Retelling Vinland: Sagas, Statues and Scholarship

Abstract: 

The Norse presence in North America receives a disproportionate amount of attention given how short-lived it was. This paper will consider some of the different ways that traditions of Vinland have been used and abused from the sagas to the present day. The voyages to Vinland described in the former mix the mundane and the fantastical. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Scandinavian immigrants to the United States were keen to emphasise their ancestral connection to their new home, which included many cases of wishful thinking and forgeries. Memorials and statues of saga settlers sprung up, some of which have faced particular controversy in recent years. The scholarly trend of the 'Global Middle Ages' has also embraced the idea of the vikings in America for ostensibly very different reasons than modern political interest in the subject. This paper seeks to trace common threads and variation in the various retellings and reception of Vinland.

Om Caitlin Ellis:

Caitlin Ellis is Associate Professor of Nordic Medieval History at the University of Oslo. She has held research positions in Reykjavík, Dublin and Stockholm. She has published widely on viking and Norman activity, particularly in the North Atlantic.

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