Hvitramannaland

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Hvítramannaland ( land of white people ), also known as Ireland it mikla ( Great Ireland ), is a phantom island . In Latin scripts it was also referred to as Hibernia Major or Albania , probably in view of the people supposedly existing there, whose "hair and skin were as white as snow".

This land is said to have been located near Vinland by various Viking sailors .

"Discoverer"

Ari Marsson, around 983

After the Landnámabók , Ari Marsson discovered this country after sailing westwards from Ireland for six days: ... her son was Ari, who was driven across the ocean to the White Man country, which some call Great Ireland . "and further, Thorkel, the son of Gellir, said that Icelanders had the story told by Jarl Thorfin of Orkney in such a way that Ari had been recognized in White Man Land and that it was not possible for him to leave there, and he was treated there with great respect.

Thorfinn Karlsefni, around 1007

Hvítramannaland is also mentioned in the saga of Erik the Red . The men around Thorfinn Karlsefni catch two natives on their way back to Greenland : ... And they taught the children to speak (the Old Norse language), and they were baptized. The children named their mother Vaetilldi and their father Uvaegi. They said that kings ruled the land of the Skrälinger, one of whom was called Avalldamon and the other Valldidida. They said there were no houses there and people lived in caves or holes.

They also said that there was another country across from their country and that the people there wore white clothes; uttered loud screams, carried long poles with them and had fringes. It was believed to be Hvitramannaland (land of white men) .

Gudleif Gudlaugson, around 1029

The Eyrbyggja saga tells how Gudleif Gudlaugson and his crew visited the country whose people spoke Irish . These Irish wanted to kill or enslave the northern people. However, they were saved through the intervention of an Icelander who lived among them. They assumed this man was Björn Asbrandsson , who had been banished from Iceland about 30 years earlier.

Later mentions

In an Icelandic document from the 16th century, the country was apparently "mapped": Sir Erlend Thordson had received a geographical map of this Albania, or country of the white men, from abroad, which is opposite Vinland, the good (country) , which was mentioned earlier in this little book, and which the merchants formerly called Hibernia Major, or Great Ireland, and is, as has been said, to the west of Ireland proper. In this map all land areas are precisely marked, and the boundaries of Markland , Einfœtingjaland ("Land of the Insect"), and Little Helluland (!), Together with Greenland , to the west of where the good Terra Florida apparently begins.

Ratings

Whether the supposed Irish colony of Hvitramannaland in North America, reported by medieval chroniclers, belongs to the realm of the imagination, is assessed differently: “We owe an important indication of the early seafaring activity of Irish monks to their descendants, the Vikings, who until now were the main competitors of Columbus in the history of the discovery of America were considered [...] Until now there is no clear archaeological evidence for the presence of Irish monks in America. But that they were able to go there with their " curraghs " has been proven not least by Tim Severin's expedition . "

According to another opinion, Hvítramannaland is a pure place of imagination, which is based on a probably Viking Age Nordic reception of Irish motifs of paradisiacal islands, otherworldly islands and semi-otherworldly island monasteries, which in Ireland as early as the late 7th century Literature (including hagiography) played an important role.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Geraldine Barnes: Viking America: the first millennium.
  2. ↑ Hans-Joachim Zillmer: Columbus came last. Langen-Müller, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7844-6003-8 .
  3. ↑ “Her son was Ari, who was driven across the ocean into the White Man's country, which some call Great Ireland , (71) it is west of the ozeon near Vinland the good (country); some men claim it can be reached west from Ireland in six days. ”In: Landnámabók, Northern Saga. Chapter XXII.
  4. ↑ Eyrbyggja saga. Chapter 64: The Last Tidings Of Biorn The Champion Of The Broadwickers. in the Icelandic Saga Database
  5. ^ A. M Reeves, NL Beamish, RB Anderson: The Norse Discovery of America. 1906.
  6. ↑ J.-P. Behrend, E. Schmitz 1992, pp. 158f
  7. ^ Matthias Egeler: "Hvítramannaland," in: Heinrich Beck; Sebastian Brather; Dieter Geuenich; Wilhelm Heizmann; Steffen Patzold; Heiko Steuer (Hrsg.): Germanische Altertumskunde Online (GAO). Berlin - Boston: de Gruyter (2015). doi : 10.1515 / gao_49 . Fridtjof Nansen already saw it this way: In Northern Mists. Arctic Exploration in Early Times. Translated by Arthur G. Chater. 2 volumes, London: William Heinemann 1911.

Wording in old Norse source

  1. ↑ Original text in Landnámabók: “... þeirra son var Ari. Hann varð sæhafi til Hvítramannalands; það kalla sumir Írland hið mikla; það liggur vestur í haf nær Vínlandi hinu góða; það er kallað sex dægra sigling vestur frá Írlandi. "
  2. ↑ Original text in the Landnámabók: " Svo kvað Þorkell Gellisson segja íslenska menn, þá he heyrt Höfðu frá segja Þorfinn (jarl) í Orkneyjum, að Ari hefði kenndur veriað, á Hvítramðurðanði. "
  3. ↑ Original text of the saga of Erik the Red: “ Þeir nefndu móður sína Vethildi ok föður Óvægi. Þeir sögðu, at konungar stjórnuðu Skrælingum, ok hét annarr þeira Avaldamon, en annarr Avaldidida. Þeir kváðu þar engin hús. Lágu menn þar í hellum eða holum. Þeir sögðu þar liggja land öðrum megin gagnvart sínu landi, er þeir menn byggðu, er váru í hvítum klæðum ok báru stangir fyrir sér, ok váru festar við flíkr ok æpíví háttand háttand, ok ætla ætla. "

swell

literature

  • Jens-Peter Behrend , Eike Schmitz : The secret discoverers. Transatlantic voyages off Columbus. In: Ingo Hermann (Ed.): TERRA-X. And then Columbus came. As the world changed . C. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-570-00456-2 , pp. 122-221.
  • Matthias Egeler: "Hvítramannaland," in: Heinrich Beck; Sebastian Brather; Dieter Geuenich; Wilhelm Heizmann; Steffen Patzold; Heiko Steuer (Hrsg.): Germanische Altertumskunde Online (GAO). Berlin - Boston: de Gruyter (2015). doi : 10.1515 / gao_49 .
  • Lutz Mohr : New considerations and additions to the early history of the Faroe Islands. Part 2: The Faroese folk motto Finnur hin Fridi (Finn the Beautiful) - evidence of early medieval journeys by the Irish and Icelanders to Hvitramannaland and Vinland in North America? In: Tjaldur. ("Austernfischer"), association magazine of the German-Faroese Circle of Friends (DFF) e. V., Düsseldorf / Kiel, vol. 6, issue 11/1993, pp. 39-50.
  • Fridtjof Nansen: In Northern Mists. Arctic Exploration in Early Times. Translated by Arthur G. Chater. 2 volumes, London: William Heinemann 1911.
  • Karl Wilhelmi : Iceland, Hvitramannaland, Greenland and Vinland or the Norrmann life on Iceland and Greenland and their trips to America more than 500 years before Columbus . Excellent according to old Scandinavian sources. Unchanged reprint of the Heidelberg 1842 edition. Meridian Publishing, Amsterdam 1967, OCLC 561434786 .