SOUTH  BY  SOUTHEAST
VINLAND AND THE ICELANDIC SAGAS

METHODOLOGY
1. For the most part the following analyses are restricted to the three traditional Viking lands (Helluland, Markland, Vinland) and matters that strictly pertain to them. The primary intention here is to introduce the material without dwelling unduly on extensive genealogies and unrelated activities. In other words, stripped to bare and relevant essentials and limited to the parts that pertain to Vinland.
2.  For this reason (and also for brevity) none of the Icelandic Sagas treated here are recounted in full. In the present case an important  reference to "Ireland" in the Saga of Eirik the Red is reserved for the following section where it will be incorporated in an expansion of the Greenland Duality.
3. This limited inquiry does not neglect specialized linguistic elements inherent the extant material, but rather attempts to minimize the problem by consulting multiple translations and associated commentaries. Thus, just as one might prefer English translations of PLATO and other Greek authors by Francis Macdonald Cornford over those of Benjamin Jowett (for example), general research would nevertheless still embrace both while also including the contributions made by later luminaries and additional commentators.
4. As far as the Icelandic Sagas are concerned, although the works of Arthur M. Reeves (1895) and Fridjof Nansen (1911) were consulted initially, these choices were nevertheless based largely on the detailed notes and observations that they both provided. This said, there remain areas where I have come to disagree with their conclusions on largely geographical grounds because of the Pacific Northwest hypothesis, a possibility that neither appears to have embraced.
5. The same considerations apply to other histories, translations and commentaries consulted, especially those from the following partial list: Seaver (2004-1995), Hreinsson, et al (1997), Pálsson and Edwards (1987,1972), Magnusson and Pálsson (1978), Jóhannessen (1974), Andersson (1972), Jones (1969,1964), Ingstad (1963), Oleson (1963,1950), Anderson (1930), Grey (1929), Gathorne-Hardy (1921), Larson (1917), Hovgaard (1914), Fischer (1903) and Sephton (1880).
6. Because of the variations and similarities encountered, where helpful the same sagas have been be revisited according to preferred translations and the further insights that they might provide. The translations selected here are therefore based on information content with minor additions not always present in more popular or better known versions.
7. The title to this section--"South by Southeast"--is not so much a misnomer as a device to overcome difficulties inherent in tracing the southbound routes taken by the Vikings in the Pacific Northwest. By and large these would indeed be "South by Southwest," but the problem here is that no clear (or at least certain) starting point is delineated. Whereas starting from Vinland and proceeding on the reciprocal course brings the whole matter into a clearer and more managable focus. We then at least know where we are starting from (Vinland), we already know the destinations (Markland and Helluland), and we also know from the Sagas the times en route (two days between each "land"). Lastly, with the constant rate of 75 miles per 12-hour day as determined in Part Two we again "know" the distances involved, i.e., 150 miles in each case. What we do not know are the precise geographical locations involved, but again, it will be the reciprocal routes--with a few surprises along the way--that ultimately provide the answers.

VINLAND, VINELAND AND WINELAND
 As for Vinland itself, a preliminary issue now arises, specifically the different names assigned to this Viking "land of plenty" by various translators and commentators, e.g., Vineland, Wineland, and more commonly, Vinland. This said, it is not the intention here to provide a list of explanations for this situation, but rather to state my own conclusion, which is that all three are applicable according to location, context and purpose. This is especially so for the Cowichan Valley in the southeast corner of Vancouver Island, to which we may assign the names Wineland and Vineland (the small ringed area in Map 8b below).  In passing, though, it should  be noted that this same location is in addition also part of Vinland. As will be demonstrated later, it is a matter of knowing when and where these three names become applicable, and not least of all, why--the difference between wine and vine especially.

THE ICELANDIC SAGAS AND VINLAND
Remaining with Vinland and Cowichan Bay, the flora and fauna of this special region are discussed in detail in the final section. Of more immediate interest are possible geographical and sociological indicators that may (or may not) be provided in The Saga of the Greenlanders and the Saga of Eirik the Red. Both describe the arrival and initial contact between the Vikings and the local populace of Vinland with only minor variations. Both also describe what ensues later when hostilities break out between the two groups, likely occasioned, it should be noted, if not by trespass alone, then by shady trading practices on the part of the Vikings themselves. There also exist small but nonetheless crucial differences between the contents of the two sagas, differences that may aid our understanding or add to the confusion according to whose version is under consideration.
    In general terms, however, it is helpful to include here the introduction to a relative modern anthology (The Complete Sagas of Icelanders Including 49 Tales, 1997):
    For North American readers, few historical events in the sagas arouse greater curiosity than does the Icelandic settlement of Greenland and the discovery of America.  The settlements in Greenland lasted about 500 years, beginning with Eirik the Red’s arrival from Iceland in about 981. They perished by gradual stages in the [xl] fifteenth century, apparently on account of increasingly cold weather and the difficulties of sailing in ice-filled waters to and from Iceland and Norway. Archaeologists have excavated the remains of these settlements and even the earliest of them are as impressive as Icelandic sites of the same period.
    The story of the discovery and exploration of America is told in two works, Eirik the Red's Saga and the shorter Saga of the Greenlanders. The two sagas differ from each other in a number of details, Eirik the Red's Saga agreeing more frequently with other written sources, such as Heimskringla. Neither work is among the best sagas, and yet in their blending of myth and historical tradition they are typical of the genre... The Saga of the Greenlanders attributes the first sighting of America to a merchant named Bjarni Herjolfsson, who in about 985 went off course on his way to Greenland, whereas Eirik the Red's Saga gives the credit to Leif Eiriksson, who made the discovery through a similar accident about the year 1000. Altogether, the Saga of the Greenlanders describes six trips to America, including Bjarni's and an extended expedition by Leif Eiriksson. Eirik the Red's Saga mentions only three, the most extended of which was made by Thorfinn Karlsefni, a very able Icelandic merchant who also figures importantly in the Saga of the Greenlanders... Written evidence indicates that the Greenlanders maintained a connection with Markland as a source of timber until at least the fourteenth century. With Vinland, however, contact seems to have been lost after the explorations of Leif Eiriksson and Thorfinn Karlsefni in the early eleventh century. About the country we know very little with precision, although we do know that it was not an invention of our two sagas. Well before they were written Vinland was mentioned by Ari in Islendingabök and even earlier than that by Adam of Bremen in his History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen of about 1075. Both the Saga of the Greenlanders and Eirik the Red's Saga describe a land that has wine grapes, maples and self-sown grain (probably rice). The sagas report that the weather in Vinland was warm enough for cattle to graze outside all winter.. (Vidar Hreinsson, Ed. The Complete Sagas of Icelanders Including 49 Tales (Vol. I.) Leifur Eiriksson Publishing, Reykjavik, 1997:  xl)

    The above and earlier historical references notwithstanding, as far as continuity and details are concerned we are still largely reduced to two primary sources--The Saga of Eirik the Red and The Saga of the Greenlanders--both written down centuries after the "fact." Moreover, those unfamiliar with these sources should be forewarned that there are undoubtedly peculiarities--parts perhaps out of place, perhaps later positive additions (or the exact opposite) and also possible omissions--that may or may not attend this matter. All part and parcel of "The perils of Icelandica," it would seem.
    Readers should also remember that from the time allotted to these Sagas until that of the last Greenland Viking in 1540 (Brent 1975:213) over 500 years have elapsed, and that there is also a 350-year interval from the time of the Sagas until the disputed exodus from Greenland of 1342. Either way we are dealing with periods measured in centuries, not decades. Because of these lengthy intervals and the paradise encountered in the Pacific Northwest restrictions imposed by the view that activities ceased in the three Viking "lands" after Karlsefni's retreat from Vinland need not apply. Rewards for remaining in the region would be simply too great, and in any case, what would the Vikings have to go back to? Not to mention the lengthy return trip with all its hazards and dangers. Perhaps initially they returned to report their findings and also to encourage others to attempt the same journey, but once the Pacific Northwest has been seen, its mild climate embraced and its abundand flora and fauna sampled, it is difficult to imagine that newcomers from Northern Europe would not wish to stay permanently in the region. Or "iron men in wooden ships" after clearing Bering Strait, be more than willing to continue sailing to the east, or onward down the west coast of North America and quite possibly further south again.


INFORMATION CONTENT  IN THE VINLAND SAGAS
A PERSONAL DIGRESSION
Some years ago while researching material for The Last Viking I became interested in the capabilities of Pacific Northwest canoes on one hand and the procedures adopted by those manning these magnificent canoes on the other. Or more precisely, the necessary practices adopted by strangers when approaching the territories of others here in the Pacific Northwest. Why so? Well in earlier times (and not that much earlier, either) an approaching flotilla of strange canoes in this region would have been cause for great concern, and this for good reason. Rights and territories might well be asserted and strongly defended, but not all could protect themselves against swift raiding parties, especially those mounted by the fierce Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwai since 2010) and the like. But in any event, as it so happened, during the summer of 2003 I was fortunate enough to witness the arrival of a Pacific Northwest “Gathering of Ocean Canoes” at Ambleside Beach in West Vancouver, British Columbia.
    In anticipation of this unusual event, on the afternoon the ocean canoes were due to arrive at Ambleside I made my way to a small wooden pier a little further to the west. From there I could watch as the canoes approached then passed my location and I would also have an excellent view of the beach where they would be greeted by their hosts, the Coast Salish / Squamish First Nation. I did not have long to wait either, for suddenly there they were, rounding a headland to the west in virtually calm weather, a long orderly line of large canoes approaching purposely, and no doubt proudly too. Some had started the journey days ago from Vancouver Island, others had come from higher up the mainland coast, and the final destination would be farther south on the shores of the neighbouring state of Washington, U.S.A. But now, here there they were, their crews riding the slight swell with practiced ease as they passed en route to their intermediate destination at Ambleside.
    About a hundred yards out they were met by a canoe from the host First Nation which escorted them forward. Thereafter the flotilla began to circle in front of the intended landing place, each crew in turn raising their paddles vertically in unison, performing a staccato salute on the bottom of their canoes as they passed by.
     Old, respected traditions, holding strong and true.
    Returning to the 2003 Gathering of Canoes, it was the precise arrival (i.e., the beaching of the canoes) that now held my attention. The key question was this: would the canoes simply paddle straight in with their prows towards the shore? Or would they perform a further maneuver before beaching. In other words, would they swing round and then back in with their sterns towards the shore? As it turned out, it was this last maneuver in each and every instance. But what is all this about?
    Although not a major issue in itself, it concerns what might best be termed friendly versus hostile approach procedures adopted by First Nations in the Pacific Northwest.
   Clearly, what I had just witnessed at Ambleside was a friendly, organized visit. But what if it had not been friendly or organized? What if the intent had been hostile, i.e., a raid ? Would attackers–especially if they had lost the element of surprise–still approach stern first, presenting their unprotected backs to defenders? Hardly. No, more likely they would come in hard and fast, prow-forward to be less vulnerable, and also to permit raiders to leap ashore as quickly as possible. And if detected, perhaps approach noisily in addition, to further terrify and demoralize their enemies. But again, what is the point of all this?
     It has to do with a pair of odd statements that occur in both The Saga of Eirik the Red and The Saga of the Greenlanders, the two Icelandic Sagas that make explicit mention of Vinland. Here, it should be noted, we are not concerned with the activities of Eirik the Red, but rather, a later and uncertain voyage to Vinland by fellow Vikings Thorfinn Karlsefni and Thorhall described in a relatively compact section towards the end. Earlier parts of the Saga may or may not have some bearing on the matter; but they need not concern us now. At present, all that is necessary to remember are the reversed paddling and arrival procedures described above.

To set the scene it is necessary to refer to the later part of the Saga of Eirik the Red where Karlsefni and Thorhall, having passed Helluland and have also sailed past the "wonder beaches" of Markland are at the mid-point of the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwai). Here they decide to go their separate ways. The former, intent on returning to Greenland proper is ultimately shipwrecked in "Ireland" after sailing west and encountering a "westerly storm."  These anomalies are discussed further in the following section.

NANAIMO TO COWICHAN BAY AND RETURN
Meanwhile, sailing south in search of Vinland Karlsevni, having passed Helluland and Markland, is heading south down the east coast of Vancouver Island but is still some 40 miles or so north of Cowichan Bay. Thus in Map 8b the red line that indicates the hypothetical southward voyage down the east coast of the Island starts just off present-day Nanaimo. From there the route proceeds generally southward along the coastline, first past Gabriola Island, then Valdes Island, Thetis Island, Galiano Island, and finally Saltspring Island, all part of the Canadian Gulf Islands. Level with Cowichan Bay are two smaller islands (South and North Pender) with Mayne Island north of the latter. Almost off the map, Saturna Island less further east. On Vancouver Island, long and narrow Lake Cowichan runs to sea from the Coast Range by way of the Cowichan River, which in turn flows into a tidal estuary at Cowichan Bay. There is a variant to this route that first proceeds down the west side of the Saanich peninsular before turning north again to Cowichan Bay but this variant (treated elsewhere) is not our immediate concern.
  
Map 8b. The southern route from Nanaimo to Cowichan Bay and "Vineland."

        Map 8b. The southern route from Nanaimo to Cowichan Bay and "Vineland."

Thus the conclusion of the southbound route to "Vineland." Following the hostilities recounted at the end this will also be the reciprocal route (or thereabouts) for the northbound retreat that follows.

VINLAND IN THE SAGA OF THE GREENLANDERS (SG):
So armed, we now return to the Saga of Eirik the Red at the point where Thorfinn Karlsefni and his fellow Vikings reach Vinland and the descriptions of their first, second, and third encounters with the local inhabitants. The first meeting is transitory, the second results in trade, and the third ends with hostilities that precipitate the Vikings' departure from Vinland. Thus the "arrival" at Cowichan Bay and "Vinland," and  also (in reduced form), the activities that followed with an associated commentary:
Karlsefni, together with Snorri and Bjarni and their people, went southward along the coast. They sailed for a long [107] time, and came at last to a river which flowed down from the land into a lake and then into the sea. There were great beaches before the mouth of the river, and the river could not be entered except at high tide.1 Karlsefni and his men sailed into the mouth of the river and called the place Hóp. They found there on the shore self-sown wheat-fields on the low land, but vines where the ground was high. Every brook there was full of fish. They dug pits on the beach at the edge of the high tide, and when the tide fell there were halibut,2 in the pits. There were great numbers of animals of all kinds in the woods. They remained there half a month and enjoyed themselves without anything happening. They had brought their live stock with them.13 One morning early they observed a great number of skinboats,3 and saw that staves (or rods),4 were brandished, and it sounded like the wind whistling in stacks of straw,5 and the staves were swung with the sun.6  Karlsefni thought this might be a sign of peace and ordered his men to display a white shield. These people rowed up to them, went ashore,7 and looked at the newcomers with surprise. They were swarthy men of a savage appearance and had scraggly hair on their heads. They had big eyes and broad cheeks. They tarried there for a time, wondering at the people they saw before them, and after that they rowed away southward around the cape.7

     Karlsefni and his followers built their houses above the lake. Some of their dwellings were near the lake, others farther away. They remained there that winter. No snow came and all of their live stock lived by grazing. At the beginning of spring, early one morning, they observed a number of skin-boats rowed from the south round [108] the headland,7 so many that it looked as if coal had been strewn at the mouth of the harbor. Then again staves were swung on each boat.3,4.5  Karlsefni and his men raised their shields, and when they got together they began to barter, and these people preferred red cloth; in exchange they gave peltries and pure grey (squirrel?) skins.8 They also desired to buy swords and spears, but this was forbidden by Karlsefni and Snorri. For a pure grey skin 8 the Skraelings received one span of red cloth, which they tied round their heads. So their trade went on for a time. Then the cloth began to get scarce, and the Norsemen cut it in small pieces not wider than a finger, and yet the Skraelings gave as much for it as before, or even more.

    It happened that Karlsefni's bull ran out from the woods, bellowing loudly. This frightened the Skraelings; they ran to their boats and rowed away southward along the shore; after this nothing was seen of them for three whole weeks.. But at the end of that time a great number of Skraeling boats came from the south, a dense stream of them; the staves were now swung against the direction of the sun; 6 and the Skraelings all yelled loudly.10 Karlsefni and his men displayed a red shield. The Skraelings ran out of their boats, and a fight ensued....

[subsequent battle and additional text omitted ]

.... Karlsefni and his people now realized that, although the land was rich, they would always live in constant danger [110] of hostilities with the natives. They therefore determined to return to their own countrys.11 and at once prepared to leave. They sailed to the northward along the coast,12 and found five Skraelings, clad in coats of skin, lying asleep near the sea; they had with them boxes containing animal marrow, mixed with blood; 13 Karlsefni and his men concluded that these people must have been banished from their own land; they killed them. Afterwards the Norsemen came to a cape, upon which there was a great number of animals; this cape was completely covered with dung, because the animals lay there at night.14 They now came back to Straumfiord, where they found abundance of all that they needed. (Excerpt from THE SAGA OF THE GREENLANDERS, William Hovgaard. The Voyages of the Northmen to America. The American-Scandinavian Foundation 1914 {Kraus Reprint, New York, 1971:106–110}; emphases and indices supplied)

VINLAND IN THE SAGA OF EIRIK THE RED (SR):
Karlsefni proceeded southwards along the land, with Snorri and Bjarni and the rest of the company. They journeyed a long while, and until they arrived at a river, which came down from the land and fell into a lake, and so on to the sea. There were large islands off the mouth of the river, and they could not come into the river except at high flood-tide.1 Karlsefni and his people sailed to the mouth of the river, and called the land Hop. There they found fields of wild wheat wherever there were low grounds; and the vine in all places were there was rough rising ground. Every rivulet there was full of fish. They made holes where the land and water joined and where the tide went highest; and when it ebbed they found halibut,2 in the holes. There was great plenty of wild animals of every form in the wood. They were there half a month, amusing themselves, and not becoming aware of anything. Their cattle they had with them.13 And early one morning, as they looked around, they [28] beheld nine canoes made of hides,3 and snout-like staves were being brandished,4 from the boats, and they made a noise like flails,5 and twisted round in the direction of the sun's motion.6 Then Karlsefni said, “What will this betoken?” Snorri answered him, “It may be that it is a token of peace; let us take a white shield and go to meet them.” And so they did. Then did they in the canoes row forwards, and showed surprise at them, and came to land.7 They were short men, ill-looking, with their hair in disorderly fashion on their heads; they were large-eyed, and had broad cheeks. And they stayed there awhile in astonishment. Afterwards they rowed away to the south, off the headland.7

10. They had built their settlements up above the lake. And some of the dwellings were well within the land, but some were near the lake. Now they remained there that winter. They had no snow whatever, and all their cattle went out to graze without keepers. Now when spring began, they beheld one morning early, that a fleet of hide-canoes was rowing from the south off the headland;7 so many were they as if the sea were strewn with pieces of charcoal, and there was also the brandishing of staves as before from each boat.3,4,5 Then they held shields up, and a market was formed between them; and this people in their purchases preferred red cloth; in exchange they had furs to give, and skins quite grey.8 They wished also to buy swords and lances, but Karlsefni and Snorri forbad it. They offered for the cloth dark hides,9 and took in exchange a span long of cloth, and bound it round their heads; and so matters went on for a while. But when the stock of cloth began to grow small, then they split it asunder, so that it was not more than a finger's breadth. The Skrœlingar (Esquimaux) gave for it still quite as much, or more than before.

11. Now it came to pass that a bull, which belonged to Karlsefni's people, rushed out of the wood and bellowed [29] loudly at the same time. The Skrœlingar, frightened thereat, rushed away to their canoes, and rowed south along the coast. There was then nothing seen of them for three weeks together. When that time was gone by, there was seen approaching from the south a great crowd of Skrœlingar boats, coming down upon them like a stream, the staves this time being all brandished in the direction opposite to the sun's motion,6 and the Skrœlingar were all howling loudly.10 Then took they and bare red shields to meet them. they encountered one another and fought...
   
[ subsequent battle and additional text omitted ]

12. [Karlsefni and his company] were now of opinion that though the land might be choice and good, there would be always war and terror overhanging them, from those who dwelt there before them. They made ready, therefore, to move away, with intent to go to their own land.11 They sailed forth northwards,12 and found five Skrœlingar in jackets of skin, sleeping [near the sea], and they had with them a chest, and in it was marrow of animals mixed with blood;13 and they considered that these must have been outlawed. They slew them. Afterwards they came to a headland and a multitude of wild animals; and this headland appeared as if it might be a cake of cow-dung, because the animals passed the winter there.14 Now they came to Straumsfjordr, where also they had abundance of all kinds. (Excerpt from THE SAGA OF EIRIK THE RED, Rev. John. Sephton,  Eirik the Red's Saga, D. Marples & Co., Ltd. Liverpool, 1880; emphases and indices supplied)

COMMENTARY (added):
    1. It is more than 180 miles from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to Cowichan Bay. Both SG and SR agree that they sailed "a long time," also "southward along the coast" and "southwards along the land." Finally the Vikings arrive at the mouth of a river that flows "down from the land" into a lake. The qualifier "down" may seem inconsequential, but in the special case of Cowichan Lake there is indeed another river at the northwestern end of the lake running down from the Coast Mountain Range. Both sagas also state that there is a river that runs from a lake into the sea, and both state further that the bay was only accessible at high tide. SG includes a prior qualifier: "there were great beaches before the mouth of the river" whereas SR states something quite different, i.e., "There were large islands off the mouth of the river." With the tidal effect covered in both versions the latter may be seen as added information and confirmation that we have reached the right location; there are indeed "large islands off the mouth" of the Cowichan River, namely Saltspring Island and the two Pender Islands listed above. See also Map 8b. If so, this would likely be a later and helpful addition in keeping with the lengthy interval of time considered in the present hypothesis.
    2. Halibut (along with salmon) are still almost synonymous with the Pacific Northwest with Halibut an important food source among the First Nations at a time when it was more plentiful. Now rare, if not fished completely out in some southerly locations, it was once far more widespread and prolific, as photographs of halibut fishing taken by Edward S. Curtis attest. Not a major indicator perhaps, but an indicator that at least serves to separate the Pacific Northwest from  "cod-baskets" on the East Coast of North America.
    3, 4, 5   Both SG and SR state that the event described next (3, 4 and 5) takes place in the early morning; SG refers to "a great number of skinboats," SR: "nine canoes made of hides." The mention of "hides" is possibly significant, as will be shown later. The "staves" mentioned here represent one of the least understood parts of both SR and ER. Moreover, agreement is generally lacking concerning the noise made by these implements, or indeed their purpose. A partial analysis is provided later under "With and Against the Sun."
    6. Although related to 3 and 4 the direction is reversed later in both sagas, i.e., movement "with the Sun" in the first instance, then "against the sun" in the second--activities that again appear little understood . Various interpretations have been offered from time to time but none have found general acceptance.
    7. The initial meeting between the Vikings and the Vinland inhabitants is friendly but inconsequential, although it does introduce the matter of the flailing staves and the general appearance of the latter. Both Sagas have the visitors arriving from a headland to the south and both have the visitors leaving in this same direction.
    8. According to the present hypothesis the "pure grey (squirrel?) skins" mentioned in SG and the "skins quite grey" in SR is might be explained by seal skins, or better perhaps, by the highly-prized dense fur of the Pacific Northwest Sea-Otter (Enhydra lutris) since others (e.g., Kunz: 1997:15) thus dark "pelts" rather than "skins." More on this below.
    9.  "Dark hides" in SR may perhaps refer to Elk hides obtainable in the region. Here, at one time (at least among the Kutenai) elk hides were used in the construction of hide-covered boats (Curtis, 1911:127)  More on this later.
    10. Both sagas agree here: SG: "the Skraelings all yelled loudly," and SR:  "the Skrœlingar were all howling loudly." A time-tested element of psychological warfare, perhaps? More on this when the matter is discussed in greater detail later.
    11. Both sagas agree, for essentially the same reasons, that they will retreat from Vinland, i.e., SG: "return to their own countrys," and ER: "to their own land," though neither is defined further and the former is in the plural in addition. But it is unclear which country or land will be the final destination in either case. A number of options exist, but none of them concern us here.
    12. Both sagas are also in agreement about the direction they will take: SG: "They sailed to the northward along the coast," and SR, without mentioning the coast: "They sailed forth northwards." Both therefore return on a reciprocal heading to that used on their arrival. Although this is hardly surprising, it is nevertheless in complete accord with the present hypothesis and location of Vinland in the Cowichan Bay region of Vancouver Island.
    13. Similar in both sagas, this incident requires the rather lengthy introduction and somewhat specialized treatment given later in: 1.  Encounter North of Cowichan Bay.
    14. Similar again in both sagas, but with significant minor differences, the information provided here again requires special treatment. (see: 2.  Point of Departure for Markland).
THE "WHIRLING STAVES?"
Returning to point 6 in the above commentary and the reversing staves encountered by the Vikings, the references in the Saga to "sunwise" motion at the beginning of the first encounter and "counter-sunwise" motion in the third are puzzling, but more to the point, what does the motion of the sun imply in these two contexts? Taking into into account the time allotted to these events (1010–1013 CE), modern terms such as “clockwise” and “anti-clockwise” belong to the future and may reasonably be excluded. "With" and "against" the sun seems to get us nowhere either--possible religious connotations notwithstanding--although the reversal might denote "morning" and "evening," but even so, why stress the difference so emphatically? For my own part I will offer a suggestion that should already be apparent by now.
    After a peaceful first arrival as described above at Ambleside Beach (i.e., backing-in and essentially reversing normal paddling motions), the third instance was nothing less than a full-blown, head-on, forward-paddling, noisy attack. And that, dare I suggest, is where the difference lies and the meaning ultimately rests.  A small matter in any event? Certainly, as perhaps, are the following loose ends.

DARK FUR IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Returning to above quotation from The Saga of Eirik the Red, although the geographical location and the flora and fauna of Vinland are treated in detail in the final section of The Last Viking, it may be noted here that the "dark pelts" traded for red cloth by the inhabitants of Vinland are readily identifiable in our present Pacific Northwest context.  In short, to most likely be that of the Sea-Otter (Enhydra lutris). The highly prized, dense, dark fur of this marine animal--originally sought by local hunters for their own use and trade--was later to become a valuable commodity in the Pacific Northwest, as the 2,000 sea-otter pelts amassed by William Colnett in the 1780s attests. For more on this matter see: A VOYAGE TO THE NORTH WEST SIDE OF AMERICA: The Journals of James Colnett, 1786-89. edited by Robert Galois, UBC Press, Vancouver 2004, a review of the same by Stephen Hume in The Vancouver Sun, April 2005, and Sea Otter Chiefs by Michael P. Robinson, Bayer Arts Inc., Calgary, 1996.

LIVESTOCK AND THE EXPLORATORY VOYAGE TO VINLAND
More of a problem are references to livestock above and also earlier in the Saga, i.e., "They had brought all sorts of livestock with them," and again: "They had taken their livestock with them," a complication hardly in keeping with exploratory voyages anywhere, with or without the bull that is also mentioned later. The references could, however, be later additions intended to insert a break before the initial hostilities broke out, and additionally, to emphasize the unusually mild winters--also introduced here--that distinguish and define the precise location of Vinland.
    How significant is this latter point? It is surely critical--not only because it eliminates the same latitudes on the east coast of North America--but also because it is applicable, and only applicable, to the micro-climate of the southeastern corner of Vancouver Island in the Pacific Northwest. Significantly, Fridjof Nansen (unaware of this defining quality?) dismissed the existence of "Wineland" outright because of this very issue and self-same quotation. In fact Nansen added another variant in support for good measure:
It is said of Wineland, in the Saga of Eric the Red, that “no snow fell there, and the cattle were out [in winter] and fed themselves,” and in the Flateyjarbók we read “there was no frost in the winter, and the grass withered little.” These, we see, are pure impossibilities. (Fridjof Nansen, In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times, Vol. II, Trans. Arthur G. Chater, Heinemann, London 1911:347. )


STONE TOOLS, STONE WEAPONS, AND BULLROARERS
The issue of stone versus metal tools may well be important, for according to The Saga of Eirik the Red the inhabitants of Vinland were not permitted to trade for either swords or spears. From this viewpoint the description in the Saga of their rejection of a metal axe seems over-stated as well as counter-productive, i.e., following the battle between the Vikings and inhabitants of Vinland we are told that:
 Despite facing a superior force, only two of Karlsefni's men were killed while a great number of the natives were slain. . .
 The natives also found one of the dead men, whose axe lay beside him. One of them picked up the axe and chopped at a tree, and then each took his turn at it. They thought this thing which cut so well a real treasure. One of them struck a stone, and the axe broke. He thought a thing which could not withstand stone to be of little worth, and tossed it away. (Kuneva Kunz, The Saga of Erik the Red, in Hreinsson, Vidar. Ed. The Complete Sagas of Icelanders Including 49 Tales (5 Vols.) Leifur Eiriksson Publishing, Reykjavik, 1997:15, emphases supplied)
The Vikings for their own part, however, encounter the use of stone weapons, i.e., the Saga records that it was the intervention of Freydis that ultimately ended the battle and that it is Freydis who found: "Thorbrand, Snorri's son, his skull cleft by a flat stone." An alternate translation by Gwyn Jones (1964:183), provides a variant with slightly more information, namely, that Thorbrand was discovered with “a flat stone sticking out of his head.”  But either way, the use of a stone weapon is indicated, and if the latter translation is more accurate, then a short, sharp-edged club seems likely, perhaps of the kind reported by Edward S. Curtis, albeit made of whalebone in the first example e.g.,

    [ a ]  The Nootka, The Haida, The North American Indian, Appendix to Volume 11.
    "A War-club of whale’s bone, about two feet long and three inches wide was slightly curved and was thinned at the edges as if for a cutting edge.” (Curtis, 1916: 178-9). Further details concerning the clubs used by the Nootka--Vancouver Island neighbours of the Cowichan Coast Salish--are provided by Erna Gunther, significantly, as a weapon and also a "constant article of trade."
In the field of weapons, one piece which appears in every Nootka collection supplies also the continuity of this culture, namely the whalebone war club. It is made of material distinctive of the Nootka, for they were without doubt the best whalers on the coast and in addition made the whale hunt one of their great rituals. It is fitting therefore that this characteristic piece should be an index of this culture. This club, about 2 feet long, flat and broadening toward its lower end, and with a profile of a bird's head for the handle is found archaeologically, not only along the coast, but as far away as the Plateau region. It was never copied by others but was a constant article of trade. This club was an effective weapon in close combat.(Erna Gunther, “A Re-Evaulation of the Cultural Position of the Nootka,” in Men and Cultures, Selected Papers of the Fifth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. Ed. Anthony C. Wallace, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1957:274; emphases supplied) 
and war-clubs were in any case certainly attested among the "Salishan Tribes of the Coast" in the Pacific Northwest:

    [ b ]  Salishan Tribes of the Coast, The North American Indian, Appendix to Volume 9.
    “Weapons were the spear, bow, and club.” (Curtis, 1916: 157-8)

   
    [ c ]  Bella Bella (Heiltsuk) ornate stone club from the mainland coast of British Columbia:

Figure 8.1. A Bella Bella Stone Club (Royal Ontario Museum 27870)

Figure  8.1.  A Bella Bella Stone Club (Royal Ontario Museum 27870)
(Martha Black, Bella Bella: A Season of Heiltsuk Art, ROM, Toronto, 1997)

described as:
45. Stone Baton. ROM 27870
Flat, knife-shaped object with a short handle with a knob a tthe end and a curved, leaf-shaped blade incised on both sides.
Whether made from sharpened whalebone or stone these would be a formidable short-range weapons assuredly capable of inflicting the kind of damage recorded in the Vinland Sagas.


BULLS AND BULL-ROARERS
But there seems to be more to stone clubs in the Pacific Northwest in any case, with an almost mystical quality assigned to them in the legends of the region. The short excerpt that follows commences with this theme, but by the time it ends one comes to realize that there might be more to the “bull” incident and also the discarding of the Viking axe in the Saga of Eirik the Red:
 . . . Now when other tribes heard about these things, many of them doubted, and from every direction they came to see for themselves. When Yanamhum knew that they were coming, he made a wooden club in the likeness of mukwanhl, which he kept in its wrapping. Then one day the beach was black with large canoes, and Yanamhum let it be known that he would dance twice on the housetop with the wooden club, but the third time he would dance with mukwanhl itself, and those who continued to doubt would pay for their unbelief. So while the visitors sat in their canoes, he danced on the roof, holding the wooden club above his head. Then dropping the wooden club he raised the stone one and tore off the wrappings. Immediately the people fell dead, and the canoes were overturned. Then Yanamhum announced that he would give away presents, and all the people came to his house. The Wolves had told him how to make pipe whistles and tongue whistles and bullroarers, and he made a number of these and showed the members of his family how to use them. At the potlatch, while the people were in the house, his relatives stood outside blowing the whistles and whirling the bullroarers, and the people were amazed and frightened. This was the beginning of the first tlitqan.
        Now the chiefs of the other five villages of the Kyuquot became very jealous of Yanamhum and, determined to find out his secrets, they sent men who crept into the house one night, killed him, opened his box, and took out the whistles and bullroarers one by one. But they could not understand these things, and thinking them worthless threw them away. (Edward S. Curtis, The North American Indian, Volume 11, 1916: 98; emphases supplied)   
Apart from being a little too pat, the problem with the bull incident in the Saga in question ("Karlsefni's bull ran out from the woods, bellowing loudly. This frightened the Skraelings; they ran to their boats and rowed away") is that it occurs during a later visit to the Viking encampment, not the first. Faced with the unexpected arrival of newcomers to their territory the locals would surely have kept a constant watch on them, noting everything, especially anything strange or potentially threatening. Thus the appearance of a bull might have been worrying, but no great surprise or overwhelming threat; this is after all, cougar and bear country. On the other hand, the never-before experienced sound of a "Bullroarer" (likely unseen) with its ominous fluttering, moaning and roaring outputs might well have been terrifying enough to put the locals to flight. A far stretch? Quite possibly, but in defense, no worse than a bull on an exploratory Viking voyage, and far more transportable in addition.

FRIDJOF NANSEN'S FOOTNOTE ON THE "WHIRLING STAVES"
Before leaving "The Whirling Staves" a further digression seems in order, this time concerning surprising geographical and linguistic expansions offered in a footnote (1) in  Fridjof Nansen's In Northern Mists (1911) :

1. The poles that are swung the way of the sun or against it seem incomprehensible, and something of the meaning must have been lost in the transference of this incident from the tale from which it was borrowed. It may be derived from the kayak paddles of the Greenland Eskimo, which at a distance look like poles being swung, with or against the sun according to the side they are seen from. It may be mentioned that in the oldest MS. of Eric the Red's Saga, in the Hauksbók, the reading is not "trjánum" as in the later MS., but “triom” and “trionum.” Now “tribnum” or “trjónum” might mean either poles or snouts, and one would then be led to think of the Indians' animal masks, or again, of the trolls' long snouts or animal trunks, which we find again in fossil forms in the fairy-tales, and even in games that are still preserved in Gudbrandsdal, under the name of "trono" (the regular Gudbrandsdal phonetic development of Old Norse “trjóna”'), where people cover their heads with an animal's skin and put on a long troll’s snout with two wooden jaws. But that the snouts were waved with or against the sun does not give any better meaning; there may be some confusion here. (Fridjof Nansen, In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times, Vol. II, Trans. Arthur G. Chater, Heinemann, London 1911:10, Footnote 1; emphases supplied).

All uncertainties, whirling staves and directions of the sun aside, the linguistic aspect explored by Nansen now provides us--perceptively or accidentally, it hardly matters--with a specific Scandinavian location, namely the Gudbrandsdal region of Norway, and because of this, just possibly a further tenuous link to the Pacific Northwest.
    How so?
  Presented with the above analysis, it seems reasonable to suppose that those familiar with the Pacific Northwest and the collection of photographs of the North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis would likely recall similar activities, especially in Volume 10: The Kwakiutl. In particular, his "Masked Dancers" photograph of a Kwakiutl Winter Ceremony (with Kosimo inset added here) are perhaps closest to the description given by Nansen.
Fig. 9.5a. "Masked dancers - Qagyuhl." edward S. curtis, Vol 10. plate 358
 
Fig.  9.5a. "Masked dancers - Qagyuhl." (B/W).  Edward S. Curtis, The North American Indian, Vol. 10, Plate 358.
INSET: Cropped B/W addition from: "Atlumhl - Koskimo."  Vol. 10, facing page 238.

But in any case there seems little doubt that such activities with similar hinged masks and costumes were not uncommon in the Pacific Northwest. So much so, in fact, that the question of directional flow between these two disparate geographical regions is neither clear nor certain.



VINLAND AND INFORMATION CONTENT IN THE SAGA OF EIRIK THE RED
The link to the Sea-otter of the Pacific Northwest in The Saga of Eirik the Red hinges on a single word, but on further examination, other seemingly innocuous words and phrases suggest that the contents of this Saga (and also others) might not only be condensed, but also highly selective and critically informative. In other words, while details provided in the Sagas are generally worse than useless on the eastern side of North America, when applied consistently to the Pacific Northwest they become increasingly more relevant. Here we should remember (a) that the Sagas were written down long after the "fact," (b) that precise information in the Sagas could have become degraded or lost, or alternatively, (c) given the period allotted here--a minimum of three and a half centuries--that the Pacific Northwest components of the Sagas may have been refined and updated as knowledge of the region increased.

HIDE-BOATS, SKIN-BOATS AND SKIN-CANOES IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Take, for example (according to which translation is preferred), references to "hide-covered boats," "skin-boats" and/or "skin-canoes" in The Saga of Eirik the Red.
    Perhaps surprisingly, none of the above disqualify the Pacific Northwest. Nor, moreover, do these terms confine us to kayaks, umiaks and the Arctic regions. Primarily, we simply have no way of knowing the exact shape, size, or method of construction of Pacific Northwest canoes "about a thousand years ago." But more to the point (and no doubt a further surprise to some), although not well known, skin-covered canoes (or boats) were still being constructed and used by the "Kutenai" in and below southeastern British Columbia as recently as a century or so ago, albeit inland rather than on the coast. Edward S. Curtis noted in Volume 7 of The North American Indian (1911:167) under ARTS AND INDUSTRIES that Kutenai men: "evinced great skill in the manufacture of canoes, of which they made two varieties: a sharp-end pine-bark craft, and a skin-covered boat with bulging sides and upturned ends." The italics are added here, but in passing, while the former type of canoe is not our immediate concern, it nevertheless brings to mind birch-bark canoe construction (also with upturned prows and sterns) in Ungava on the eastern side of the Continent (for details see: James Houston's Labrador Journey of 1820.)
    As for the use of canoes by the Kutenai, Edward S. Curtis also provided a short introduction, a surprisingly detailed description of the "skin-covered" boat, and a significant historical asterisk concerning the use of steel axes in this and similar contexts:
Inhabiting a mountainous country dotted with lakes and traversed by long winding rivers, the Kutenai very naturally became expert boatmen, the commoner form of craft was a canoe made of pine-bark or spruce-bark laid over a framework of split fir.  It was sharp at bow and stern, and of the form still seen among the Kalispel.
  Another type consisted of a skeleton framework and a covering of fresh elk-hides sewn together and well-stretched, which dried still and hard. This formed a remarkably seaworthy craft, very wide of beam and so bulging amidships as to be, in effect, rather more than half-decked.  Both ends were noticeably rounded and upcurving, the canoe giving the impression of being closely patterned on the lines of a water-fowl.  In the summer of 1909 a canvas-covered specimen was discovered on the shore of Flathead Lake, and used in making a number of Kutenai pictures. It was seventeen feet in length, forty-two inches in extreme width, twenty-three inches in depth, forty-two in height at the bow and thirty-seven inches at the stern. The Kutenai made dugouts of cottonwood logs only after steel axes were acquired.” (Edward S. Curtis, The North American Indian, Vol. 7, 1911:127)
Added below is a reduced B/W composite of the 1909 canvas-covered Kutenai "skin" canoe Edward S. Curtis used for his study.

           Fig. 7.1.3b. The Flathead Lake Skin Canoe.. Edward S. Curtis, The North American Indian, Vol. 7, p.150, 152.
   
            Fig. 7.1.3b. The Flathead Lake Skin Canoe.. Edward S. Curtis, The North American Indian, Vol. 7, p.150, 152.
 (Reduced B/W composite with inset from "Kutenai Canoe":  http://memory.loc.gov/award/iencurt/ct07067v.jpg
 and "Evening on Flathead Lake":  http://memory.loc.gov/award/iencurt/ct07068v.jpg
    
Apart from illustrating the wide beam and upturned prow and stern of the skin-covered canoe, neither photograph provides much in the way of further details, partly because of the canoe's dark coloration. Is the dark color important? If traditional, perhaps so, since it falls in line with incidental details in The Saga of Eirik the Red, i.e., we are informed that:
11.  One morning, as spring advanced, they noticed a large number of hide-covered boats rowing up from the south around the point. There were so many of them that it looked as if bits of coal had been tossed over the water. (Kuneva Kunz, The Saga of Erik the Red, in Hreinsson, Vidar. Ed. The Complete Sagas of Icelanders Including 49 Tales (5 Vols.) Leifur Eiriksson Publishing, Reykjavik, 1997:16, emphases supplied)
The explicit mention of "hide-covered boats" is certainly in keeping with the description given by Edward S. Curtis, and again in passing, even the mention of coal has relevance with respect to the location of Vinland in view of later (albeit modern) coal-mining activities at Nanaimo, some 40 miles up the coast from Cowichan Bay.
    In short, fine cutting attributes notwithstanding, the rejection of metals and reference to stone clubs lends further weight to the possibility that the first canoes (or "boats") encountered by the Vikings may, just possibly, have been the hide or skin-covered variety as opposed to the magnificent, carved Pacific Northwest canoes that we are familiar with today.

TWO INCIDENTS AFTER LEAVING VINLAND
1.  ENCOUNTER NORTH OF COWICHAN BAY ?
For the time being we might as well proceed in due order and continue our search for Pacific Northwest indicators in The Saga of Eirik the Red after the Vikings leave the suggested location for Vinland at Cowichan Bay on the southeast coast of Vancouver Island. Because of the size of this Island, at a coastal-cruising rate of 75 miles per 12-hour day it would take more than half of that just to reach Nanaimo, 40 miles or so up the coast and a few days more to reach the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. Thus the northbound Vikings would require a number of stopovers before they cleared Vancouver Island. For the present, with this in mind we leave the Vikings proceeding up the eastern coast of Vancouver Island and return to the current quest, which is to check for indicators in the Sagas that are not only unusual, but also uniquely applicable to the Pacific Northwest. Here it will be helpful to include the experiences and observations of the Rev. William Henry Collison, the first Methodist minister to serve on Haida Gwai and adjacent regions of British Columbia during the latter part of the Nineteenth Century. It is not Vinland or Markland that concern us now, however, but initially the Nass River in "Helluland," northeast of Haida Gwai on the British Columbia mainland.

THE NASS RIVER EULACHON FISHERY
According to Collison, “the term Nass signifies the Food Depot,” so-named by the Tlingit (rather than the Nishga, “People of the Nass”) because of the highly productive Eulachon (“Candlefish”) run that took place annually at the mouth of this river. The latter (Thaleichthys pacificus) and the oil rendered from them were described by Pliny Earl Goddard as follows:
These fish are rather small, nine to twelve inches long, but they arrive at the mouths of certain rivers in great multitudes. The Nass River, in the Tsimshian country, is the most noted fishery for eulachon. The first arrivals are in the middle of March and the fish continue to run for about six weeks...Eulachon oil was highly prized; dried salmon, halibut, and other foods were dipped into it and formed a favorite sauce for such dishes as dried berries and smoked meats. Trade in eulachon oil was formerly very extensive. Indians from a distance came to the favorable fishing places and bought temporary rights to fish and render the oil. Long trails, known as "grease trails," led into the interior, where the coast people traded with the Athaspascan-speaking tribes. The oil was carried by canoe and also traded among the Northwest Coast people. (Pliny Earl Goddard, Indians of the Northwest Coast, Cooper Square Publishers, New York, 1973:69 [1934]
    The background to the annual Eulachon run, its significance and details of the fishery (limited here to bare essentials) were recorded by Collison, who not only observed the Nass fishery at its height, but also, to some extent, participated in it. His short historical background to the Fishery together with practical details and two significant observations are given below:
    For centuries the eulachon fishing on the tidal waters of the river has attracted the tribes from all quarters. From the interior, hundreds of miles distant by trail, the Indians thronged, carrying their effects on sleighs drawn by their dogs or by themselves (as they generally started early in the year while the snow was deep) in time to reach the river in time for the fish, which usually arrive about the middle of March. They brought with them also furs, the proceeds of their hunting expeditions, with which they pay the tribes, These furs were principally marmot and rabbit skins, generally sewn together to form rugs for bedcovers or robes. Martin, mink, and bear skins were also tendered and accepted. But not infrequently when pressed by famine, which was not unusual among the inland tribes, they handed over their young children in barter for food.  These were in turn passed to the Haida as part payment for their canoes, which were so necessary in their hunting and fishing...
...The coast Indians from far up in Alaska and from the south came in large fleets of canoes to catch the eulachon or to barter for the extracted oil. ... Their dried salmon and halibut are eaten with this grease. The herring spawn and seaweed when boiled are mixed with a portion; and even the berries, crab apples, and cranberries are mixed freely with the grease when cooked and stored away for winter use. The eulachon, because of its richness in oil, was formerly known as the candle fish, as when partly dried the Indians used it as a torch by night. As already stated, the first shoal of fish arrive about the middle of March. I have witnessed them followed into the mouth of the river by hundreds of seals, porpoises, sea lions, and finback whales, feasting on the eulachon and upon one another. So eager were they in the pursuit that the largest mammals almost grounded in the shallows, and when they discovered their position they struggled, fought, and bellowed in such a manner that they might have been heard for over two miles distant. None of our hunters would venture out in their canoes to attack them, so fierce was the fray...
    Each household will have from five to ten tons of fish, and more. After they have sun-dried, salted and stored a quantity sufficient for future use, from the remainder they exhaust the oil. Formerly the grease was extracted from the fish by stones made red hot in large fires. These heated stones were cast into large boxes filled with fish and water, and the process was repeated until the grease floated freely on the surface. It was then skimmed off into chests made of red cedar. Now, however, the fish are boiled on small fireplaces built of stone and mud, and the grease can be extracted with less labour and fuel in a shorter time.
    If only the Indians would extract the grease by boiling the fish while fresh, the grease would be as white and pure as lard; instead of doing this they permit the fish to lie in the bins until they are putrid. This causes the oil to be rancid and discoloured and unfit for wholesome food...
    Is it any wonder that this fishing was a casus belli among the tribes during the past, when food was scarce and might was right. ... The eulachon is found also in other rivers of the British Columbia coast, but inferior in quantity and quality to those of the Nass. (William Henry Collison, In the Wake of the War Canoe, Edited and annotated by Charles Lilliard, SONO NIS PRESS, Victoria, 1981:38-45)
Working back from the last point, it is clear that although the Nass River Fishery was not the only Eulachon run in the Pacific Northwest, it nevertheless predominated, with its highly esteemed product--Nass River eulachon oil--desired throughout the region. Except that it is not oil in a modern sense (nor even in Collison's time), but "discoloured grease." Nevertheless, it was a well-established item of trade transported in leak-proof "bent-wood" boxes from this source to destinations along the coast, inland, and, no doubt, between the many islands and the Mainland, Haida Gwai and Vancouver Island included. From the latter it would be a lengthy journey to the mouth of the Nass River, but not prohibitedly so in view of attested voyages from the northern Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwai) to Victoria near the southernmost point of Vancouver Island, and farther than that, since "the Haida visited as far south as Puget Sound, seven or eight hundred miles from their home" (Goddard, 1972:34).  At which point we may return to The Saga of Eirik the Red, though not quite, since we still have to set the scene.
   Suppose in the spring, a small group of inhabitants from Vancouver Island, perhaps five paddlers in a medium sized canoe--loosely somewhere between a two-person "puller" and a war-canoe--journey northward to the Nass fishery to procure eulachon oil (more properly, eulachon grease). Returning southward with their precious cargo secured in traditional wooden boxes, they finally reach the east coast of Vancouver Island on the return leg. But with a further day or so of travel left they pull into a convenient landing place at dusk and settle down for the night, sleeping beside their canoe along with their cargo. Suppose also, just after this, that the Vikings, heading northwards up the coast from Vinland (Cowichan Bay) similarly intent on bedding down for the night, coincidentally pull ashore at the same location. 
    What "follows" next, according to The Saga of Eirik the Red, is short, sharp and not particularly pleasant; i.e., after the hostilities in Vinland, limited losses notwithstanding, the Vikings:
... then realised that, despite everything the land had to offer there, they would be under constant threat of attack from its prior inhabitants. They made ready to depart for their own country. Sailing north along the shore, they discovered five natives sleeping in skin sacks near the shore. Beside them they had vessels of bark filled with deer marrow blended with blood. They assumed these men to be outlaws and killed them. (Kuneva Kunz, The Saga of Erik the Red, in Hreinsson, Vidar. Ed. The Complete Sagas of Icelanders Including 49 Tales (5 Vols.) Leifur Eiriksson Publishing, Reykjavik, 1997:14-16, emphases supplied)
    Minor variations to the above are offered by Reeves (1894:49), who omits the word "bark" but retains "there were vessels beside them, containing animal marrow, mixed with blood," whereas Gathorne-Hardy (1921:64) gives: "receptacles in which was beast's marrow mixed with blood." Gwyn Jones (1969:153--54), on the other hand prefers: "wooden containers in which was beast's marrow mixed with blood." William Hovguard (1914:110) gives "boxes" here, and similarly Sephton (1880), supplies "chest." Lastly, Magnusson and Pálsson (1978:38) suggest that the entire sentence: "describes Red Indian food as being 'deer-marrow mixed with blood,' a fair description of the pemmican used by hunting tribes."
    Readers can decide for themselves, but at least from our present Pacific Northwest viewpoint all the pieces are in place--the time of year, the Nass Eulachon run to the North, Northward progress along the coast by the Vikings, the canoes, the long voyages with overnight stopovers, and the wooden containers for the transportation of "discoloured" eulachon "grease" across the Pacific Northwest. The latter--although a defining commodity--would have been completely unknown to the Vikings, at least on their first visit. Moreover, equally unaware of this "grease" and its Pacific Northwest context, it is hardly surprising that later commentators adopted an East Coast perspective on the matter.
    Sadly, the killing of the inhabitants beside their canoe may have a ring of truth about it, though the "outlaw" justification seems flimsy, to say the least. Then again, so soon after the battle, the Vikings would have reason to fear further hostilities and in new territory they would not know either the numbers or the intentions of the locals. Nor would the Vikings likely wish to take prisoners either, so perhaps it was ultimately for self-preservation that the deed was done. Or alternatively, was this "violent act" a literary device in a fictional tale, for how else could the unusual contents of the containers be brought into the dialogue?
    Again, readers may decides for themselves. But either way, we are not yet done with The Saga of Eirik the Red or The Saga of the Greenlanders from a distinct Pacific Northwest perspective. Nor are we finished with the last quotation either, for the text continues with another puzzling sentence followed by a destination, an uncertain summary of Viking personages and additional locations.


2.  POINTS OF DEPARTURE FOR MARKLAND

VINLAND AS "ISLAND"
Firstly, since we are concerned with sailing distances between the three Viking lands--Helluland, Markland and Vinland--to simplify matters we may initially consider all three as islands. Thus Vancouver Island becomes "Vinland" itself, Markland stays unchanged, and somewhere to the north (or north-north west) of Markland lies Helluland, also an island. This simplification is most helpful (if not vital) since it reduces the determination of arrival and departure points to the northern and southern extremities of all three "islands." As for Vinland being an island, this is at least in keeping with the often quoted statement by Adam of Bremen that:
"... [the King of Denmark] said that an island had been found by many in this ocean, which has been called Vinland, because there vines grow wild and bear good grapes. Moreover, that there is self-sown grain in abundance, we learned, not from mythical tales, but from reliable accounts of the Danes. Beyond this island, said he [the King], no habitable land is found.” (William Hovgaard, The Voyages of the Northmen to America. The American-Scandinavian Foundation 1914 [Kraus Reprint Co. New York, 1971:75–76])
SAILING DIRECTIONS I
Technically, the first sentence alone would suffice here. The additional material has been included--not so much because of any authenticity provided by the "reliable accounts of the Danes"--but because of the final statement that "beyond this island ... no habitable land is found." Why so? Well, with Vancouver Island in its entirety considered to be "Vinland," by sailing either to the East or to the North one reaches the mainland, thus both directions can be excluded. Sailing South to "nowhere" from Vancouver Island is to some extent applicable, but only from the northwest side of the Island. However, attempting to sail West from anywhere on the west coast of Vancouver Island one would still pass below the Aleutians and continue on until the lower tip of Asia's Kamchatka Peninsula is reached--an open-ocean distance of more than 3,100 miles.

SAILING DIRECTIONS II
Next there is the difficult matter of sailing directions to be considered in our present context. For "latitude sailing," east or west must be strictly maintained; but otherwise, north to south and vice versa can either be exact or general, especially if one is coastal cruising and island-hopping. In the Sagas, coming from the north, the sailing direction between the three traditional Viking lands is generally southward, or if one wishes, precisely so. But ultimately, would the latter be really practical? Not necessarily, therefore alternatives to proceeding precisely south (or north) are needed. But at least for the present hypothesis we do know exactly what is required, i.e., specific mention of sailing to the south-east, which does indeed occur in the Sagas.
    Since Vinland is considered here to be an Island, to be consistent the same treatment necessarily applies to both Markland and Helluland, thus two days sailing between Helluland as island and Markland, two days sailing between Markland and Vinland (as island) with corresponding distances of precisely 150 miles between northern and southern extremities. But between which exact points? And also--more to the point--where "precisely" according to the Sagas?

THE SOUTHBOUND ROUTE:  HELLULAND--MARKLAND--VINLAND
According to the present hypothesis the three legendary Viking lands--Helluland (land of flat stones), Markland (land of forests and/or timber) and Vinland (land of vines and/or grapes)--all lie on (or off) the Pacific Northwest coast of British Columbia and lower Alaska. They are also situated one below the other with Helluland the farthest north, Vinland the southernmost and Markland in between, thus generally in a north-to-south line, or more properly, a line that runs from north to approximately south-south-east. The latter refinement has a role to play in the later determination of the three lands and their precise arrival and departure points, but otherwise it is of little concern to us now. All that is necessary at present is to be aware that according to the Sagas their voyage first took the Vikings to Helluland, and after a further "two day's" sailing, that they reached Markland. Fom there, after another "two day's" sailing they finally reached Vinland.
    This was the southbound route to "Vineland." Following the hostilities recounted in the Sagas this will be the reciprocal route (or thereabouts) for the northbound retreat.

2.1.  NORTHWARD FROM COWICHAN BAY
With these qualifiers and considerations in mind we now return to the suggested northern voyage from Cowichan Bay along the east coast of Vancouver Island. Thus from The Saga of the Greenlanders: "They sailed to the northward along the coast" (Hovgaard, 1914:110). But how far "along the coast"? To clear Vancouver Island from Cowichan Bay would require more than two hundred and seventy miles sailing along what is now called "The Inside Passage," thus more than three or four 12-hour days' travel in fair weather and considerably longer in foul. Such a voyage would eventually reach the northeastern tip of Vancouver Island, and from there the open sea to the southernmost reaches of Haida Gwai (the Queen Charlotte Islands), if that was indeed the next destination. At this stage all is rather vague, but things need not remain this way since a reasonable point of departure can be obtained from the two Vinland sagas, thus again the previous passages, but this time with alternate translations.

   The Saga of the Greenlanders (sG) recounts that:
Karlsefni and his people now realized that, although the land was rich, they would always live in constant danger [110] of hostilities with the natives. They therefore determined to return to their own countrys.1 and at once prepared to leave. They sailed to the northward along the coast, and found five Skraelings, clad in coats of skin, lying asleep near the sea; they had with them boxes containing animal marrow, mixed with blood; Karlsefni and his men concluded that these people must have been banished from their own land; they killed them. Afterwards the Norsemen came to a cape, upon which there was a great number of animals; this cape was completely covered with dung, because the animals lay there at night.2 They now came back to Straumfiord, where they found abundance of all that they needed. (Excerpt from THE SAGA OF THE GREENLANDERS, William Hovgaard 1914:106–110; emphases and indices supplied)
    whereas The Saga of Eirik the Red (sR) states similarly, though omitting "coast" and substituting "winter" for "Night" at the end:
[Karlsefni and his company] were now of opinion that though the land might be choice and good, there would be always war and terror overhanging them, from those who dwelt there before them. They made ready, therefore, to move away, with intent to go to their own land.1 They sailed forth northwards, and f found five Skrœlingar in jackets of skin, sleeping [near the sea], and they had with them a chest, and in it was marrow of animals mixed with blood; and they considered that these must have been outlawed. They slew them. Afterwards they came to a headland and a multitude of wild animals; and this headland appeared as if it might be a cake of cow-dung, because the animals passed the winter there.2 Now they came to Straumsfjordr, where also they had abundance of all kinds. (Excerpt from THE SAGA OF EIRIK THE RED, Rev. John. Sephton 1880; emphases and indices supplied)
COMMENTARY (ADDED)
1. What is meant by "their own country" in sG and "their own land" in sR in not clear, or at least not defined. On the eastern side of North America this might refer to Greenland, or Iceland, or even Norway. Although this could still apply in the Pacific Northwest it is also possible that this return is to another Viking "land" in the same region, e.g., "Whiteman's Land," which may or may not lie farther north than Helluland, perhaps in Alaska around Icy Bay (?) on or along the 60th Parallel.
2. Although sG and sR are in general agreement, sG gives "cape" while sR uses "headland," and both use "dung" and "animals" in their respective descriptions. There is also a difference in the time the "animals" spent on the cape (or headland), but why is all this included in the Sagas in the first place, and in so much detail in the second?
These two excerpts may seem innocuous, but on examination they nonetheless supply a precise northbound departure point from Vancouver Island, and another less certain Pacific Northwest indicator, i.e., large Sea lion colonies such as that at Bull Harbour (see below). Thus the answer to the question posed in #2 above is that it takes us to "Bull" Harbour at the northernmost tip Vancouver Island as a logical, if not clearly defined point of departure for Markland (Haida Gwai).
    The latitude and longitude of Bull Harbour and additional locations are from Government of Canada data: 
VINLAND Point of Departure for MARKLAND
BULL HARBOUR, On Hope Island, northern tip of Vancouver Island:  50O 54' 24" North, 127O 56' 10" West.
BULL HARBOR. "Hope Island. off northern VI (C-6). The name was in use as early as 1841. It probably refers to the many large and fierce sea lion bulls that frequent this area." (G.P.V. and Helen B. Akrigg, British Columbia Place Names, 3rd Edition, University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, 1997:32)
Next, an arrival point for Markland is supplied by the narrative of Francis Poole, an English mining engineer who prospected for copper at Barnaby Island on Haida Gwai in the early 1860s. He eventually left the Islands in 1863 as a member of a thirty-seven person, two-canoe expedition to Victoria on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. We take up Poole's narrative at the point where the expedition's two canoes arrive at the southernmost point of Haida Gwai with the intention of sailing due east before turning south for Vancouver Island and Victoria:
The evening of our start therefore we hugged the shore to the southward for about two hours, and at 8 p.m. we drew up our canoes in the dark on a pebbly beach, fronting the broad strip of flattish land which stretches round from the mouth of Stewart's Channel near Cape St. James. This is the most southerly part of Queen Charlotte Islands, and our idea was to wait there for a fair winds before attempting to cross the Sound. We hoped to make due east to the British Columbian mainland early next morning, so as to secure as much daylight as possible; but when morning came, seeing that a storm had partially arisen the Indians unanimously voted against launching forth... Thus we waited forty-eight hours longer, encamped in an old Indian ranche, [house] which [Haida Chief] Klue said had been there time out of mind. (Francis Poole. Queen Charlotte Islands: A Narrative of discovery and Adventure in the North Pacific, Ed. John W. Lyndon, J. J. Douglas, Vancouver, 1972:272; emphases added)
Thus another precise location, one of great antiquity that may or may not have been used by the Vikings. But either way it is the southern departure point from Markland to Vinland and also the arrival point for the reciprocal voyage from Bull Harbour.
MARKLAND Point of Arrival from VINLAND
CAPE ST. JAMES, Southern tip of Haida Gwai (QCI):  51O 56' 06" North, 131O 01' 03" West
With departure and arrival points established the great circle distance can be calculated and compared to the 150 miles obtained from "two days' sailing" of the Sagas at the island-hopping rate of 75 miles per 12-hour day. The total distance of 150 miles is also identical to a single 24-hour day of open-ocean sailing, which in practical terms would be required in the present context. Or better stated, one day and one night of continuous sailing. On a clear night this could be advantageous in terms of stellar navigation, even at a most rudimentary level and almost routine among those more familiar with the subject. In any event, open-ocean or not, this can hardly be considered an epic voyage, and quite possibly a northern heading followed by a latitude dog-leg to the west could (or would) have been used in practice. Alternatively, the information in the Sagas may have been intended to provide an accurate distance but only a general direction as applied here. But either way, before checking the distance between Bull Harbour and Cape St. James a number of issues remain.
  Since the distance between Markland and Helluland is also "two days' sailing," then to be consistent this must also be 150 miles. This fixed requirement immediately suggests Baranof Island, and more precisely, the southern tip of the same. Thus Cape Ommaney, Alaska for the arrival point and Cape Knox on the northwestern tip of Haida Gwai as the point of departure. (see Map 4h below)
   Next, although the distances remain unchanged the sailing directions considered here (north and north-west) are the reciprocals of those given in the Sagas, which are south and south-east. This reversal, as we have seen, was the helpful end result of the analysis of the northbound exodus of the Vikings from Vinland (proper) recounted in The Saga of Eirik the Red and The Saga of the Greenlanders.

3.  POINTS OF DEPARTURE: VINLAND TO HELLULAND
As far as the methodology applied here may be concerned, it is at least consistent, treatment of "lands" as "islands" included. Which, of course, they are. The only exception (better perhaps, addition) is "Helluland," which from the literature appears to be far more extensive than any island per se. But two Hellulands? Is that not stretching this matter unduly? Hardly, after all, we have already encountered two Hellulands as discussed by Joseph Fischer in earlier sections, albeit as a duality initially restricted to the eastern side of North America.
    But either way the three-island approach is still helpful in general terms, which is the reason for the inclusion of a further departure point on the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island (A2: Cape Scott). This new location does not provide a superior Vinland-Markland distance compared to Bull Harbour, but it nevertheless yields a slightly better correlation for the longer great circle distance between Vinland (as island) and Helluland (again, as island).
    What "should" this distance be? Or, in keeping with the standard units of time and distance already applied, how many days and hence how many miles would there be from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to Cape Ommaney on the southern tip of Baranof Island? We do know the sailing times between Helluland and Markland, then Markland to Vinland total four days, but this makes no allowance whatsover for the geographical extent of any of these locations, Markland included. This is where the "lands" as "islands" concept is helpful, but only up to point. Then again, we also have the total distance of 300 miles from our original estimates, i.e., (Helluland to Markland = 150 miles, Markland to Vinland = 150) to which can be added the length of Haida Gwai, which turns out to be approximately 177.5 miles. Therefore the overall distance is around 477.5 miles. Converted to days at the standard rate (75 miles per day) the time from Helluland to Vinland is therefore 6.367 days, or better stated, slightly less than this, and also, to the nearest integer, simply six days.
     Is there any information in the literature that might be of assistance here? Perhaps.
   Although possibly garbled, there is the mention of a six day-sail west from "Ireland" in the Icelandic Landnámabók (The book of Settlements) that includes both "Vinland the Good" and "Ireland."  Reeves (1895:11), however, provides an slightly expanded version where we are told that the central character Ari:
... was driven out of his course at sea to White-men's-land [Hvítramanna-land], which is called by some persons Ireland the Great [Írland it mikla], it lies westward in the sea near Wineland the Good [Vínland it góða]; it is said to be six “doegra” sail west of Ireland." Arthur M. Reeves, The Finding of Wineland the Good: The History of the Icelandic Discovery of America. Burt Franklin, New York 1895:)
From the previous section, however, we have a different understanding of "Ireland the Great" arising from the Greenland-Ireland dualities. From this viewpoint the above quotation provides just enough to provide the information that we seek, namely the direction and number of days' sailing. Thus "six" days, not west per se, but northwest (NW, or even NNW). Either way, still remaining with the 75-mile rate of progress per day, we arrive at a round target distance of 450 miles northwest from Vinland (as Island), i.e., initially Bull Harbour on the northeastern side of Vancouver Island.

    The calculated great circle distance from Bull Harbour (A1) to Cape Ommaney (D) turns out to be 456.23 miles, but a minor improvement is obtained using Cape Scott (A2) on the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island as the point of departure. The latter pair of distances are, of course, more as the raven might fly than sailing distances per se, but they are nevertheless useful approximations and the comparisons are quite good.

Map 4h. Distances: VINLAND--MARKLAND--HELLULAND, ViNLAND--HELLULAND.

Map 4h.  Distances: VINLAND--MARKLAND--HELLULAND, ViNLAND--HELLULAND.
Arc-Distance Calculator http;//www.jqjacobs.net/astro/xls/arc_calc_3.xls

VINLAND to MARKLAND.  Target: Two days sailing, 150 MILES
A1: BULL HARBOUR, Vanc. Island : 50O 54' 24" N, 127O 56' 10" W.
B:  CAPE ST. JAMES, Haida Gwai : 51O 56' 06" N, 131O 01' 03" W
CALCULATED GREAT CIRCLE DISTANCE: A1 to B: 150.56 MILES
MARKLAND to HELLULAND. Target: Two days sailing, 150 MILES
C: CAPE KNOX:  Haida Gwai : 54O 10' 56" N, 133O 05'  12" W.
D: CAPE OMMANEY, Alaska. : 56O 10' 02" N, 134O 40, 10" W
CALCULATED GREAT CIRCLE DISTANCE:  C to D:  150.69 MILES

VINLAND to HELLULAND. Target: Six days sailing, 450 MILES
A2: CAPE SCOTT, Van. Island : 50O 47' 08" N, 128O 25' 42" W.
D:  CAPE OMMANEY, Alaska. : 56O 10' 02" N, 134O 40, 10" W.
CALCULATED GREAT CIRCLE DISTANCE: A2 to D:  451.41 MILES
    From Map 4h two further points may now be made.
    First of all, iI is evident that although the straight-line route from "Helluland" to Markland is over the ocean, it nevertheless bypasses numerous islands along the way, thus with only minor modifications it can become more island-hopping than ocean-sailing per se. Moreover, with this variant the only unavoidable open water segment lies between the tip of southernmost Dall island and Cape Knox, a distance of less than 40 miles; or from the last departure point, sailing south-east some 54 miles to Rose Point, the north-eastern extremity of Haida Gwai.
    Secondly, in practical terms the route from Helluland (as island, but also otherwise with an eastern leg) could still proceed south (or thereabouts) down sheltered Stikine and Clarence Straits to Markland at Rose Point via Cape Chacon, with again a relatively short ocean-sailing leg (less than 40 miles) at the end. From there one would  pick up the route described in the sagas, thus proceeding due south past "wonder beaches" on the starboard side, and so on as described in the final section.

SAGA "DISTANCES" AND THE SIZE OF EARTH
The great circle distances above were computed with third-party software made freely available on the Internet by James Q. Jacob (jqjacobs.net) employing a constant of 69.0933963 miles per mean degree, a value that (to the nearest mile) results in 24,874 miles for the circumference of Earth. The calculated Vinland-Markland, Markland-Helluland and Vinland-Helluland distances on the other hand yield circumferences of 24,967 miles, 24,988 miles and 24,968 miles respectively. This close agreement is surprising, all the more so because these resulting values also compare well to those derived from measurement for the latitudes we are concerned with here, namely 50 to 56 degrees North:

TABLE 1a. Latitudes, Radii and the Circumference of Earth
  TABLE 1a. LATITUDES, RADII and the CIRCUMFERENCE of EARTH

The data derived above from Frank C. Roberts' The Figure of Earth (1885:39) uses latitude measurements that are quite old now, but so are the much earlier activities of the Vikings at the time of the Vinland Sagas, i.e., "about a thousand years ago." Pure coincidence then? Hard to say, but around 1018 CE a value for the mean degree was in fact determined by Abu Rayhan al-Biruni at 32 degrees N latitude to be 68.772254 miles (Rizvi, 1979:615) resulting in 24,758 miles for the circumference of Earth, which in the above table is close to that of the lowest set of data, i.e., below 33;18' degrees. Oddly enough, an alternate understanding of al-Biruni's measurements and theoretical determinations (Nasr, 1979:131) utilises a circumference of 25,000+1/7 miles, which is comparable to that of the highest latitude in the table. One could take the mean of this last pair (24,879 miles) to obtain an even better comparison with the Saga-derived parameters, but the implications and questions raised in this historical aside are beyond our immediate concern. Suffice it to say here, that the distances from the Vinland Sagas are certainly "Close enough for Government work" and however they were obtained--not to mention when--that their determination suggests an awareness of both the spherical form and the correct size of Earth --again "about a thousand years ago."
 

4. HELLULAND IN OTHER ICELANDIC SAGAS
Apart from the last excursion, information concerning Helluland and Markland seems to have been largely overshadowed by Vinland and the contents of The Saga of Eirik the Red and The Saga of the Greenlanders. In some cases Helluland almost appears to have been a secondary line of inquiry. e.g., Arthur M. Reeves, in his own quest for "Wineland the Good," was altogether dismissive in his introduction to the additional sources he had consulted:
The historical and quasi-historical material relating to the discovery of Wineland, has now been presented. A few brief notices of Helluland, contained in the later Icelandic literature, remain for consideration. These notices necessarily  partake of the character of the sagas in which they appear, and as these sagas are in a greater or less degree pure fictions, the notices cannot be regarded as possessing any historical value. (Arthur M. Reeves, The Finding of Wineland the Good : The History of the Icelandic Discovery of America. Burt Franklin, New York 1895:90).
This was followed by a brief commentary on references to Helluland inThe folk-tale of Bard the Snow-fell-god, The [fornsaga] of Arrow-Odd, The Saga of Halfdan Eysteinsson and The Saga of Halfdan Brana's-fosterling with a similarly severe assessment concerning their historical value, that of Helluland especially:
The brief extracts here quoted will suffice to indicate not only the fabulous character of the sagas in which they appear, but they serve further to show how completely the discoveries of Leif, and the explorations of Karlsefni had become distorted in the popular memory of the Icelanders at the time these tales were composed, which was 'probably in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The Helluland of these stories is an unknown region, relegated, in the popular superstition, to the trackless wastes of northern Greenland. (Arthur M. Reeves, The Finding of Wineland the Good : The History of the Icelandic Discovery of America. Burt Franklin, New York 1895:90).
Although not as forthright as Nansen's withering rejection of Vinland, Reeves' negative conclusions are similarly dismissive, likely for the same fundamental reason. But as such he is also similarly incorrect, at least from the Pacific Northwest viewpoint that neither had apparently embraced. Should they have? Probably not, given the dates of their respective publications (1895 and 1911), the climate of the times, and not least of all, the less widely known mildness of the climate of "Vinland" itself in the southeastern corner of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
    Happily, we ourselves are not so hindered, and with a location for Helluland in place (two, if one accepts the Helluland-as-Island argument) we may proceed as before with our search for unusual indicators, this time applicable to the Helluland(s) of the Pacific Northwest.


THE GIANTS OF HELLULAND
Continuing with the additional sources, consider next the short reference to Helluland in Arrow-Odds Saga: "I will tell thee where Ogmund is; he is come into that firth which is called Skuggi, it is in Helluland's deserts" (Reeves 1895:90) and a further line from The Saga of Half-Dan Eysteinsson (also supplied by Reeves): "Raknar brought Helluland's deserts under his sway, and destroyed all the giants there."  In more detail, however, Palsson and Edwards (1987:171) provide a variant of the latter that includes "giants" in both the Arctic Ocean and "Slabland."
”At that time, the king ruling over Gestrekaland and all the provinces east of the Kjolen Mountains was a man called Agnar, married to Hildigunn, sister of the late King Harek of Permia. They had two sons, one Raknar, the other Val, both vikings, who spent their time in the Arctic Ocean attacking giants.
    Raknar had a ship called the Raknarslodi. It had a hundred rowing spaces, and after the Long Serpent it was the biggest ever built in Norway, manned by every kind of blackguard, with fifty sons of whores at either hand upon each bench. Raknar conquered the wild regions of Slabland and cleared them completely of giants. (The Saga of Halfdan Eysteinsson, in Seven Viking Romances, trans. Palsson and Edwards, Penguin Books, New York 1987:171–198; emphases supplied)
Thus "Slabland" for Helluland ("proper") in the last instance. But giants in this context? What giants would (or could) these be? Some might suggest that "attacking giants" in the Arctic Ocean could readily be explained by hunting whales, the large Bowhead whale of that region especially. This might well be so, but the second quotation concerned with clearing of "the wild regiions of Slabland" cannot be explained quite so easily.
    By now the reader will likely suspect where this part of the investigation is heading, thus it is time to stress that what follows next is for necessary completeness, nothing more and nothing less. Simply stated, without prejudgement or conclusions, the "giants" mentioned in the Icelandic sagas above may (or may not) refer to what modern researchers call the "Sasquatch," aka "Bigfoot." At present we do not know whether such a creature truly exists, but there are nonetheless many reports of a hairy, ape-like creature reputedly gigantic in size (8-10 feet tall, with footprints in proportion), swift in its movements and difficult to apprehend in the forest regions it is said to frequent. All doubts and uncertainties aside, the Pacific Northwest is necessarily included here, and in any case it would be remiss not to examine the matter from our current historical and geographical perspectives.
    Given the lengthy period allotted to a Norse presence in the Pacific Northwest (centuries rather than decades) and continued communication with the First Nations of the region, it would seem unlikely that the subject would not have been broached from time to time, even without contacts or sightings by the Vikings themselves. Did any such contact ever take place? And not least of all, where does this line of inquiry take us? Perhaps surprisingly, to The King's Mirror, a somethat strange document written in Old Norse ca. 1200 CE, where in the final paragraph of Chapter 10 (entitled "The Natural Marvels of Ireland") we have the following unexpected description:
It once happened in that country (and this seems indeed strange) that a living creature was caught in the forest as to which no one could say definitely whether it was a man or some other animal; for no one could get a word from it or be sure that it understood human speech. It had the human shape, however, in every detail, both as to hands and face and feet; but the entire body was covered with hair as the beasts are, and down the back it had a long coarse mane like that of a horse, which fell to both sides and trailed along the ground when the creature stooped in walking. I believe I have now recounted most of the marvels that have their origin in the nature of the land itself, so far as we seem to have sure knowledge concerning them. (Final paragraph, Chapter X. The Natural Wonders of Ireland in THE KING’S MIRROR, Translated from the Old Norse by Laurence Marcellus Larson, Twayne Publishers, New York 1917:110) 
Here it is necessary to be aware that "Ireland" in the above passage is not Ireland proper of Europe, but "Ireland the Great" of Norse literature and also the Pacific Northwest as discussed in detail in the following section. But in any event, the above reference provides no information regarding the size of the creature mentioned above, thus it was perhaps not a "giant" per se, but taking the most positive view on the matter, perhaps it was a juvenile that had been captured. But however unusual the contents of the above paragraph may appear, one thing seems clear enough; both the reference and the text are still better suited to the Pacific Northwest's "Ireland the Great" than Ireland proper of the British Isles and Europe.
    But this is not all.

WILD MEN OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Included among the photographs of Winter Dancers by Edward S.Curtis in Volume 10 of The North American Indian (Fig. 9.5a above) were additional (and also more human-like) representations of "ceremonial personages," e.g., "Paqusilahl," a Kwakiutl entity (Figure 9.6a) that represents: "Paqus, a wild man of the woods" (Curtis 1916:156). Although restricted by the limits of the original portrait of "Paqusilahl" (Figure 9.6a) the same entity in another photgraph (not shown: "Paqusilahl emerging from the woods") clearly has larger than normal hands, though not as large as those of the fur-clad (perhaps hairy?) Koskimo "personage" in Figure 9.6b. 



Fig.  9.6.  Paqusilahl: Wild Man of the Woods, Hami, and Warrior's scalp head-dress.
9.6a, "Paqusilahl - Qagyuhl." Edward S. Curtis,  The North American Indian, Volume 10,  facing page 166.
9.6b. "Hami - Koskimo." Edward S. Curtis,  The North American Indian, Volume 10,  facing page 236.
9.6c. "Warrior's scalp head-dress."  Edward S. Curtis,  The North American Indian, Volume 9,  facing page 74.
(Northwestern University Library,  Edward S. Curtis's 'The North American Indian': the Photographic Images, 2001)
(Figures 9.6a,b,c in B/W; also cropped slightly and scaled)
 
PAQUSILAHL AND HAMI
The initial pair have large heads, and also big hands rather than big feet, but then again, they are after all ceremonial dancers. But this matter it is not that simple or that straight-forward in nay case. Such representations are also part and parcel of Pacific Northwest secret societies which by their very nature are difficult for outsiders to penetrate, let alone comprehend. This difficulty acknowledged, since our present purpose is to search for indicators that might link the Pacific Northwest with the Vikings during the first half of the second millennium, they serve well enough, especially since this particular focus originated from a statement in Old Norse in The King's Mirror, ca. 1200 CE.

THE WARRIOR'S SCALP HEAD-DRESS
Finally, again for completeness, although the first two entities depicted above have almost certainly been incorporated in Sasquatch databases for the Pacific Northwest there remains one more representation preserved in Edward S. Curtis' collection included above as Figure 9.6c. In fact, were it not for the description in the King's Mirror it would not be mentioned here at all, and even so it still requires additional information to bring it to the fore. It was obtained from an interview with British Columbia First Nations carver Kevin Cranmer by Michael Glendale (“Kevin Cranmer and The Legacy Gallery & Café.” DVD by ARROW PRODUCTIONS.COM, Victoria 2010). Following a discussion of the latter's work and contemporary Coast Salish Art in general the interviewer (perhaps as an afterthought) questioned Kevin Cranmer about the Sasquatch from his own First Nations perspective. The latter mentioned a tale of a sasquatch attempting to capture children and carry them away in a bag on its back. This latter element (somewhat minimally) brings to mind the the "long coarse mane" mentioned in the King's Mirror, which returns us to Figure 9.6c, and highly unpleasant though it may be, the photograph of an otherwise elegantly attired Cowichan warrior wearing what appears to be a long mane-like "scalp head-dress." Scalps per se and related acts of violence were sadly unremeakable among the warriors of the Pacific Northwest, as the texts by Edward S. Curtis and others attest, but this "scalp head-dress" is something else, surely--the pointed top, the hair, and the extreme length in particular. Another far stretch? Perhaps so, but if fearless Vikings could "clear" the wild regions of such "giants," then a single Cowichan Warrior overcoming such a formidable foe and displaying proof of the deed would not be entirely improbable. Always assuming, of course, that such creatures exist (or once existed) in the first place. For completeness, then. Either way, true or false, genuine or fake, make of it what you will.  This said, back to the Sagas, the Vikings, and once again, Helluland.
   

HELLULAND IN BARD'S SAGA
Consider the northernmost element assigned to Helluland, for example, and the first line of Bard's Saga (Reeves 1895:90): " There was a king named Dumb, who ruled over those gulfs, which extend northward around Helluland and are now called Dumb's sea." Not much here but barebones? Not quite. If Helluland is indeed located further north than Markland (Haida Gwai) then plural "gulfs" notwithstanding, there most assuredly is a large gulf that extends to the north, and moreover, it also extends "around" as far west as the Aleutiians, namely the all-encompassing Gulf of Alaska. Two simple words, "north" and "gulf," yet undoubtedly applicable in our present Pacific Northwest context because of the location of Helluland. But there is far more to this saga in any case, for on further examination of The folk-tale of Bard the Snow-fell-god more links to the Helluland of the Pacific Northwest begin to emerge.
    Bard's Saga is a complex mixture of old and new tales that combines mysticism, religion, geography and no small amount of violence. It is also quite lengthy, and once again the part that is of special interest to us occurs towards the end. Perhaps a later add-on, perhaps not, it is an unusual story however one looks at it, one that features a ghostly king of Helluland whose sinister appearance motivates a search for the latter's treasure in a grave mound "likely to be in the northern wastelands of Helluland from the tales that men tell."
    The quest for the treasure is introduced as follows:
On Christmas Eve the king sat on his throne with all of the court, each in his place. The men were glad and merry because the king was in the best of spirits.
    When the men had drunk for a while, a man came into the hall. He was huge and horrid looking, dusky of face and roving of eye, black-bearded and long-nosed. This man had a helmet on his head, was clad in a coat of mail, and girded with a sword. He had a golden band around his neck and a thick golden ring on his arm. He went into the hall and up to the king's throne. He greeted no one. Men marveled mightily at the sight of him. No man spoke a word to him.
    When he had stood for a while before the king, he announced: "Here have I come and nothing at all has been offered to me by this great figure. I shall be more generous for I shall offer to award those treasures that I have here now to that man who dares to take them from me – but there is no one like that here."
    Then he went away, and there was a foul odour in the hall. Terrible dread came over all of them because of this. The king asked the men to sit still until the smell dispersed, and the men did as the king asked. But when it was investigated, many men were lying as if half-dead and witless until the king himself came and recited over them. All of the watchdogs were dead, except for Vigi alone and Gest's dog, Snati.
     The king said, “Gest, who do you think that man was who came in here?”
    Gest said, “I haven't seen him before, but I've been told by my kinsmen of a king named Raknar and I think that I recognised him from their stories. He had ruled over Helluland  and many other countries. When he had ruled for a long time, he had himself buried alive along with five hundred men in Raknar's ship Slodinn. He murdered his own father and mother, and many other people. I think that his grave mound is likely to be in the northern wastelands of Helluland from the tales that men tell."
    The king spoke: “I think you probably speak the truth. Now it is my request, Gest,” said the king, “that you go and get these treasures.”
    “That could be called a death sentence, lord," said Gest, “but I won't refuse to go, if you prepare my journey as you know I will need to be prepared.”
    The king said, “I shall do everything I can toward making your trip turn out well.
Then Gest made ready. The king gave him forty pairs of iron shoes that were lined with down” (Sarah M Anderson, trans. Bard's Saga, in Hreinsson, Vidar. Ed. The Complete Sagas of Icelanders Including 49 Tales (5 Vols.) Leifur Eiriksson Publishing, Reykjavik, 1997:261, emphases supplied)
So far--apart from the sinister and ghostly element--this adventure story is not particularly remarkable, until, that is, the introduction of the "forty pairs of iron shoes that were lined with down." The king also gave Gest two magicians and a priest, a special sword, a magical piece of cloth, and a candle that would light itself when held aloft “because it will be dark in Raknar's grave. If you do not stay longer than the candle stays alight, all will go well.”
    Gest was also provided with "three seasons' worth of provisions," after which the expedition "sailed north along the coast all the way past Halogaland and Finnmark to Hafsbotnar." The mention of Finnmark may indicate an eastern route, but in any event, either because of a late departure (or an incident involving Odin): "they came to the wastes of Greenland. The winter was approaching by then, so they stayed there through the winter."
    Here we reach familiar ground, at least from the present perspective, where the "wastes of Greenland" are the Arctic regions of North America, not Greenland per se. It would not be that unusual to have to winter-over or necessarily that difficult with sufficient provisions and well-practised procedures in place, but if so, there would be two options. First, to either wait out the entire winter then continue sailing in early summer, or secondly, leave the ship on the coast and proceed overland in early spring, with travel perhaps facilitated by ice-covered lakes and rivers, etc. As for the distance involved, this might be prohibitive, then again it might not, but in any event it seems that:
”They went away from there in the spring, each bearing his own provisions.
      First they went overland in a south-westerly direction; then they turned across the land. They came to glaciers first, and then to enormous stretches of burnt lava. They then put on the iron shoes that the king had given them. They were forty, but the men were twenty plus Gest. When they had all put on the shoes except Jostein the priest, they ventured onto the lava field. After they had walked for a while, the priest became disabled. He walked the lava field with bloody feet.
    Gest then said, “Which of you fellows will help this scribbler to make it off the mountain?”
    No one spoke up because each thought he had enough to cope with.
    “It is a good idea to help him,” said Gest, “because the king spoke highly of him, and we had better not go against his advice. Come here, priest, and get up on my pack and bring your kit with you.”
    The priest did so. Gest then led the way and walked the fastest. They walked like this for three days. When the lava field ended, they came to the sea. There was a large island off shore. Out to the island lay a reef, narrow and long. It was dry at low tide, and so it was when they arrived. They went out onto the island, and there they saw a large grave mound.
    Some people say that the mound was located in the north off Helluland, but, wherever it was, there were no dwellings in the vicinity then. (Sarah M Anderson, trans. Bard's Saga, in Hreinsson, Vidar. Ed. The Complete Sagas of Icelanders Including 49 Tales (5 Vols.) Leifur Eiriksson Publishing, Reykjavik, 1997:262, emphases supplied)
Thus Gest's expedition proceeded overland, apparently in a "south-westerly direction." We also now know why the "iron shoes" were provided, namely to walk across the "enormous stretches of burnt lava" in a particular location in Helluland. According to the saga they walked for three days before coming to the sea in search of a grave mound on a large island subject to tidal access. Here the saga becomes either vaguely apologetic or deliberately informative, albeit in a rather puzzling way, i.e., the saga states next that: "Some people say the mound was located in the north off Helluland, but wherever it was, there was no dwellings in the vicinity then." 
    We will return to this last part later, but to continue, after opening up the mound (followed by a troublesome night for the priest that need not be recounted here):
”Gest was lowered into the mound, with the priest and other men holding the rope. It was fifty fathoms down to the floor of the mound. Gest had wrapped himself with the cloth that the king had presented to him and girt himself with the short-sword. He held the candle in his hand, and it lit up as soon as he reached bottom. Gest now looked around the mound. He saw the ship Slodinn and five hundred men in it. The ship had been so large that it could not be manned by fewer men. It was said to be the equal of the ship Gnodin that Asmund commanded. Gest boarded the ship. He saw that all the men had been prepared to stand up until the candlelight shone on them, but after that they could not move, only roll their eyes and snort from their noses. Gest struck off all of their heads with the shortsword, which bit into them as if cutting water. He pillaged all of the trappings from the dragon ship and had them drawn up.
    Then he searched for Raknar.... (Sarah M Anderson, trans. Bard's Saga, in Hreinsson, Vidar. Ed. The Complete Sagas of Icelanders Including 49 Tales (5 Vols.) Leifur Eiriksson Publishing, Reykjavik, 1997:262, emphases supplied)
Gest's ensuing subterranean conflict, his eventual triumph and Raknar's disrespectful end need not concern us, except to note one minor geological event included in the Saga. As the successful expedition was about to depart (incidentally, "They all went back the same way") we are told that: "It seemed to them almost as if the earth shook under their feet. The sea, too, flowed over the reef with such huge waves that it almost flooded the whole island." 

HELLULAND AND THE AIYANISH LAVA FLOW
The suggestion of geological instability is intriguing, as is the "reported" existence of a large lava plain, but first and foremost, does such a plain exist anywhere in the Pacific Northwest, and more critically yet, does such a thing exist in the Pacific Northwest location for Helluland? The answer, surprising to some (but not to readers of the Rev. Collison's In the Wake of the War Canoe) is undoubtedly yes. The lava plain is in fact located only a short distance up the Nass River from the location of the Nass Fishery mentioned earlier, or if one wishes, perhaps three days walk from of the same. This unusual lava plain is now also a Provincial Park, albeit a relatively recent one, which no doubt would have pleased James Benjamin McCullagh (" IGNIS: A Parable of the Great Lava Plain in the valley of "Eternal Bloom," 1918) who had suggested this use almost a century ago.
     But in any event, further points of interest rest next with the historical memories and traditions of the First Nations of the region, as the ever-inquiring Collison recounts:
Another most interesting feature of the Nass River is the great lava plain situated about forty miles from the mouth on the eastern bank. When I first ascended the river in 1874, I ascertained all I could about this volcanic eruption from several of the oldest Indians of the upper river tribes. ...
"The river did not always flow where it does now," [said an elder]. "It flowed along by the base of the mountains on the farther side of the valley some miles away. It was there the people were encamped when the Nak-nok of the mountain became angry and the firestone flowed down. They were all busy in catching, cleaning, and cutting up the salmon, to dry in the smoke. Whilst they were thus engaged, some of the boys were amusing themselves in catching salmon, and cutting openings in their backs, in which they inserted long, narrow stones. Then, setting them free in the water, as the salmon swam near the surface, the boys clapped their hands and called them finback whales.
   "While they were thus enjoying their cruel sport, the ground began to tremble, and suddenly the mountain vomited forth fire and smoke. We knew then that the spirit of the mountain was angry with the boys because of their cruelty to the salmon. Then, when we saw the Nak-nok of the mountains rushing towards us clothed in fire, we fled for our lives. All that day we fled, and at sunset, as we looked back, we saw the spirit cloud with its huge wings outspread following us. We reached the foothills on this side, which we ascended, and there we took refuge, as all were exhausted, and could run no farther. The river of firestone, swept on by the cloud spirit, drove the river before it across the valley, until it also reached the based of the foothills. Here it heaped up, the river which quenched and cooled the firestone, boiling and thundering, and leaving it heaped up along the bank as it is today.
   "As night fell, the spirit cloud disappeared in the darkness, but the whole valley was on fire, which continued for many days, until all the trees, and even the ground, were consumed.
    "It was then that we separated and settled in the two towns of Gitakdamaks and Gitwunsil. Before the mountain vomited the firestone, we were all one village on the upper side of the valley, but from that time we became two camps."
    This was the account of the great lava eruption, as detailed by the oldest resident of the nearest village to the scene. That it was the traditional account as held by all, I verified by passing along to the farther end of the village, where I again inquired from two other aged men, evidently patriarchs of the tribe. Their account agreed with that of the first, even to the names of three of the lads whose cruel treatment of the salmon was believed to have been the cause of the eruption. The leader of the offenders was named Ligishansh; the others I took no note of, as there were several. (William Henry Collison, In the Wake of the War Canoe, Edited and annotated by Charles Lilliard, SONO NIS PRESS, Victoria, 1981:186-187).
It is a little premature (as well as uncertain), but we can see now that the last line from Bard's Saga above: "there were no dwellings in the vicinity then" could have validity, hence the reason for its inclusion, although perhaps "now" should more correctly be substituted for "then."
    The actual date of the event is to some extent crucial, although not exclusively if it is a later addition. As for the date itself, this is tempered to some degree by uncertainty, i.e., whether the event--if not  periodic per se--was to some extent repetitive. It appears that this is not a simple matter to resolve either, but as one might expect, a relatively recent lava flow of this magnitude was assuredly examined by geologists, and it is here that the technical details of the event emerge, as provided in a 1969 paper by A. Sutherland Brown of the Department of Mines and Petroleum Resources, Government of British Columbia:
The Aiyanish alkali basalt lava flow is one of the youngest volcanic features of British Columbia. A new radiometric date confirms that the eruption is about 220 years old and that the legends of the Tsimshian people of the Nass River are firmly based. It issued from a vent area (about 55; 7' N, 128; 54' W) in a narrow valley of a tributary of the Tseax River. It flowed 3 miles (4.8 km) down this valley, formed a dam for Lava Lake, and continued northward 11 miles (17.7 km) down the valley of the Tseax River to the Nass River.  Here is spread out in a lava plain about 6 miles (9.7 km) long, forcing the river to the northern margin of the valley. (A. Sutherland Brown, "Aiyansh lava flow, British Columbia." Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, Vol. 6, 1969:1460).
Finally, added from the Abstract (1969:1460): "The Aiyanish flow has an area of about 15 miles (38.8 km2) and a volume of about 0.1 mile3 (0.455 km3)."
    Certainly a large and unusual lava field then, but not large enough for a three-day walk, with or without iron shoes. This said, in view of photographs that show the jagged nature of the plain (Sutherland Brown, Figures 3 and 4, 1969:1464) one can see why iron shoes would undoubtedly be necessary, even for short distances.  As for the three days walk, we will return to this later. Meanwhile there is still the matter of earlier dates to be considered.

    Clearly, the date of the event--220 years or so ago--is too close to the present to support the Pacific Northwest hypothesis. Further research, however, supplies an earlier date, the suggestion of repeated events and additional technical details that may or may not have a bearing on this matter. The following is from a later paper published in 1985--Geology of the Northwest Mainland  by Alan Gottesfeld. The latter, although familiar with Sutherland Brown's work nonetheless prefers 300 years ago for the event in question. 
The Tseax Lava Flow occurred about 300 years ago. A carbon 14 date obtained by Sutherland Brown (1969) is 220 ± 130 years before 1950. Trees growing on the lava flow in the Tseax Valley are greater than 200 years old. The stump illustrated in figure 53 was 260 years old when cut around 1975. The stump is located on the edge of the flow. Assuming that about five years were necessary for the tree to begin growth and to reach the height of the cut, the lava flow is at least 275 years old. It is likely that some years past before tree growth started on the lava surface. This data suggests that the age of the flow is probably about 300 years. (Allan Gottesfeld, Geology of the Northwest Mainland, Kitimat Centennial Museum Association, Kitimat, 1985:84; emphases added). 
Allan Gottesfield has more to say that is of interest, including the possibility of an even earlier date:
The Tseax volcano is small even for a cinder cone (fig.48). The main cinder cone is about 460 metres in diameter at the base, and about 100 metres high. Coarser cinders and occasional volcanic bombs make up the cinder cones. Finer ash was deposited for a short distance around the crater, extending for less than a kilometre to the southeast, and shorter distances in other directions.
    The crater area shows several vents which were active during the eruption. The main cinder cone itself is double, with a fresh cinder cone about 300 metres wide within the partially destroyed larger cinder cone (Sutherland Brown 1969). Wuorinen (1978) suggests that the outer cone may be several hundred years older than the inner cone. (Allan Gottesfeld, Geology of the Northwest Mainland, Kitimat Centennial Museum Association, Kitimat, 1985:78; emphases added).
Against the last part it must be acknowledged that Gottesfield also prefers a scenario that opposes the earlier extension. The latter statement, however--"several hundred years older"--nevertheless moves us back to the period that concerns us most, i.e., back to and before 1342 CE. Thus in addition to Sutherland Brown's optimal interval of 350 years before 1950 that results in a date of 1600 CE.--with "several" being at the very least three, the possible date now becomes 1300 CE. Whether a viking ship was ever there--at the time or the event or otherwise--remains, of course, conjectural. Then again, there is also the matter of the three-day walk and a burial mound on an island near the sea to be examined.
    Distances from the lava plain to the mouth of the Nass river seem to vary from Collison's 40 miles (likely by canoe) to 68 miles (perhaps on foot) provided by McCullagh (1918), but neither route extends completely to the sea. Nor, for that matter, is there a large island replete with a long narrow reef subject to tidal effects in the vicinity of the river mouth. Nevertheless, there does exist a relatively narrow promontory two miles southwest of Kincolith that on its western side extends for 12 miles along Portland Inlet. More to the point, on the eastern side it is only attached to the mainland (significantly perhaps, at its lowest elevation) by an off-center strip some 3 miles long. It might well be that this promontory has always existed in this form, but then again, during the period that we are most concerned with, namely 1000-1342 CE, with warmer temperatures and higher sea-levels it could in theory at least provide the island that we seek. Failing this, there remains a slightly smaller island (9 miles long as opposed to 12) on the coast itself.
    What is being suggested here? That a viking mound and burial ship lies thereon or therein?
    Not exactly; perhaps not even likely. But then again, who really knows?


INTRODUCTION TO THE COPPER CANIOE
Finally, by way of transition back to the Pacific Northwest and the continued assessment of Viking indicators we might note the following point concerning early visitors to the west coast of Vancouver Island:
The "discovery" of Nootka Sound was supposedly the first European involvement with Vancouver Island and the Nuu-chah-nulth. In fact, historians studying the trading activities of nomadic tribes have concluded that  Eurpean settlement occurring far away had already affected the coast peoples by the time Juan Perez sailed into Nootka Sound in 1774. Perez was not much of an influence in any case. He refused to disembark, thinking that the welcoming canoes were a trap.
   That Perez was the first foreigner to come close to Nootka Sound is open to debate. John Meares, a British ship captain sent to consolidate British presence in the area after Captain cook's departure, stated in his Voyages made in the years 1778 and 1779, from China to the North West Coast of North America (London, 1790) that the Mowachaht told him that their ancestors had met a man in a copper canoe who possessed numerous metal things. However, it is difficult to evaluate the accuracy of such a story. (Introduction to White Slaves of Maquinna: John R. Jewitt's Narrative of Capture and Confinement at Nootka, Heritage House, Surrey, 2000:10)
Thus the suggestion of a pre-1774 visitor to the Pacific Northwest who is said to have arrived in "a copper canoe," an intriguing event worthy of further investigation, as also is the subject of copper, its distribution, and use in the region itself.

Part   9. The Copper Canoe  

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THE LAST VIKING
Introduction to The Last Viking
Part   1.  Viking Press and Viking Ships
Part   2.  West by Northwest 
Part   3. Three Steps Back
Part   4. The Nova Groenlandiae Map
Part   5. The Mysterious Akilinik of the Greenlanders
Part   6. Symbols, Markers and Indicators
Part   7. Reflections in the King's Mirror
Part   8. South by Southeast [Current selection]
Part   9. The Copper Canoe
Part 10. The Warp and the Weave
Part 11. Helluland, Markland and Vinland
Part 12. The Golden Apples of the Sun

Maps:  Partial Map Listing for The Last Viking

Postscript 1: A Fir Tree of the Mind (pdf)
Postscript 2: RongoRongo and the Raven's Tail

OTHER: Easter Island Stone Structures

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Copyright © 1999. John N. Harris, M.A.(CMNS). Last updated December 31, 2023.