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HVÍTRAMANNALAND AND OTHER FICTIONAL ISLANDS IN THE SEA Else Mundal Several Old Icelandic texts mention a place in the Atlantic Ocean called Hvítramannaland, “the land of white men.” This land is mentioned in Eiríks saga rauða,1 ch. 12; Landnámabók2 (Sturlubók, ch. 122 and Hauksbók, ch. 94); and in Eyrbyggja saga,3 ch. 64, a land – or island – in the same location, southwest of Ireland and close to Vínland, is mentioned. Eiríks saga rauða tells how Karlsefni and his crew, on their way back from Vínland to Greenland, in a place which they called Markland – somewhere on the coast of North America – found five skrælingar, the Old Norse word for the natives the Nordic people met in Greenland and Vínland. Two of them were young boys, whom they caught and took back to Greenland, where they taught them the language and had them baptized. According to the saga, the boys told them that there was a land just opposite their land where there lived people who were dressed in white and, crying out loudly, carried poles in front of them to which pennants were attached. People thought, the saga says, that this must have been Hvítramannaland, or Írland it mikla, Great Ireland. Landnámabók tells how an Icelander, Ari Másson, great-great grandfather of Ari inn fróði, drifted away and reached Hvítramannaland, which some people call Írland it mikla. This land is six days and nights of sailing west of Ireland, the source says. The distance, measured in how many days and nights of sailing it would normally take to get there, is a distance a little shorter than the distance between the west coast of Norway and the east coast of Iceland. That distance, according to the same source, Landnámabók (Sturlubók, ch. 2 and Hauksbók, ch. 2), is seven days and nights of sailing. The distance between Ireland and Hvítramannaland would then bring one to the middle of the ocean. 1 Eiríks saga rauða, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson and Matthías Þórðarson, in Íslenzk fornrit 4 (Reykjavík: Hið ĺslenzka Fornritafélag, 1935). 2 Landnámabók, ed. Jakob Benediktsson, in Íslenzk fornrit 1 (Reykjavík: Hið ĺslenzka Fornritafélag, 1968). 3 Eyrbyggja saga, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson and Matthías Þórðarson, in Íslenzk fornrit 4 (Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélag 1935). ELSE MUNDAL 82 Hvítramannaland is, however, situated close to Vínland it góða, “Vinland the good,”4 as is said in the story about Ari Másson. It is also said that Ari never succeeded in getting away from this island and he was baptized there. Landnámabók also mentions its sources for the story about Ari Másson, who ended his days in Hvítramannaland. The story was first told by a man called Hrafn Hlymreksfari, who had stayed for a long time in Limerick (Old Norse Hlymreka) in Ireland. Additionally, the source says that Þorkell Gellisson (the parternal uncle of Ari inn fróði) had said that Icelandic men had heard Þorfinnr in the Orkneys (earl of the Orkneys, who died in 1064) say that Ari Másson had been recognized in Hvítramannaland and he was held in high esteem there, but he did not succeed in getting away. In Eyrbyggja saga we have the sad story about Bjǫrn breiðvíkingakappi and Þuríð, the sister of the chieftain Snorri góði. These two loved each other, but Snorri married his sister off to another man. They continued to meet, but after some time Bjǫrn had to flee the land. He returned after a few years, still very interested in Þuríðr and the young son she had given birth to in the meantime. He had to flee the land for a second time and afterwards no one heard about him for a long time, the saga says. After many years an Icelandic crew on a ship on their way back to Iceland drifted off course west of Ireland, in a southwesterly direction, far out to sea. After a long time they saw land – it was a large land, but they did not know what land it was. They sailed into a harbour and landed, and suddenly they were surrounded by a large crowd of men whom they thought might speak Irish. The men on the island were...

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