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One factor is that we know what the geography of that region around Labrador looks like today and geologists can make estimations on land-sea level. The sea level overall around L'anse aux Meadows has receded by around 6 feet as I recall, so we would be talking about a change in height or depth of about that much.
Doesn't prevent that a small island could have eroded. And you likely won't be able to see traces of it today, espeically if you don't look specifically for it at the exact places, but ven the it's likely you can't see anything.
Thanks for the feedback. / Tak for tilbagemeldingen.
Can you think about other arguments for Kjalarnes' location, besides what I mentioned in Message #170
I am stuck on whether Kjalarnes would be on northern Newfoundland or else from north to northeastern Cape Breton Island.
In the 1960's, archaeologists used the Viking sagas to find the viking site at L'Anse aux Meadows on Cape Bauld in Newfoundland. However, the viking sagas describe the vikings as staying elsewhere than at the northern cape of Newfoundland, and...
One way to help identify Kjalarness is to consider the issue of the grapes at the Wonder Strands in Eric the Red's Saga. Since Kjalarnes can be narrowed down to the north end of Newfoundland or northern Cape Breton island, then the Wonderstrands where grapes were found would have to be the long east coast running straight south along the north Newfoundland coast, like by St. Anthony's and down to Sop's Arm, or else the east coast of Capre Breton and Nova Scotia. But of those two choices, Nova Scotia seems more likely to have grapes; even if Newfoundland had grapes, they would be more likely in the section below that northern peninsula.
In "The Medieval Icelandic Saga and Oral Tradition: A Discourse on Method," Gísli Sigurðsson basically gives three arguments for Kjalarnes being the north end of Cape Breton instead of northern Newfoundland:
1. His interpretation that L'anse aux Meadows is Thorvaldr's "Leifsbudir" base with Kjalarnes being to the base's south
2. Leif's Vinland is both west of Kjalarnes and near a place with an island off the nroth coast of the mainland, two days' sailing southwest from Markland, and the only such island is Prince Edward Island
3. The Vikings made sizable journeys, so that a single day's journey wasn't long and arduous, and they would have sailed beyond Newfoundland in their journeys described in the Sagas. This argument can be extended to mean that Vinland could be west of Newfoundland if Vikings' journeys tended to cover the top sailing speed and distance for a longship in a day, and that the two days' sailing journey would cover a longer, rather than shorter distance, with the total possible range being up to 264-300 miles.
Sigurdsson writes:
Grœnlendinga saga
...
Leifr’s brother Þorvaldr explores lands to the west and east of Leifr’s camp at Leifsbúðir. He wrecks his ship on a headland, which from this becomes known as Kjalarnes (‘Keel Point’).
...
Of particular importance here is the interpretation of Kjalarnes, and in this we now have the advantage of a) being able to read the two sagas as manifestations of a single narrative tradition of the Vínland voyages, and b) being able to use L’Anse aux Meadows as a reference point, specifically the location of Þorvaldr’s ‘Leifsbúðir.’ Without these recent advances in Vínland studies, Kjalarnes might have been almost anywhere on the east coast of North America where one can sail north around a headland and then in a westerly direction. This could, for instance, take us as far south as Cape Cod, as Rafn believed. Moving north from here, the next candidate would be the northern tip of Cape Breton Island, then the north of the Newfoundland peninsula (see Morison 1971:56), and then even farther north on Labrador at the entrance to the Hudson Strait. These would appear to be the only places where it is possible to approach from the south, then sail north around a headland, before finally heading west. However, if we allow for a) L’Anse aux Meadows being the probable base used by Þorvaldr Eiríksson (with Kjalarnes to the south of this according to Grœnlendinga saga), and b) the fact that, by sailing west from Kjalarnes, Karlsefni (in Eiríks saga) hoped to reach Leifr’s Vínland (as described in Grœnlendinga saga), the only cape that comes into consideration is at the north of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Attempts to situate Kjalarnes at the northern tip of Newfoundland founder on the description of Þorvaldr’s expedition in Grœnlendinga saga and the fact that Leifr’s Vínland (which lies west of Kjalarnes) is said to lie near a place where there is an island off the north coast of the mainland, two days’ sailing southwest from Markland. The only such island that fits the bill is Prince Edward Island in the south of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
...
It is, of course, theoretically possible to point to some or other smaller islands and try to correlate everything the two sagas say with the geography of Newfoundland. Such a diminution of scale, however, is extremely improbable since the sagas speak of voyages of exploration lasting several years. It is, for instance, unlikely that in three years Karlsefni would have sailed no farther than around the immediate neighborhood of northern Newfoundland, which is the only solution if the saga narrative is to be made to fit in with the lie of the land in those regions. Such a reading requires us to assume that the tellers of these tales viewed a single day’s sailing as something long and arduous for people who had come all the way from Iceland and Greenland to explore and occupy distant lands; it also conflicts strongly with the combined evidence that emerges if we read all the texts together and with the overall picture that can be built up from their descriptions.
I don't follow Sigurdsson's first argument, or at least what I understand I don't agree with. In the first paragraph in the passage above, Sigurdsson correctly summarizes how the Greenlanders' Saga describes the journey from Leif's settlement to Kjalarnes as being in eastward and westward directions. As far as I can tell, the Greenlanders' Saga doesn't specifically describe Leifsbudir as being north of Kjalarnes. It just seems to describe Leifsbudir as being west of Kjalarnes.
However, technically, since the northward cape east of Vinland is 2 days' sail southwest of Markland and Kjalarnes is 2 days' sail south of Markland, then as a matter of geometry, if each of those two journeys from Markland covered the same distance, Kjalarnes would be a bit to the south of the northward cape, and hence south of Vinland too. If the journeys south and southwest were both 250 miles, then the journey south would extend a bit under 50 miles further south than the southwest journey would extend south. In real world terms, a ~250 mile journey straight southwest from Wolf Bay would run to about Chaleur Bay, and not as far as to Miramichi Bay (a journey to Miramichi Bay would require 300 miles), whereas a ~250 mile journey south from Wolf Bay would run to about the north end of Cape Breton, as the map below shows:
(Click to enlarge)
Sigurdsson's second argument identifies the dewy island that is north of a mainland and east of Vinland in the Greenlander's Saga as Prince Edward Island. However, a check of a map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence shows that Prince Edward Island isn't the only island north of mainlands south of Labrador others include:
St. John's Island north of Port aux Choix on Newfoundland's northwest coast
St. Paul Island north of Cape Breton
The Magdalene Islands north of Cape Breton
Miscou Island
La Fourche-du-Bout-d'en-Bas north of Rimouski and other islands farther west upriver in the St. Lawrence River Valley
Anticosti Island is also technically north of the Gaspe mainlands, but it's doubtful that it would fit the description, as it looks better described as being squarely northeast of these mainlands, and because the Saga talks as if they arrived at the dewy island after sighting the mainland. The Port au Port Peninsula of Newfoundland looks at first glance as if it might have once been an island, but a quick check makes it look like it wasn't one when Europeans returned in the 17th century, and that it was one 5000 years ago:
Next, we drove south to the Port au Port peninsula for more surveys. Along the way, we visited Port aux Choix on the western coastline of the north peninsula, an archaeological site that was an ancient burial ground for four different indigenous cultures. Among these, the largest Archaic Maritime burial ground ever found is located here. Five thousand years ago, sea level was higher than today and the site of the burial ground was an island.
We made a brief respite in Mary’s Harbour, yet another small fishing village on the eastern shore of Labrador, and celebrated Canada Day (July 1) with a delicious Snow Crab feast. Our surveys…
matthewhalley.wordpress.com
So the second argument doesn't seem very conclusive at first glance.
His third argument is that the realistic distance for the Vikings' voyages should take them beyond Newfoundland. This is a reasonable argument. Normally, I would expect the Vikings to sail at 4-7 mph, so in two 12 hour days, they should make 96 - 168 miles and be able to see across the sea for another 5-20 miles. Ile Brion is the northernmost island among the Magdalene Islands and it's about 173 miles south-southwest from the Wolf Bay area, so it could be the dewy island.
If someone were to sail straight from Labrador to the north end of Newfoundland, they would only cover 14-43 miles, depending on the route, making it seem too short for a two day Labrador-to-Kjalarnes or dewy island trip.
The weaknesses in this argument are:
(A) Whereas the Vikings couldn't go farther than technologically possible (eg. they couldn't repeatedly sail from Labrador to New England in two days), the Vikings might have only technically reached a very short distance in two days from Labrador, depending on factors like the curve of their route, the windspeed, the type of boat, their departure point, and whether they sailed constantly for each of the two 12 hour days (as opposed to sailing for 11 hours one day and 6 the next).
(B) We don't actually know the Vikings' expected speed in the context of the Sagas. In the Greenlanders' Saga for instance Bjarni sails for three days west from Iceland and loses sight of land. My impression is that the distance to lose sight of mountainous Iceland might be in the range of 80-150 miles, which in turn would imply that Bjarni was only covering 27 to 50 miles per day.
Similarly, Eric the Red's Saga says that the Vikings sailed 2 days south to Markland from Helluland, and in the Greenlander's Saga, Helluland is called an island. The most obvious choice for an island that would be directly on a line running northward from the north end of Torngat Park would be Resolution Island, but Resolution Island is only about 55 miles north of Torngat Park.
(C) A single particular detail, like the number of days sailed or the expected departure point could be either mistaken or unintentionally misleading. For instance, one would expect that a journey out to sea with a southern wind from Labrador would start at a point on Labrador such as Cape Charles, from which someone would be sailing straight away from the land and toward the destination on Newfoundland. But technically, the Vikings might not have taken a route from Labrador from a natural departing point like Cape Charles, but could even have left the Labrador coast at a place much farther north like Porcupine Bay. The distance from Porcupine Bay, Labrador, to north Newfoundland is 128 miles.
Eric the Red's Saga comes in two versions, the Skalholtsbok version, which academics consider to be more original and rustic, and the Hauksbok version, which is more polished by a medieval editor. The section on the journey from Helluland to Markland to Kjalarnes in both versions runs as below, with the Old Norse above each line from Jansson's 1944 English translation.
Skalholtsbok Version
þeir gafv naf lanndinv ok kavllvdv hellv. lannd.
(They gave the land a name and called it Helluland.)
þa sigldu þeir nordan uedr tvav dægr ok var þa lannd firir þeim ok var . aa skogr mikill ok dyr mavrg.
(Then they sailed on a northerly wind for two days and then there was a land before them on which there was a great forest and many animals.)
Hauksbok Version
þeir gafv þar nafn ok kollvðv hellvland
(They gave the place a name and called it Helluland.)
Ðaþan sigldv þeir .ij. dœgr ok bra til landsvðrs or svðri ok fvndv land skogvaxit ok morg dýr a
(From there they sailed for two days and the wind shifted from south to southeast and they found a wooded land with many animals on it.)
ey la i lannd svdr vnndan lanndinv ok funndv þeir þar biarn dyr ok kaullvdv biarn ey. Enn lanndit kavllvdv þeir marklannd þarer skogurinn.
(An island lay off the land to the southeast and there they found a bear and called [the place] Bjarney (‘Bear Island’). But the land they called Markland (‘Forest Land’) where the forest is.)
ey la þar vndan i landsvðr þar drapv þeir ein biorn ok kollvðv þar siðan bianey en landit Markland
(An island lay offshore to the southeast. There they killed a bear and from this called the place Bjarney and the land Markland.)
þa er lidin uorv tvau dægr sia þeir . lannd . ok þeir sigldu unndir lanndit . þar . var nes er þeir kvomu at þeir. beittu med lanndinu ok letv lanndit aa stiorn borda.
(When two days had passed they sighted land and they sailed along the coast. There was a promontory. When they got there they tacked along the coast, keeping the land to starboard.)
þaþan sigldv þeir svðr með landinv langa stvnd ok komv at nesi einv la landit a stiorn
(From there they sailed south along the coast for a long time and came to a promontory. The land lay to starboard.)
þar var avræfi ok strandir lanngar ok sanndar.
(There were wastes there and long, sandy beaches.)
voro þar strandir langar ok sandar
(There were long, sandy beaches there.)
fara þeir a . batum til lanndz ok fengu skiol af skipi ok kaulludu þar. kialar nes
(They go on boats to land and got shelter from a ship and called the place Kjalarnes (‘Keel Point’).)
þeir rerv til lanz ok fvndv þar a nesinv kiol af skipi ok kollvðv þar kialarnes
(They rowed to land and found there on the headland a ship’s keel and called the place Kjalarnes.)
þeir gafv ok nafn straunndunum ok kavlludu furdu stranndir . þviat langt var med at sigla.
(They also gave the coasts a name and called them Furustrandir (‘Wonder Beaches’) because it was a long way to sail down them.)
þeir kollvðv ok strandirnar fvrðv strandir þvi at langt var með at sigla
(They also called the coasts Furðustrandir because it was a long way to sail down them.)
þa giordiztt vog skorid lanndit ok helldu ok helldu þeir skipvnvm at vogvnvm
(Then the land became cut by bays and inlets and they steered [and they steered] the ships into the bays.)
þa gerðiz landit vágskorið þeir helldv skipvnvm i ein vág
(Then the land became cut by bays and inlets. They steered the ships into a bay.)
In the Skalholtsbok version, the Vikings had a southward wind when they went from from Helluland to Markland/Labrador, so you can guess that they still were traveling southward when they continued on from Markland and Bjarney Island.
When the Skalholtsbok version says in the 4th stanza above: "When two days had passed they sighted land and they sailed along the coast", it's not obvious whether they were departing from Markland or from Bjarney (likely Belle Isle or Newfoundland) for that two journey. Bjarney is the last one of the two that the passage specifies that they visited, ie. it talks about them visiting Markland and then visiting Bjarney. But Markland is the last one of the two lands that the passage mentions at all, ie. the text narrates the naming of Bjarney, then the naming of Markland and then goes on to describe the two day sailing journey.
The implication in the phrase "they sighted land" seems to be that for those two days, they had been sailing on the open sea and weren't sighting land for those two days.
Supposing that the Vikings were sailing south from Markland/Labrador, then Kjalarnes could be either the north end of Newfoundland or north end of Cape Breton. If they were sailing from Belle Isle, then Kjalarnes would be on northern Newfoundland, whereas if they sailed south from Newfoundland, Kjalarnes would be on northern Cape Breton.
In case they sailed to Belle Isle and then sailed south for those two days, or else sailed from Belle Isle back to Markland's mainland and then sailed southwest along Markland until seeing Newfoundland's north end, their sailing journey across the sea would only be 20 miles at most. In contrast, people's average walking speed on land is 3 mph, and a Viking knarr's standard speed would be 4 to 5 mph. Even at a 3 mph walking speed, the Vikings would still be expected to cover 36 miles in two twelve hour days. So the known distance from Belle Isle to Newfoundland seems too short for a storyline where the Vikings sailed along Markland/Labrador's coast to get to Belle Isle and then sailed from there to Newfoundland or sailed right back to Markland and then to Newfoundland.
This doesn't exclude the option that north Newfoundland is Kjalarnes, but the distance in known geography seems too short for that option.
Supposing that Bjarney was Newfoundland and the Vikings sailed south from Newfoundland for two days, then their journey to Wreck Point on north Cape Breton, then their journey would cover about 100 miles, which is what one would expect at a speed of a bit over 4 mph. If they sailed from about Wolf Bay on Markland/Labrador, then they would reach north Cape Breton in about 218 miles, and sight that land in less than 218 miles. This is on the far end of what one might expect expect for a 2 day voyage, with the maximum expected distance being about 264-300 miles.
(Click to enlarge)
The Hauksbok version has similar issues in the above-quoted passage about the journey to Kjalarnes:
...they found a wooded land with many animals on it. An island lay offshore to the southeast. There they killed a bear and from this called the place Bjarney and the land Markland. From there they sailed south along the coast for a long time and came to a promontory.
First, this verse doesn't specify what point "there" is when they depart from "from there" to reach a promontory.
If the passage were in English, you might literally identify the word "there" in "From there..." with the "There" "There they killed a bear..." But the Old Norse text doesn't seem to literally use the phrase "From there..."
Instead, the Old Norse sentence begins with: "þaþan sigldv þeir svðr með landinv langa stvnd...", or more lilterally, "Then sailed they...," not "From there sailed they..." The word "From there" or "Thence" in Old Norse is "þanan" (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/þanan#Old_Norse).
Overall, the impression is that they killed the bear on Bjarney, named the two places, and "then" sailed south along the coast, so you can guess that they started sailing southward after being on Bjarney.
Second, the Hauksbok version does fortunately specify that the Vikings sailed south after reaching Markland and Bjarney, unlike the Skalholtsbok version which just says that the direction from Helluland to Markland is southward.
Third, the Hauksbok version doesn't specify what the coast was that they sailed south along, but Markland and Bjarney's coasts seem the most natural interpretation, since the text had just mentioned both of them.
I would normally take "the coast" to mean a previously-mentioned mainland's coast, which in this case would be Markland's coast. One reason is that the English translation uses the definite article; but even in Russian, which doesn't use definite articles, I still would take the "coast" to mean the previously mentioned coast. A second reason is that the text doesn't specify that the Vikings sailed from Bjarney to a new land besides those already mentioned. So I would take the text to be still talking about a coast belonging to a land already mentioned. Third, the word for coast in the sentence is "landinv", which more literally seems to mean "land", and the preceding time when the text uses a word like this is when it says "...ok kollvðv þar siðan bianey en landit Markland (...and from this called the place Bjarney and the land Markland.)" In this case, the text refers to Markland as the "land."
So normally I would take the Hauksbok's passage to mean that they stopped on Bjarney and then sailed south along the "land," probably Markland, but maybe Bjarney.
Fourth, it doesn't specify how long they sailed, except to call it a "long time."
Later on in Eric the Red's Saga, the Vikings sail west from Kjalarnes a "long time" to get to the One-Footers' Land, but it's also not clear how long that voyage took. Since the Vikings sailed all the way from Greenland and had almost just sailed the whole length of eastern Labrador (~500 miles), and the longest time specified in the two Sagas for a trip was the 4 days from Helluland to Greenland in the Greenlanders' Saga, the idea of a "long time" would give the impression of being more than 4 days, so that we would be talking about a sailing journey of at least 192 miles (4 mph X four 12 hour days) to 420 miles (7 mph X five 12 hour days).
By comparison, the whole distance from the north end of Newfoundland at Quirpon Island south along NFLD's west coast to the southwest end at Port aux Basques is 353 miles, and it's another 100 miles from Port aux Basques southward across the sea to Wreck Point, Cape Breton.
Fifth, the passage doesn't say that the Vikings at some point departed the coast and went across a sea or channel to get to the promontory, Kjalarnes. The impression therefore is that the Vikings were still traveling along the coast when they arrived within sight of the promontory. So the normal implication from reading the passage would be that the promontory, Kjalarnes would either be on the coast or else well visible to the coast.
To put these elements together, it doesn't make much sense for the "coast" to be Belle Isle, because that Isle is only 11 miles long from end to end. A person could jog across the isle in an hour. So it wouldn't take a "long time" to sail along it.
If the "coast" in this case is Markland, then there are a few difficulties. One issue is that the promontory, Kjalarnes, could not be on Markland/Labrador's coast because Labrador's coast faces solidly east and south, whereas the Vikings have to be able to sail around Kjalarnes in both (A) west and (B) east and south directions, due to other voyages in the Sagas that sail around the Kjalarnes Peninsula in different directions.
Another issue is that the first promontory that one would come to by sailing southward down Labrador's coast from the Belle Isle area would be northern Newfoundland, only 10-20 miles from Labrador, and well within sight of a Viking ship traveling a couple miles out to sea long Labrador's coast. However, northern Newfoundland is only 20 miles south of the area of Labrador across from Belle Isle, so it wouldn't seem to require a "long time."
One could instead sail south along Labrador's coast until the coast no longer ran south and the coast turned westward at Wolf Bay, and then continue sailing south by traveling across the sea to Cape Breton. But in that case, one would be sailing through the open sea to reach Kjalarnes, whereas the text seems to imply that the promontory is visible from the coast.
One could also keep sailing south all the way from Newfoundland into the St. Lawrence River Valley and find promontories inside that Valley, but this would put Kjalarnes at the Gaspe' Peninsula or farther west, whereas it doesn't seem feasible for the Vikings to get blown from there to Ireland like one Viking group got blown from Kjalarnes to Ireland.
If the "coast" is Newfoundland, then similar difficulties arise. In case the promontory, Kjalarnes, is on Newfoundland's north coast, then it doesn't seem to make much sense how one could sail from Newfoundland's coast south to an oceanic promontory on Newfoundland's north coast for a long time. The far north end of Newfoundland is only about 20 miles across, and it runs in a west to east direction. Furthermore, if the promontory were on Newfoundland, the promontory would have to be at that very northern 20 mile edge of Newfoundland based on the way that the Vikings sailing in opposite directions around it.
Alternately, in case the coast is still Newfoundland, but the promontory is Cape Breton, then we the problem that the text seems to imply that the promontory is visible from the coast, whereas one would still have to sail 100 miles to travel south from Newfoundland to Cape Breton.
So in conclusion, if one identifies Kjalarnes with northern Newfoundland, then the difficulty with the Hauksbok version is that it wouldn't seem to take a "long time" to get down these potential coasts to Kjalarnes. But if one instead identifies Kjalarnes with northern Cape Breton Island, one has the problem that one would have to travel from the potential coasts for 100 - 218 miles over sea to get to Kjalarnes, but the text seems to present the promontory of Kjalarnes as practically next to the potential coast.
Johann takes Bjarney to be Belle Isle and on page 157 of his article, Johann interprets the Hauksbok's phrase “Thence they sailed southward along the land for a long time and came to a cape…” to mean essentially:
From Bjarney (Belle Isle) they sailed south along the coast (western Newfoundland) for a long time and came to Cape Breton.
One problem with this interpretation is that he is interpreting the "coast" to be different than either of the two landmasses that the text already mentioned. That is, the text mentions Markland and Bjarney and says that the Vikings sailed along the "coast", which would imply one of those two lands' coasts, but Johann takes the "coast" to be a different coast than the ones already mentioned.
A second problem is that the text seems to imply that the Vikings were sailing down this "coast" when they came to Kjalarnes, but Johann has them sailing down the coast and then crossing the sea for 100 miles to come to Kjalarnes.
In any case, the Skalholtsbok version seems more authoritative for me.
Can I ask how you see the relationship in the layout between the first two or three spots the Vikings saw when sailing southwest from Markland in the Greenlanders' Saga: the land, the dewy island, and the northward cape?
Here is the text I am talking about:
Þá mælti Leifr: ‘Af kostum skal þessu landi nafn gefa ok kalla Markland.’
Then Leifr said: ‘I shall give this land a name according to its qualities and call it Markland.’
Fóru síðan ofan aptr til skips sem fljótast.
Then they went back down to the ship with all speed.
Nú sigla þeir þaðan í haf landnyrðingsveðr ok váru úti tvau dœgr, áðr þeir sá land, ok sigldu at landi ok kómu at ey einni, er lá norðr af landinu, ok gengu þar upp ok sásk um í góðu veðri ok fundu þat, at dǫgg var á grasinu, ok varð þeim þat fyrir, at þeir tóku hǫndum sínum í dǫggina ok brugðu í munn sér ok þóttusk ekki jafnsœtt kennt hafa, sem þat var.
Now they sail out into the ocean on a northeasterly [ie. southwestward] wind, and were at sea for two days before they saw land, and sailed toward the shore and came to an island that lay north of the land, and landed there and had a look about them in good weather and found that there was dew on the grass, and by chance they put their hands in the dew and put it to their mouths and it seemed to them that they had never tasted anything as sweet as that was.
Síðan fóru þeir til skips síns ok sigldu í sund þat, er lá milli eyjarinnar ok ness þess, er norðr gekk af landinu; stefndu í vestrætt fyrir nesit. Þar var grunnsævi mikit at fjǫru sjávar, ok stóð þá uppi skip þeira; ok var þá langt til sjávar at sjá frá skipinu.
Then they went to their ship and sailed into the channel that lay between the island and a headland that extended north from the land. They headed in a westerly direction around the headland. At low tide there were extensive shallows and then their ship became beached, and from the ship the sea looked a long way off.
En þeim var svá mikil forvitni á at fara til landsins, at þeir nenntu eigi þess at bíða, at sjór felli undir skip þeira, ok runnu til lands, þar er á ein fell ór vatni einu. En þegar sjór fell undir skip þeira, þá tóku þeir bátinn ok reru til skipsins ok fluttu þat upp í ána, síðan í vatnit, ok kǫstuðu þar akkerum ok báru af skipi húðfǫt sín ok gerðu þar búðir; tóku þat ráð síðan, at búask þar um þann vetr, ok gerðu þar hús mikil.
But their curiosity was so great to go ashore that they could not be bothered to wait for the sea to rise under their ship, and they ran to land where a river flowed out from a certain lake. But when the sea lifted their ship again, they took the boat and rowed to the ship and moved it up into the river and so into the lake, and dropped anchor there and carried their sleeping bags from the ship and made camp there. Then they took the decision to arrange themselves at this place for the winter and put up some large buildings.
Here is the section in Jonsson's 1947 Danish translation:
Derefter stod de til havs og fandt det andet land. De sejlede igen ind til land og kastede anker, hvorefter de skød båden ud og gik i land. Dette land var fladt og skovklædt, og hvor de kom, var der brede og hvide sandstrande uden kystskråninger. Da sagde Leif: »Dette land skal opkaldes efter de vilkår, det byder, og det skal hedde Skovland.« De tog derefter hurtigst muligt tilbage til skibet.
Derfra stod de til havs på en nordøstlig vind og var ude i to dage, før de fik land i sigte, og de sejlede ind til landet og kom til en ø, der lå nord for landet. Der gik de i land og så sig om i godt vejr. De bemærkede, at der var faldet dug på græsset, og det skete, at de stak fingre i græsset og derpå i munden, og de mente aldrig at have smagt noget så sødt som dette.
Derefter gik de ombord igen og sejlede ind i det sund, der fandtes mellem øen og det næs, der strakte sig mod nord fra landet, og stævnede vestpå fra næsset. Dér gjorde tidevandet det meget lavvandet, og deres skib gik på grund, og der var langt til vandet fra skibet. Men de var så opsatte på at komme i land, at de ikke gad vente på, at vandet skulle vende tilbage under deres skib, så de løb i land et sted, hvor en å flød ud fra en sø. Så snart vandet kom tilbage under skibet, tog de båden og roede ud til skibet og flyttede det op i åen og derfra til søen. Der kastede de anker og bar deres skindsække fra borde og indrettede teltboder.
When I first read this excerpt, I took it to mean that they sailed southwest from the Labrador Peninsula for two days, and then saw a mainland in the form of a northward ness/peninsula, with the dewy island laying between them and the northward ness/peninsula. The text specifies that the dewy island lay north of the land and a strait ran between the island and the northward cape. Here is a map of how I imagined the dewy island laying in relation to the northward cape at the end of the southwestward black arrow:
But later, after re-reading the passage, I thought that the text could be interpreted a bit differently. The first line mentioning the Vikings' arrival says that the Vikings "were at sea for two days before they saw land," but the line doesn't specify that the land had a northward ness at this spot that they saw.
The sentence adds that they came to a dewy island north of the land, but it doesn't specify from which side they approached the island. Normally, one might thing that since they were sailing southwestward, and since the island was on the land's north, that the island would be to their west, as I showed in the map drawing above. However, this technically does not seem to be the case.
The island is across a channel from a northward ness/peninsula on the mainland.
Since they rounded the ness in a westward direction after sailing "into the channel," the implication seems to be that they sailed through the channel in a westward direction, passing from the east side of the channel to the west side of the channel.
If the Vikings sailed through the channel from east to west and sailed west around the northward ness, it seems that the northward ness would be expected to be either south or west of the dewy island. This is because if the headland was to the island's east, the Vikings would not be sailing west around the headland when they sailed from the island into the channel.
Running down the list of islands in the St. Lawrence Gulf from east to west, we notice:
X St. John's Island north of Port aux Choix on Newfoundland's northwest coast.
This island is hardly across from a northward ness, just a westward one.
? St. Paul's Island north of Cape Breton.
It seems that if the Vikings sailed southwest from Labrador and the mainland south of this island was the first land that they saw, then their approach toward the mainland would more likely be to the west of St. Paul's island. That is, for their trajectory to take them to St. Lawrence Cape from Labrador in a southwest direction without them sighting Newfoundland first, they would come to St. Paul's island from its northwest side, and thus they wouldn't be crossing the channel below St. Paul's Island from east to west.
? The Magdalene Islands north of Cape Breton.
This is a group of islands, not a single island. Plus, I don't know that you can see Cape Breton from the Magdalene Islands. I took the text to mean that the Vikings sailed from Labrador, then sighted the mainland, and then reached the island. This is because the text says "They saw land, and sailed toward the shore and came to an island that lay north of the land". But if the island were one of the Magdalene Islands, then the Vikings would likely be reaching the islands before they saw the mainland.
✓ Prince Edward Island. This seems to work OK. Gísli Sigurðsson suggests it as the dewy island. Since they sailed west around the northward ness/headland after sailing into the channel and then got to Vinland's river-lake system, this implies that Vinland's river-lake system is south or west of the spot on Cape Breton that is directly east of P.E.I. That is, Vinland's river would have to be south of the Margaree River or else west of it. Some northward peninsulas and capes south or west of the Margaree River in the St. Lawrence Gulf are: Cape George Point, Cap de Cocagne, Cap Lumiere, Point Escuminac east of Miramichi, and Pointe-Sauvage near Shippagan.
? Miscou Island. For the Vikings to reach this island by sailing for two days from Labrador in a southwest direction without seeing Anticosti Island first, they would have to sail with a bit of a clockwise curve.
? Anticosti Island is north of the Gaspe mainland. But the Gaspe' Peninsula doesn't appear to be visible from Anticosti Island. The Gaspe' Peninsula doesn't have a peninsula pointing north, although the whole peninsula extends northeast from the New Brunswick mainland. It doesn't seem likely that one would sail southwest from Labrador's Peninsula, then sight land south of Anticosti Island, then come to Anticosti island, then sail west along the Gaspe' Peninsula to find a river system because one would be doubling back on one's route to get to Anticosti Island.
X La Fourche-du-Bout-d'en-Bas north of Rimouski and other islands farther west upriver in the St. Lawrence River Valley. It is hard to find a clear northward cape next to one of those islands, however.
So in conclusion, the range of the dewy island and northward cape area looks rather limited to the coastal region from St. Paul's Island and northern Cape Breton in the east to Miscou Island and the Caraquet-Shippagan penisnula region in the west.
Below is a map with the general layout of the St. Lawrence Gulf, showing Prince Edward Island prominently:
@rakovskii you might find this interesting. It's new discoveries based on 5000 skeletons.
It's way earlier than the viking age, but as I write in my short commentary at the end, then it does make one wonder whether the great war was a folk memory of the Yamnaya literally fully and totally replacing all the locals.
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