VINLAND or WINELAND. This was the southernmost of the countries discovered by Leif Ericsson (q.v.), the Scandi navian discoverer, on his voyage from Norway to Greenland in the year zoo°, and it was later visited also by Thorfinn Karlsefni (q.v.), probably in the year 1004. It derived its name from the wild grapes which the discoverer found there. It is first mentioned in writing by Adam of Bremen (q.v.) in his descrip tion of the northern countries, about 1075, his informant being King Svein Estridsson of Denmark. The fullest information about this country, as well as about these voyages in general is to be found in the Saga of Eric the Red and the Tale of the Greenlanders. All these sources agree as to the general char acteristics of the country: wild grapes, self-sown wheat, and very mild winter. In some Icelandic writings the name Vinland the Good occurs, and this led Dr. Fridtjof Nansen to assume that the story about Vinland was merely a transformation of the old legends about the Isles of the Blest (q.v.). His arguments have not been generally accepted, although it is possible that the epithet "the good" may have later been added under the influence of these legends. The historicity of the discovery can hardly
be disputed, nor that Vinland was a part of the American con tinent, but more definite location is difficult. If we are to accept the account of the wild grapes as authentic, the location of Vinland must fall within the northern limits for this plant which, on the Atlantic coast, are generally put at Passamaquoddy bay. Of the principal writers who have dealt with the problem, C. C. Rafn placed Vinland round Mount Hope bay, in the State of Rhode Island, Gustav Storm in Nova Scotia, where the exist ence of wild grapes is, however, doubtful. W. H. Babcock and W. Hovgaard have practically reverted to Rafn's view, while G. M. Gathorne-Hardy looks for it at the mouth of the Hudson river.