Helluland

I believe that Vinland is in what is now the United States.

Scholars believe that Helluland, Markland, and Vinland are real locations the Vikings voyaged to.

It is accepted that the Vikings started in Norway and sailed west, traveling to Iceland and Greenland, and eventually reaching the shores of North America.

Helluland is thought to be the present-day Baffin Island.

Markland is believed to be Labrador, which includes the island of Newfoundland.

Vinland hasn't officially been found, and scholars still debate its location.

Then said Leif, It has not come to pass with us in regard to this land as with Bjarni, that we have not gone upon it.

To this country I will now give a name, and call it Helluland.

They returned to the ship, put out to sea, and found a second land.

They sailed again to the land and came to anchor, and launched the boat and went ashore.

The sagas describe three distinct regions the Norse encountered as they pushed further west.

First, there's Helluland, which roughly translates to something like Land of Flat Stones.

Most historians place this around Baffin Island, way up in the Arctic, a rocky, barren place that apparently didn't impress anyone enough to stick around.

Then there's Markland, meaning forest land, generally thought to correspond to the coast of Labrador, thick with timber, which if you're a Norse settler coming from a mostly treeless Greenland, is basically hitting the jackpot.

The rumor that there's milder land further south with better grazing starts sounding less like a sailor's tall tale and more like a lifeline.

Names start to circulate.

Helluland, the stony high coast.

Markland, the forest land.

"But we will not do as Bjarni did, who never set foot on shore.

I will give this land a name and will call it Helluland, a name which signifies the land of broad stones." Onward they sailed again, their hearts now filled with ardent expectation.

At length rose again the stirring cry of, "Land," or its Norse equivalent.

And as the dragon-peaked craft glided swiftly onward, there rose into view a long coastline, flat and covered with white sand in the foreground, while a dense forest spread over the rising ground in the rear.

Los céner dicos llegaron a Islandia alrededor del año 870 y a Groenlandia 100 años más tarde.

Desde allá solo había que cruzar 200 millas a través del estrecho de Davis para llegar a la isla de Baffin, en el actual Canadá, lugar al que llamaron Helluland, la tierra de las losas.

From there, there was only to cross 200 miles across Davis Straits to reach Baffin Island, in present-day Canada, a place they called Helluland, the land of slabs.

Desde allá solo había que cruzar 200 millas a través del estrecho de Davis para llegar a la isla de Baffin, en el actual Canadá.

Lugar al que llamaron Helluland, la tierra de las losas.

Según las sagas, siguieron la costa hacia el sur hasta Labrador o Markland, la tierra de los bosques, y continuaron ms al sur hasta lo que denominaron Vinland, la tierra de las vides.

According to the sagas, they followed the coast south to Labrador or Markland, the land of forests, and continued further south to what they called Vinland, the land of vines.

"This is not a land for us," said Leif.

"However, we will give it a name." And he named it Helluland from the flat stones that were on it.

They sailed south from Helluland, and they came to a second land.

It was wooded, and there were great stretches of white sand where it was level by the sea.

"This land shall be given a name, too," said Leif.

They brought weapons, and they brought cloth.

Freydis, Leif's sister, and her husband came, and a man called Thorhall, who was Eirik's fisherman and huntsman.

They came first to the land that was named for the large flat stones that were on it, Helluland, where they saw many northern foxes.

Then said Leif, It has not come to pass with us in regard to this land as with Bjarni, that we have not gone upon it.

To this country I will now give a name, and call it Helluland.

They returned to the ship, put out to sea, and found a second land.

They sailed again to the land and came to anchor, and launched the boat and went ashore.