pretty much directly east of the Kensington, MN area, though, in line from the East Coast. (Why? Because this is what the KRS says.)

I don't believe the stone was ever moved. "Peninsula-island" exactly describes Runestone Hill, where it was found. The watery wrap-around is moat-like. Again, at least a dozen stonehole rocks encircle Runestone Hill, doubling the mystery. The stonehole rocks aren't hoaxed; in my opinion, neither is the KRS.

Please keep in mind, too, that the Chippewa River passes by within about 3 miles of Runestone Hill. Chippewa River flows into the MN River. Eventually, the St. Croix up to near Duluth, where the other 10 men waited. See the Chippewa River route at my website. One can take "a day's journey" up the river and end up near Brandon, where the Brandon battle axe was given to a pioneering farmer by a Native American.

Bottom Line: the KRS most likely wasn't moved. Of course, it is always possible that it was, but information and logic says to me that it wasn't. (And it's pretty hard to fool Old Gunn.)

Reply
Alastair Sweeny
9/16/2013 04:13:48 am

Jason: The wild concord grape does grow in the St. Lawrence Valley - Jacques Cartier called the Ile d'Orleans the Island of Bacchus. The finding of black walnut at Anse aux Meadows suggest the Norse may have reached as far as New Brunswick in the Gulf of St. Lawrence - the northern limit of the tree. According to this book, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29659/29659-h/29659-h.htm the wild grape is also found in New Brunswick. The Norse eventually quarrelled with the local native people and had to retreat from colonization.

Reply
Daniel Monroe
6/30/2020 08:25:37 pm

I was led to believe that Vinland was found by flowering a large body of water that led into a river that led into a large forest area were grapes grew wild and pasture land was plentiful where the Natives were aggressive and the days almost matched the nights if so the Duluth Superior area closely matches where Vinland could be located.

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