I recently learned about a book published last year by literary critic Annette Kolodny called In Search of First Contact, which explores many of the issues recently brought up by America Unearthed and other efforts to propose white pre-Columbian visitors to America. Kolodny traces the Anglo-American interest in white Viking discoverers of America as a manifestation of racial pride and racial panic between 1837 and today. Or, at least I think that’s the point. The book also wants to explore on literary and oral history grounds a new theory of Viking colonization stretching as far south as New England. I’ll let Duke University Press describe the book in typically overblown marketing language:

In Search of First Contact is a monumental achievement by the influential literary critic Annette Kolodny. In this book, she offers a radically new interpretation of two medieval Icelandic tales, known as the Vinland sagas. She contends that they are the first known European narratives about contact with North America. After carefully explaining the evidence for that conclusion, Kolodny examines what happened after 1837, when English translations of the two sagas became widely available and enormously popular in the United States. She assesses their impact on literature, immigration policy, and concepts of masculinity.

I in no way want to throw cold water on this, but the Vinland sagas have been recognized as the oldest European narratives of contact with North America since Carl Christian Rafn first published his analysis in 1837—as the date in the above paragraph makes plain, and Kolodny’s book discusses. The marketing team is perhaps a bit too aggressive in making her book into something it’s not, though Kolodny herself presents as revelation several facts about the Vinland sagas that were well-known not just to Rafn but to Sir Daniel Wilson, who wrote a very similar study to Kolodny’s in his 1892 book The Lost Atlantis—right down to the racial pride angle and the identification of the “Skraelings” of Norse saga with the Micmac (Mi’kmaq) of Nova Scotia on account of their boats! Let me stipulate here that I have not read the complete book, and the following discussion is based primarily on lengthy excerpts available through ScribD and other sources. Therefore, what follows is not a review of the book but rather a discussion of a few points that stood out for me. Let’s start with some of the interesting material that the book does well. Kolodny’s primary concern is to describe how white Anglo-Americans embraced claims that the Vikings preceded Columbus to America. She chronicles the way elite opinion makers, especially New Englanders, adopted the Vikings as fictive ancestors, ostentatiously proclaiming Viking heritage. The nouveau riche robber barons sought to associate themselves with Norse and Celtic history as a way of legitimizing their new fortunes and tying it back to “old money.” And the Victorian debate over immigration—which people would be counted as “real” Americans—took shape over the competing claims of Columbus and the Vikings; that is, whether Latin peoples were “white” enough to become Americans. It was in the context of this debate that in 1892 Thomas Sinclair famously tried to make his ancestor Henry II Sinclair, Earl of Orkney (son of the more famous Henry I), not just heir to the Vikings but the true discoverer of America. Sinclair claimed that this both justified white domination of Native peoples and discrimination against inferior Latin peoples, particularly Italians. This is very interesting, but the other part of the book—in which Kolodny asks us to accept the Viking Sagas as the start of “American” literature, and Native oral histories as true accounts of Viking colonization, is less persuasive. Kolodny approaches the Vinland Sagas from a literary point of view, and she accepts that the sagas recorded correct details for the native peoples they encountered. Thus, she takes Vinland to refer to wild grapes, which grow only as far north as southern New Brunswick, though the “vin” in “Vinland” could also refer to meadows or pastures rather than wine. It is not at all clear that the sagas are reporting a fact that grapes were found in Vinland rather than attempting to explain why the land had a name that was not quite understood. (If you don’t believe that the medieval people had a thing for fake etymology, try reading Isidore of Seville.) That said, there is nothing absurd about the suggestion that Vinland was a bit south of L’anse-aux-Meadows, around northern New Brunswick, or that the Vikings may have explored as far south as Nova Scotia. There is no evidence for this, though, other than the sagas, which are more literary than factual. As I pointed out previously, the very oldest text on Vinland, by Adam of Bremen, seems to have borrowed its description of Vinland from medieval descriptions of the Fortunate Islands, like that of Isidore of Seville (Etymologiae 14.6.8), which were defined (in both instances, and in near-identical words) as lands where grapes grow wild and the ground produces untold types of fruit. This same description appears, again almost verbatim, in the Life of Merlin by Geoffrey of Monmouth around the same time to describe the island of Avalon. Isidore, with his “grape vines which of their own accord clothe the hillsides,” wrote 400 years before the Vikings landed at Vinland. Without accounting for the mythical identification of the far-off world with the Fortunate Islands, it is fruitless to go grape-hunting in New England or Canada. Nevertheless, Kolodny therefore suggests that the “skin boats” the Skraelings used had to refer to the Micmac (Mi’kmaq) rather than the Arctic peoples. However, the predecessors of the Inuit, the Thule, were using skin boats as far back as 1000 CE, though they did not take over the Canadian coast until closer to 1300. To be fair, the Dorset, who preceded the Thule, did not use large boats when the Vikings arrived at L’anse-aux-Meadows in 1000 CE, but the sagas were composed around 1300 CE and included a hodgepodge of material that also talks of areas where the Thule were living in 1000. I’m not sure how you would separate out the various strands of the sagas into a strict geographical correlate after two hundred years of retelling and change. Kolodny describes several Native American oral traditions, reporting without comment one informant’s claim that Native traditions report events dating back 10,000 years. She mentions several stories that have been traditionally seen by scholars as reflecting contact between northern peoples and the Vikings alongside seemingly-modern Micmac stories. For example, she tells us that some Micmac today claim Viking ancestry because European explorers noticed their light colored skin, but she also points out that this can better be explained by known European colonization events—though she does not mention that skin color was not synonymous with race in the 1500s, as we have seen in more than one place where modern writers take European references to Native skin tone as evidence of Caucasian heritage.

I can understand the appeal of oral tradition, especially among academics like Kolodny who explicitly set out to be deferential to Native beliefs—she gave her Native informants veto power over the final manuscript, for example—but I worry about how a legend recorded “for the first time” in 2005 can tell us anything about alleged Viking excursions to Nova Scotia in 1000. According to this legend, from the Penobscot, a people who are very clearly European (“whitish, pale skinned and a lot of hair on their faces”) came in a “large” canoe bigger than any other, stayed two days, and left. But Kolodny herself notes that there is no way to know when this took place, and I would add that there is no way to know that the story as told is how it would have been told in 1800, 1500, or 1000. Kolodny wonders why the legend, recording “first” contact, mentions no surprise or alarm among the Native people. She explains this with recourse to the myth of Glooscap, whom you will remember as the Micmac god Frederick J. Pohl identified with Henry Sinclair. Kolodny suggests (cautiously, and does not insist) that Glooscap might have been (yes) an early European voyager! Even the most sympathetic of observers can’t resist implying that Native Americans ended up worshiping white people by mistake—even though this was certainly not her intention.

Let me give a clearer example that I think will help illustrate my concern. In her second book about ancient fossil hunters, Fossil Legends of the First Americans (2005), Adrienne Mayor uses oral histories collected as recently as 1992 to argue that Native peoples understood dinosaur fossils in much the same way as modern paleontologists. However, she notes that the stories told by Native peoples changed dramatically after dinosaurs entered the movies. Suddenly, legends that once featured mythological monsters were reconfigured to discuss “dinosaurs” and “mastodons”—and this change is supposed to help “prove” the original myth’s intention! Vine Deloria went so far as to say that an ancient Sioux word for a mythological creature represented as a constellation should be translated as “hairy elephant” (a mastodon, of course) because he assumed that the myth had a basis in fact, and the “translation” would thus prove the assumption. And, pray tell, where did the word for “elephant” come from?

If we can agree that adding the words “dinosaur” and “mastodon” in place of traditional monsters in the 1930s does not imply anything about the actual creatures’ prehistoric origins, then I think it is equally difficult to assume that oral legends related 500 years after contact with Europeans preserve historically accurate information about a single day (!) in 1000 CE.

Jason said: ...but I worry about how a legend recorded “for the first time” in 2005 can tell us anything about alleged Viking excursions to Nova Scotia in 1000.

and: I think it is equally difficult to assume that oral legends related 500 years after contact with Europeans preserve historically accurate information about a single day (!) in 1000 CE.

Spoken like a true skeptic!

Well, at least the Chippewa (Ojibwa) used birch-bark scrolls to help them keep things straight. By the way, some of these still exist, hundreds of years old...and some were discovered in modern times.

Of course, the difficulty is trying to determine Native American story-reliability. I must assume that some "stories" are more reliable than others. I think, in some cases, we should listen to what Native Americans are saying.

The Brandon Axe, a Scandinavian-style battle axe, was given to a late 1800's immigrant farmer by a Native American. For example, I would like to find out whether this Native American had anything else to say about the metal object...which, incidentally, is in remarkably good condition. It is at the KRS museum...and that's all I'll say about that....

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Dan D

9/11/2013 09:44:03 am

. "It is at the KRS museum...and that's all I'll say about that."

Thanks for less boredom......lol

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Thane

9/11/2013 10:32:47 am

Sadly without the provenance of the axe there is no way to know if the Native American received if from a Scandinavian settler or someone who received it from said settler in the early or mid-1800's

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Shane Sullivan

9/11/2013 05:11:05 pm

"Well, at least the Chippewa (Ojibwa) used birch-bark scrolls to help them keep things straight. By the way, some of these still exist, hundreds of years old...and some were discovered in modern times."

Yes, they're called wiigwaasabak. There's a lot of interesting history there; it's unfortunate that none of the scrolls are known to have existed in pre-Columbian times.

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Thane

9/11/2013 10:29:27 am

A couple of thoughts and I will admit they are mere musings on my part.....

I thought the whole New England thing, especially among the elite, was all about the Mayflower, the Winthrop Fleet (1632) and proving descent from those first settlers. I never recall hearing a desire to prove they (NE Elite) were eager to link back to the Vikings.

Secondly, There was a large influx of Scandinavian immigration to America settling through the NE and mostly settling in the upper midwest.

From Wikipedia

"Swedish migration peaked 1870-1900. By 1890 the U.S. census reported a Swedish-American population of nearly 800,000. Most immigrants became classic pioneers, clearing and cultivating the prairies of the Great Plains, while others remained in the cities, particularly Chicago."

and

"Between 1825 and 1925, more than 800,000 Norwegians immigrated to North America—about one-third of Norway's population with the majority immigrating to the USA, and lesser numbers immigrating to the Dominion of Canada. With the exception of Ireland, no single country contributed a larger percentage of its population to the United States than Norway"

When you also think about the origins of Columbus day and general acceptance that Columbus discovered the Americas...(also from Wikipedia

"Columbus Day first became an official state holiday in Colorado in 1906, and became a federal holiday in the United States in 1937, though people have celebrated Columbus' voyage since the colonial period. In 1792, New York City and other U.S. cities celebrated the 300th anniversary of his landing in the New World. President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of the event. During the four hundredth anniversary in 1892, teachers, preachers, poets and politicians used Columbus Day rituals to teach ideals of patriotism. ....

....

Many Italian-Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of their heritage, the first occasion being in New York City on October 12, 1866.[4] Columbus Day was first enshrined as a legal holiday in the United States through the lobbying of Angelo Noce, a first generation Italian, in Denver. The first statewide Columbus Day holiday was proclaimed by Colorado governor Jesse F. McDonald in 1905, and it was made a statutory holiday in 1907.[5] In April 1934, as a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, Congress and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made October 12 a federal holiday under the name Columbus Day""

Columbus day was seen as a heritage pride day by the Italian immigrants. St. Patrick's day by the Irish. The Poles had revolutionary war heroes Pulaski and Kościuszko. Other heritage groups wanted their own piece of the US founding.

Sooo, the desire to believe that the Vikings trumped Columbus can be seen in the context of Pride of Heritage rather than race.

That's why race is such a tricky concept. In the nineteenth century, Teutonic people thought of themselves as separate from Latin peoples, whose blood ran hotter and were consequently more emotional and irrational than the Germanic peoples. In Victorian usage there were the major races (white, black, etc.) and then the minor races within them (Teuton, Latin, Slav, etc.).

I don't think anyone tried to claim direct descent from the Vikings of Vinland; rather, they wanted to associate themselves with "Aryan" or "Teutonic" pride.

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Thane

9/11/2013 10:58:25 am

Or another way to look at it.....Northern European Protestant vs. Southern European-Mediterranean Catholics.

Lynn Brant

9/12/2013 12:47:53 am

It is fantasy to think the ethnic pride that gave rise to the KRS was "Aryan" rather than simply Scandinavian. The KRS could have been "found" anywhere in America and been in the midst of Aryans. I find it far too coincidental that it was found in the middle of the greatest Scandinavian population concentration in the world outside Scandinavia. Yes, they were jealous of the Italians and the Columbus schtick, but the rest is the manufacture of the present-day race-mongers of which Kolodny is clearly one.

Oh, THAT again. We weren't talking about the KRS. Viking heritage was all the rage for 60 years before the KRS, and among non-Scandinavians. There was a big movement to try to create a fictive history for American elites, and it found expression in everything from Viking heritage movements to the myth of the Mound Builders--anything to tie white Americans to the land in a way that (a) excluded hated England and (b) justified suppression of Native peoples.

The local circumstances of the KRS (and did we really have to mention it--now there will be a hundred posts about it) are an offshoot of the broader situation.

The Other J.

9/11/2013 12:55:38 pm

Not having read the book, I hope Kolodny acknowledges the other possible dimensions of the word 'vin,' because that's what literary critics are supposed to do.

You can offer a reading by taking that one specific interpretation, but it's important to acknowledge that "wine" is one of a few options, and at least explore a little bit what those other options may offer. Then weigh up the evidence for and against the various options, and use that discussion to help justify your case for the reading of "wine" you present.

Maybe Kolodny does this, but it sounds like from what you've seen, that's not the case.

I don't see anything in a Google Books search of the text, but she does discuss the literary evidence for wine, which is references in the Sagas to the discovery of wild grapes in Vinland. That said, as I have mentioned, wild grapes were a staple of fantasy literature about the Fortunate Islands, and I am surprised that she did not mention this in the context of medieval voyage narratives.

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Paul Cargile

9/12/2013 01:07:29 am

Ah, the land of Vehicle Identificatin Numbers.

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Gunn

9/12/2013 04:50:15 am

Jason says: The local circumstances of the KRS (and did we really have to mention it--now there will be a hundred posts about it) are an offshoot of the broader situation.

Whew! That sure can be taken a few different ways. The local circumstances of the KRS? An offshoot of the broader situation?

For you, the local circumstances is the faking of the KRS. The broader situation is the Scandinavian immigrant desire to trump Columbus and the Italians, no?

For me, the local circumstances reveal what I fondly call "Jason's Waterloo" to avoid keying KRS...out of conservative politeness, if nothing else. In other words, the local circumstances reveal a genuine stone document dated 1362. The broader situation involves local, regional and American history.

Perspective is everything. Vinland? West of Vinland? How creative.

No, I mean the desire to begin a medieval Scandinavian Empire from the center outward.

Ugh. I wasn't speaking of anything to do with Scandinavian immigrants but rather the period prior to the influx of Scandinavian immigrants. Columbus never set foot in the continental U.S., and his cult, started by Washington Irving, was part of a conscious effort to recreate American history with less reliance on enemy England.

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Only Me

9/12/2013 03:05:08 pm

Apparently, reading comprehension is a lost art for some. Your subject clearly has to do with VIKING ancestry/heritage claims. Lynn and some others should already know that "Viking" and "Scandinavian" are not interchangeable, especially during the period of immigration into the Midwest.

William Smith

9/15/2013 02:18:09 pm

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.

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