View source for Markland

{{Short description|Area in North America}}
{{other uses}}
{{Norse colonization of North America}}[[File:Skálholt map 1690 copy (cropped).png|alt=map with Vinland, Greenland, and other areas shown as a parts of a large continent bordering the western and northern edges of the Atlantic, full text at link |thumb|upright=1.3|The [[Skálholt Map]] showing Latinized Norse placenames in the North Atlantic:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Gordon |title=Norse America: The Story of a Founding Myth |date=25 March 2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-260598-6 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Norse_America/RIskEAAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>

{{bulleted list
| ''Iotun-heimar'' ([[Jötunheimr]])
| ''Riseland'' (Land of the [[Risi (folklore)|Risi]])
| ''Grönlandia'' ([[Greenland]])
| ''Helleland'' ([[Helluland]])
| Markland
| ''Skrælinge Land'' (Land of the [[Skræling]])
| ''Promontorium Winlandiæ'' (Promontory of [[Vinland]])
}}
]]
'''Markland''' ({{IPA|non|ˈmɑrkˌlɑnd}}) is the name given to one of three lands on [[North America]]'s [[Atlantic]] shore discovered by [[Leif Eriksson]] around 1000 AD. It was located south of [[Helluland]] and north of [[Vinland]].

Although it was never recorded to be settled by [[Norsemen]], there were probably a number of later expeditions from Greenland to gather timber.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/voyage/subset/markland/sagas.html |title=The Vinland sagas |work=[[National Museum of Natural History]] |publisher=Arctic Studies Center |access-date=2010-05-26 |archive-date=2011-06-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606232314/http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/voyage/subset/markland/sagas.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> A 1347 Icelandic document records that a ship went off course and ended up in Iceland in the process of returning from Markland, without further specifying where Markland was.<ref>{{cite book |last=Seaver |first=Kristen A. |title=The Frozen Echo: Greenland and the Exploration of North America, Ca. A.D. 1000–1500 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5qonlDkZW3MC&pg=PA28 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |year=1996 |page=28 |isbn= 0-8047-3161-6}}</ref>

==Location==
Markland has been suggested to have been part of the [[Labrador, Canada|Labrador coast]] in Canada, as Labrador lies in the heavily forested [[taiga]] region of the Northern Hemisphere north of the location of Vinland on the island of [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]]. The area of [[Cape Porcupine, Newfoundland and Labrador|Cape Porcupine]] has been suggested as a possible candidate for the site.<ref name="Wernick">{{cite book|last1=Wernick|first1=Robert|title=The Vikings|date=1979|publisher=Time-Life Books|isbn=0-8094-2709-5|location=Alexandria, VA|pages=150}}</ref> The climate and the vegetation in this region may have changed significantly since the sagas were conceived, owing to the [[Medieval Warm Period]] and [[Little Ice Age]].

The particular part of the Labrador coast is difficult to pinpoint, as [[Helluland]] has been placed everywhere from Baffin Island to the northern Labrador coast beyond [[Groswater Bay]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ensignmessage.com/archives/vikings.html |title=Where in North America did the Vikings Settle? |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090525024601/http://www.ensignmessage.com/archives/vikings.html |archive-date=May 25, 2009 |last=Chapman |first=Paul H. |work=The Ensign Message}}</ref> to the southern Labrador Coast.

==Sagas==
The ''[[Saga of the Greenlanders]]'' tells that [[Leif Eriksson]] set out in 1002 or 1003 to follow the route that was first described by [[Bjarni Herjólfsson]]. The first land that Eriksson went to was covered with flat rocks ([[Old Norse]]: ''hella'') and so he called it ''Helluland'' ("Land of the Flat Stones)". Next, Eriksson came to a land that was flat and wooded, with white sandy beaches, which he called ''Markland'' ("Forest Land"). Eriksson's crew cut down trees and took them to [[Greenland]] because Greenland has only one small forest and normally relies on driftwood or imports for lumber. The ''[[Saga of the Greenlanders]]'' also tells of 160 men and women who settled in Markland for winter protection led by [[Thorfinn Karlsefni]] (''Þorfinnr Karlsefni Þórðarson''), c. 1010.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kraus |first1=Michael |last2=Joyce |first2=Davis D. |title=The Writing of American History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rPQSU37xB74C |publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]] |date=January 1, 1990 |pages=445 |isbn=0-8061-2234-X}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sturlason |first=Snorre |author-link=Snorre Sturlason |title=[[Heimskringla]] |year=1230}}</ref>

The ''[[Saga of Erik the Red]]'' indicates that Markland is south of Helluland, north of [[Vinland]] off ''Kjalarnes'', northwest of an island called Bjarney, and with a country that Karlsefni thinks may be [[Great Ireland|Hvítramannaland]] somewhere opposite its coast.

== Milanese record ==
{{Main|Galvano Fiamma#Writings}}
The only known mention of Markland in the Middle Ages outside of the Nordic area occurs in a chronicle written by the [[Milan]]ese [[friar]] [[Galvano Fiamma|Galvaneus Fiamma]] in the first half of the 14th century. This is the only known mention of the [[New World]] before [[Columbus' First Voyage|Columbus's voyage in 1492]] outside of [[Northern Europe]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chiesa|first=Paolo|date=2021-05-04|title=Marckalada: The First Mention of America in the Mediterranean Area (c. 1340)|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00822884.2021.1943792|journal=Terrae Incognitae|language=en|volume=53|issue=2|pages=88–106|doi=10.1080/00822884.2021.1943792|hdl=2434/860960 |s2cid=236457428 |issn=0082-2884|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2021-09-25|title=A monk in 14th-century Italy wrote about the Americas|newspaper=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2021/09/25/a-monk-in-14th-century-italy-wrote-about-the-americas|access-date=2021-11-10|issn=0013-0613}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Vikings]]
* [[Norse colonization of the Americas]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/voyage/subset/markland/archeo.html Markland and Helluland Archaeology]

{{coord missing|Newfoundland and Labrador}}{{Germanic peoples}}

[[Category:Saga locations]]
[[Category:Viking Age in Canada]]
[[Category:Labrador]]
[[Category:2nd millennium in North America]]