Great Ireland
Encyclopedia
Great Ireland also known as White Men's Land (Hvítramannaland), and in Latin
similarly as Hibernia Major and Albania, was a land said by various Norsemen
to be located near Vinland
. In one report, in the Saga of Eric the Red
, some skrælingar captured in Markland
described the people in what was supposedly White Men's Land, to have been "dressed in white garments, uttered loud cries, bare long poles, and wore fringes." Another report identifies it with the Albani people, with "hair and skin as white as snow."
Scholars and writers disagree on the nature of the land, from either being treated as a myth based on faded knowledge of lands in the western ocean, to theories on actually locating it somewhere in North America
.
, Ari Marsson discovered the land six days' sailing west of Ireland
. This journey is thought to have occurred around the year 983.
, where it is related that the inhabitants of Markland
speak of it to Thorfinn Karlsefni
;
, Gudleif Gudlaugson and his crew had attempted to sail from Dublin to Iceland
, but was instead driven out to sea, "first west and then south-west, well out of sight of land." They finally arrived in a land they did not know where was, but that seemed great. Later, the inhabitants of the land came to meet them, and the Norse thought they seemed to speak Irish
. Soon, hundreds of these people came to attack and capture the Norsemen, and marched them inland to a court to be tried and sentenced. The Norse then understood that these people wanted to either kill or enslave them, but were soon saved by the intervention of an Icelandic-speaking leader-figure who lived among the people. He started asking detailed questions about people in Borgarfjord and Breidafjord in Iceland, and gave the Norse some items to give on to specific people there. He also claimed that Gudleif had been lucky to arrive at the place, because "this is a big country and the harbours are few and far between." Although the man did not want to reveal who he was (reportedly to keep his "kinsmen and blood-brothers" from getting in trouble by trying to visit him), the Norse later took him to have been Bjorn the Breidavik-Champion, who had been exiled from Iceland some thirty years earlier.
The described circumstances in this report, has led some to connect it with Great Ireland, although this is not explicitly stated in the Eyrbyggja saga. The voyage is thought to have been undertaken in 1029.
), the Arab
geographer al-Idrisi
in his famous Tabula Rogeriana
mentioned Irlandah-al-Kabirah (Great Ireland). According to him, "from the extremity of Iceland to that of Great Ireland," the sailing time was "one day." Although historians note that both al-Idrisi and the Norse tend to understate distances, the only location this reference is thought to have possibly pointed to, must likely have been in Greenland.
states that the inhabitants of Hvítramannaland were albani, meaning people with white hair and skin.
Carl Christian Rafn
positioned Great Irleand in Chesapeake Bay
. Rafn based his identification on Shawnee
Amerindian legends of a race described as "white men who used iron instruments". These legends he connected to the description of the inhabitants of Greater Ireland as being white who carried poles.
Other sources place Great Ireland in Newfoundland, Canada.
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
similarly as Hibernia Major and Albania, was a land said by various Norsemen
Norsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
to be located near Vinland
Vinland
Vinland was the name given to an area of North America by the Norsemen, about the year 1000 CE.There is a consensus among scholars that the Vikings reached North America approximately five centuries prior to the voyages of Christopher Columbus...
. In one report, in the Saga of Eric the Red
Saga of Eric the Red
Eiríks saga rauða or the Saga of Erik the Red is a saga on the Norse exploration of North-America.The saga chronicles the events that led to Erik the Red's banishment to Greenland as well as Leif Ericson's discovery of Vinland the Good after his longship was blown off course...
, some skrælingar captured in Markland
Markland
Markland is the name given to a part of shoreline in Labrador, Canada, named by Leif Eriksson when he landed in North America. The word Markland is from the Old Norse language for "forestland" or "borderland". It is described as being north of Vinland and south of Helluland...
described the people in what was supposedly White Men's Land, to have been "dressed in white garments, uttered loud cries, bare long poles, and wore fringes." Another report identifies it with the Albani people, with "hair and skin as white as snow."
Scholars and writers disagree on the nature of the land, from either being treated as a myth based on faded knowledge of lands in the western ocean, to theories on actually locating it somewhere in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
Landnámabók
According to the LandnámabókLandnámabók
Landnámabók , often shortened to Landnáma, is a medieval Icelandic written work describing in considerable detail the settlement of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries AD.-Landnáma:...
, Ari Marsson discovered the land six days' sailing west of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. This journey is thought to have occurred around the year 983.
Their son was Ari, who drifted to White Men's Land, which some people call Greater Ireland. It lies in the ocean to westward, near Vineland the Good, said to be a six day sail west from Ireland. Ari couldn't get away, and was baptized there. This story was first told by Hrafn Limerick-Farer who spent a long time at LimerickLimerickLimerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
in Ireland. Thorkel Gellisson quoted some Icelanders who had heard EarlEarlAn earl is a member of the nobility. The title is Anglo-Saxon, akin to the Scandinavian form jarl, and meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke...
ThorfinnThorfinnThorfinn may refer to:* Thorfinn Turf-Einarsson, Earl of Orkney * Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney * Thorfinn Karlsefni, Icelandic explorer...
of Orkney say that Ari had been recognized in White Man's Land, and couldn't get away from there, but was thought very highly of.
Saga of Eric the Red
White Men's Land is also mentioned in the Saga of Eric the RedSaga of Eric the Red
Eiríks saga rauða or the Saga of Erik the Red is a saga on the Norse exploration of North-America.The saga chronicles the events that led to Erik the Red's banishment to Greenland as well as Leif Ericson's discovery of Vinland the Good after his longship was blown off course...
, where it is related that the inhabitants of Markland
Markland
Markland is the name given to a part of shoreline in Labrador, Canada, named by Leif Eriksson when he landed in North America. The word Markland is from the Old Norse language for "forestland" or "borderland". It is described as being north of Vinland and south of Helluland...
speak of it to Thorfinn Karlsefni
Thorfinn Karlsefni
Thorfinn Karlsefni was an Icelandic explorer who circa 1010 AD led an attempt to settle Vínland with three ships and 160 settlers. Among the settlers was Freydís Eiríksdóttir, according to Grœnlendinga saga and Eiríks saga rauða, sister or half-sister of Leif Eriksson...
;
Now, when they sailed from Vinland, they had a southern wind, and reached Markland, and found five Skrælingar; one was a bearded man, two were women, two children. Karlsefni's people caught the children, but the others escaped and sunk down into the earth. And they took the children with them, and taught them their speech, and they were baptized. The children called their mother Vætilldi, and their father Uvægi. They said that kings ruled over the land of the Skrælingar, one of whom was called Avalldamon, and the other Valldidida. They said also that there were no houses, and the people lived in caves or holes. They said, moreover, that there was a land on the other side over against their land, and the people there were dressed in white garments, uttered loud cries, bare long poles, and wore fringes. This was supposed to be Hvitramannaland (White Man's Land). Then came they to Greenland, and remained with Eirik the Red during the winter.
Eyrbyggja saga
In the Eyrbyggja sagaEyrbyggja saga
Eyrbyggja saga is one of the Icelanders' sagas. The name means the saga of the inhabitants of Eyrr, which is a farm on Snæfellsnes on Iceland. The name is slightly misleading as it deals also with the clans of Þórsnes and Alptafjörðr. The most central character is Snorri Þorgrímsson or Snorri goði...
, Gudleif Gudlaugson and his crew had attempted to sail from Dublin to Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, but was instead driven out to sea, "first west and then south-west, well out of sight of land." They finally arrived in a land they did not know where was, but that seemed great. Later, the inhabitants of the land came to meet them, and the Norse thought they seemed to speak Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
. Soon, hundreds of these people came to attack and capture the Norsemen, and marched them inland to a court to be tried and sentenced. The Norse then understood that these people wanted to either kill or enslave them, but were soon saved by the intervention of an Icelandic-speaking leader-figure who lived among the people. He started asking detailed questions about people in Borgarfjord and Breidafjord in Iceland, and gave the Norse some items to give on to specific people there. He also claimed that Gudleif had been lucky to arrive at the place, because "this is a big country and the harbours are few and far between." Although the man did not want to reveal who he was (reportedly to keep his "kinsmen and blood-brothers" from getting in trouble by trying to visit him), the Norse later took him to have been Bjorn the Breidavik-Champion, who had been exiled from Iceland some thirty years earlier.
The described circumstances in this report, has led some to connect it with Great Ireland, although this is not explicitly stated in the Eyrbyggja saga. The voyage is thought to have been undertaken in 1029.
12th century Norman Sicily
In the 12th century, in Norman Sicily (where the Normans probably brought the belief with them from ScandinaviaScandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
), the Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
geographer al-Idrisi
Muhammad al-Idrisi
Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani al-Sabti or simply Al Idrisi was a Moroccan Muslim geographer, cartographer, Egyptologist and traveller who lived in Sicily, at the court of King Roger II. Muhammed al-Idrisi was born in Ceuta then belonging to the Almoravid Empire and died in...
in his famous Tabula Rogeriana
Tabula Rogeriana
The Nuzhat al-mushtaq fi'khtiraq al-afaq lit. "the book of pleasant journeys into faraway lands", most often known as the Tabula Rogeriana , is a description of the world and world map created by the Arab geographer, Muhammad al-Idrisi, in 1154...
mentioned Irlandah-al-Kabirah (Great Ireland). According to him, "from the extremity of Iceland to that of Great Ireland," the sailing time was "one day." Although historians note that both al-Idrisi and the Norse tend to understate distances, the only location this reference is thought to have possibly pointed to, must likely have been in Greenland.
Hauksbók
The HauksbókHauksbók
The Hauksbók is one of the few medieval Norse manuscripts of which the author is known. His name was Haukr Erlendsson , and as long back as it is possible to trace the manuscript it has been called the Hauksbók after its author. It was partly written by Haukr himself, partly by assistants...
states that the inhabitants of Hvítramannaland were albani, meaning people with white hair and skin.
16th century Iceland
In a 16th century Icelandic text, a chart had apparently been made of the land;Sir Erlend Thordson had obtained from abroad the geographical chart of that Albania, or land of the White men, which is situated opposite Vinland the good, of which mention has been before made in this little book, and which the merchants formerly called Hibernia Major or Great Ireland, and lies, as has been said, to the west of Ireland proper. This chart had held accurately all those tracts of land, and the boundaries of Markland, Einfœtingjaland, and little Helluland, together with Greenland, to the west of it, where apparently begins the good Terra Florida.
Location hypotheses
Kirsten Seaver identified the land as a fabled country, which had arised on the background of the faded knowledge of lands in the far western ocean by Icelanders.Carl Christian Rafn
Carl Christian Rafn
Carl Christian Rafn was a Danish historian, translator and antiquarian. His scholarship to a large extent focused on translation of Old Norse literature and related Northern European ancient history...
positioned Great Irleand in Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
. Rafn based his identification on Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
Amerindian legends of a race described as "white men who used iron instruments". These legends he connected to the description of the inhabitants of Greater Ireland as being white who carried poles.
Other sources place Great Ireland in Newfoundland, Canada.
Secondary sources
- The Discovery of America by North-men in the Tenth Century, Carl Christian Rafn, T. and W. Boone, 1841.
External links
- LandnámabókLandnámabókLandnámabók , often shortened to Landnáma, is a medieval Icelandic written work describing in considerable detail the settlement of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries AD.-Landnáma:...
(Old Norse) - Saga of Erik the Red (English, Old Norse)
- Library Ireland - The Legend of "Great Ireland" and of Saint Brandan