Editors’ Note: Guest author Nick Rowland contemplates the possibility that one of his ancestral relatives arrived in North America (Newfoundland) about 500 years before Columbus. By the way, Nick lives in England and is still trying to locate a North American Rowland relative who shares his Rowland Group M Y-DNA. Take a Y-DNA test to find out if you are also a Rowland Viking.
Please bear with me whilst I give you some background before I get to the point of this article.
Erik the Red was a Norse explorer born circa 950CE in Rogaland, Norway the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson. Thorvald was banished from Norway around 960CE and the family settled in northwest Iceland.
A few years later around 982CE Erik was, in turn, banished from Iceland following a few violent and fatal arguments. Erik sailed west to explore together with men who had supported him and had also been banished, they ended up in Greenland. Erik was rather taken with Greenland and at the end of his banishment in 985CE returned to Iceland full of stories about how wonderful and green the island was. He managed to convince many people to join him on an expedition to settle there. A short time later they arrived in Greenland and established three settlements there, the first permanent settlements in Greenland.
Erik personally established the eastern settlement which he named Brattahlíð (now known as Qassiarsuk), and his wife Þjódhildc founded the first Christian church on Greenland in the Eastern settlement. Erik however remained faithful to his Norse Gods.
Erik had a daughter and three sons, one of the sons was called Lief Erikson who also became fond of exploring.
Icelanders kept their history alive in Sagas and many survive, the Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders mention a voyage by Lief Erikson around 1000CE where he sailed west with some followers and ended up (whether by design or accident is still debated) in Newfoundland at a place he called Vinland where he built a settlement. This expedition made Lief the first known European to colonise North America although it is believed the location was already known by earlier Norsemen who had not settled there. The settlement was not long lasting and the explorers returned to Greenland after a while.
Now to the point of all this.
As you may be aware archaeological remains are now being DNA tested and recently there was an academic study of the Vikings. Almost every known Viking burial was analysed and one of those burials matched my Y DNA (R1a-BY95335). The burial (officially identified as VK184/F7) was excavated from the high-status section of the churchyard Erik’s wife had founded, interestingly the person had died elsewhere as the bones were deposited rather than being a conventional burial.
This ancient relative of mine was born in Iceland and has been dated to being alive during the Erik the Red/Lief Erikson period.
Now to mild conjecture rather than fact, is it just possible that 1) my relative was on Erik’s voyage to Greenland and was one of the original settlers and 2) is it possible my relative travelled to Vinland with Lief Erikson and possibly died on the way back?
I think that 1) is very probable indeed because the dates and location tally.
I am not so sure about 2) as there is nothing to indicate whether he went with Lief or not, being a Viking though hints that it was a strong possibility.
Will I ever know? Probably not.
References
- The Essex Rowland Family Story from 10,000 BCE to 2020 CE, by Nick Rowland, published March 4, 2021, by Rowland Genealogy. This article contains additional information about Nick’s Y-DNA connection to VK184.
Image Credit
- Sailing routes described in Saga of Erik the Red and Saga of the Greenlanders, from Wikipedia. Graphical description of the different sailing routes to Greenland, Vinland (Newfoundland), Helluland (Baffin Island), and Markland (Labrador) travelled by different Viking characters in the Icelandic Sagas, primarily the Saga of Erik the Red and Saga of the Greenlanders. Modern English versions of the Norse names.
Thanks Ron 🙂