Furdustrandir
Furðustrandir ("Wonderful Beaches") is a section of the north-east coast of North America , which is said to have been entered around the year 1000 AD by a Greenland-Icelandic expedition in search of Vinland . According to the information in the Eiríks saga rauða , the stretch of coast was given this name because the Nordic explorers were not aware of such long sandy beaches from Greenland or Iceland. It is unclear whether the Furðustrandir were on the north bank of the Saint Lawrence River or part of Markland ("woodland").
After the group around Thorfinn had sighted Karlsefni Markland and passed an offshore island (Bjarney, "Bear Island") to the southeast, the Eiríks saga rauða reads about their onward journey :
„ Þaðan sigldu þeir suðr með landinu langa stund ok kómu at nesi au; lá landit á stjórn; váru þar strandir langar ok sandar. Þeir reru til lands ok fundu þar á nesinu kjǫl af skipi ok kǫlluðu þar Kjalarnes. Þeir kǫlluðu ok strandirnar Furðustrandir, því at langt var með at sigla. Þá gerðisk landit vágskorit. Þeir heldu skipunum í einn vág. "
“Then they sailed south along the coast for a long time and came to a cape. The land was on the starboard side and had long strips of coastline and sand. They rowed ashore, discovered a ship's keel on the cape and called the spot Kjalarnes, Kielkap. They called the beaches Furðustrandir, Wonder Beaches, because you could sail along them so far. Then the land was cut by many bays, and they sailed into one of them with their ships. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eirík's saga rauða . In: Einar Ólafur Sveinsson, Matthías Þórðarson (ed.): Íslenzk fornrit . tape 4 . Hið íslenzka fornritfélag, Reykjavík 1935, ISBN 9979-893-03-6 , p. 222 f .
- ↑ The saga of Eirík the Red . In: Klaus Böldl, Andreas Vollmer, Julia Zernack (eds.): Isländersagas . tape 4 . S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-10-007625-0 , p. 543 .