Straumfjörður ( Icelandic), or Straumfjǫrðr (

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

), sometimes anglicised to Straumsfjordr,''Sveinbjörn Þórðarsson''
The Saga of Erik the Red - Icelandic Saga Database
/ref> Straumfjordr, Straumsfjord or Straumfjord, is according to the

Sagas of Icelanders The sagas of Icelanders (, ), also known as family sagas, are a subgenre, or text group, of Icelandic Saga, sagas. They are prose narratives primarily based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and earl ...

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

Vinland Vinland, Vineland, or Winland () was an area of coastal North America explored by Vikings. Leif Erikson landed there around 1000 AD, nearly five centuries before the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John Cabot. The name appears in the V ...

where Thorfinn Karlsefni set up a temporary settlement. It is described in the ''

Saga of Erik the Red The ''Saga of Erik the Red'', in (), is an Icelandic saga on the Norse exploration of North America. The original saga is thought to have been written in the 13th century. It is preserved in somewhat different versions in two manuscripts: ''H ...

'', but not in the '' Greenland saga''. Its name translates to "Current-fjord", "Stream-fjord" or "Tide-fjord". Two somewhat different versions of the travels of Karlsefni appear in the sagas; they are found in the ''

Hauksbók Hauksbók (; 'Book of Haukr') is a 14th-century Icelandic manuscript created by Haukr Erlendsson. Significant portions of it are lost, but it contains the earliest copies of many of the texts it contains, including the '' Saga of Eric the Red''. ...

'' and the ''

Flateyjarbók ''Flateyjarbók'' (; "Book of Flatey, Breiðafjörður, Flatey") is an important medieval Iceland, Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name ''Codex Flateyensis''. It was commissioned by Jón Hákonarson and p ...

''. They tell that ''Straumsey'' (Current-isle) lies at the mouth of Straumfjörð; this is an island with an extreme density of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s. The whereabouts of Straumfjörðcomplete with its associated island of ''Straumsey''has been, and is, subject to intense speculation, with at least 15 suggested locations on the Atlantic coast of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. These possible locations range from as far north as the entrance to

Northern Canada Northern Canada (), colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada, variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three Provinces_and_territories_of_Canada#Territories, terr ...

's Ungava Bay, to as far south as the entrance to

New York state New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

Location

The exact location of Straumfjörð is disputed. The only Norse settlement which has been recovered in

beyond

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

is located on

L'Anse aux Meadows L'Anse aux Meadows () is an archaeological site, first excavated in the 1960s, of a Norse colonization of North America, Norse settlement dating to approximately 1,000 years ago. The site is located on the northernmost tip of the island of Newf ...

. According to the ''Saga of Erik the Red'' the location is significantly south of

Markland Markland () 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, ...

Directions

These directions to the fjord are based on Septhon's 1880 translation. Thorfinn Karlsefni, trying to find a country visited by

Leif Ericson Leif Erikson, also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According to the sagas of I ...

, sailed from

Brattahlíð Brattahlíð (), often anglicised as Brattahlid, was Erik the Red's estate in the Eastern Settlement Viking colony he established in south-western Greenland toward the end of the 10th century. The present settlement of Qassiarsuk, approximatel ...

, Eastern Settlement to ''Vestribygd'' (probably the Western Settlement), both in

. From here, they moved on to "''Bjarneyjar''" ("Bear Islands", possibly

Disko Island Disko Island (, ) is a large island in Baffin Bay, off the west coast of Greenland. It has an area of ,Helluland ("Country of Flat Stones"). After another two half-days or days of sail with northerly winds, they arrived at

("Forest Country"). Off Markland to the southeast was an island that Karlsefni and his company called Bear Island. From Markland, after yet another two half-days or days of sail, they encountered a headland, possibly ''Kjalarnes''. Keeping the coast on their

starboard Port and starboard are Glossary of nautical terms (M-Z), nautical terms for watercraft and spacecraft, referring respectively to the left and right sides of the vessel, when aboard and facing the Bow (watercraft), bow (front). Vessels with bil ...

side, they journeyed along '' Furdustrandir'' ("Wonder-strands"). Then, the coast became indented with creeks. They found grapes and wild wheat, and continued to where the shore was cut into by the

of ''Straumfjörð'', with the island of ''Straumsey'' ("Current-isle") at its mouth. To the south of Straumfjörð was '' Hóp'', where no snow fell during winter, and on the west side of ''Kjalarnes'' was a wilderness, and a river which flowed from east to west. East of ''Kjalarnes'' was the " Irish Ocean". Straumfjörð is estimated by Karlsefni to be equidistant from ''Hóp'' and a location north of the river that runs westwards. He also regards ''Hóp'' and this location by the river to share the same mountain (or mountain range). The "two half-days or days" wo ''doegr'', which could refer to 12 or 24 hours referenced three times in the saga, are important to the question of the whereabouts of Straumfjörð because they suggest the distance travelled when Karlsefni and his men, perhaps, crossed open seas. The two ''doegr'' were suggested by Carl Christian Rafn in 1841ANNALER FOR NORDISK OLDKYNDIGHED. 1840-1841. KONGELIGE NORDISKE OLDSKRIFTSELSKAB. Kjøbenhavn. Pages 15ff. Available through

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

. to be equivalent to about 54 to 60 ''miil''. He bases this on old Icelandic sources such as the ''

Landnámabók (, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE. is divided into five parts and ov ...

''. ''Miil'' would refer to either or to

Scandinavian mile A Scandinavian mile ( Norwegian and , , ) is a unit of length common in Norway and Sweden, to a lesser extent in Finland, but not Denmark. Today, it is standardised as 1 being , but it had different values in the past. The word is derived fr ...

. William A. Munn (1929) assumes the two days to correspond to ''"about 200 miles"''. Jónas Kristjánsson and colleagues, in a 2012 article, suggest that ''170

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude at t ...

s'', which is the distance between Greenland and Baffin Island, or an even longer distance, could well be transversed over two ''doegr'', as modern replicas of Norse ships have been reported to make 12

knot A knot is an intentional complication in Rope, cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including List of hitch knots, hitches, List of bend knots, bends, List of loop knots, loop knots, ...

s and more under favourable conditions. Geoffrey Malcolm Gathorne-Hardy and William Hovgaard estimated a day of 24 hours' sail at about 150 miles.

Saga of Erik the Red

According to the Saga of Erik the Red, Straumfjörð is located beyond the Wonderstrands (''Furðustrandir''). It describes the area thus, according to the "fusioned" 1880 translation by J. Sephton: Later, after giving up settling farther south due to the presence of hostile ''

Skræling (Old Norse and , plural ) is the name the Norse Greenlanders used for the peoples they encountered in North America (Canada and Greenland). In surviving sources, it is first applied to the Thule people, the proto-Inuit group with whom the Nors ...

s'', Karlsefni and his men again reach Straumfjörð when retreating northwards:

Hallmarks

If the saga's accounts and the translation are accurate, within Straumfjörð, there are mountains, the place was fair to look upon, with large pastures, a harsh winter, and hunting opportunities. A crag or crags are found within some distance. An unknown species of

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

shored; it was inedible. On ''Straumsey'', there are so many birds that it is difficult not to step on eggs, it also has poor fishery, but gave good sustenance for their

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

. Fishery failed, but later recovered.

Currents

A defining feature of Straumfjörð and ''Straumsey'' must have been high tides or strong currents. The settlement which was established farther south, ''Hóp'' may also have been connected to strong currents or tides, as it has been translated into "tidal pool" or "tidal lake". According to a 2008 article by Thomas Hayne in the journal ''Weather'', this may give some clues as to the whereabouts of the fjord:Thomas Hayne, What did the Viking discoverers of America know of the North Atlantic Environment? Weather, Volume 63, Issue 3, pages 60–65, March 2008.

Climate

Theories on where Straumfjörð and the other places described in the saga were to a large extent based on the saga's descriptions of

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

and

fauna Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...

. The Northern Atlantic has since the saga was written, however, been through periods of natural changes in the regional climate and, more recently,

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

. This adds an extra layer of uncertainty to every climate-dependent observation.

Seamanship

Common sense

seamanship Seamanship is the skill, art, competence (human resources), competence, and knowledge of operating a ship, boat or other craft on water. The'' Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford Dictionary'' states that seamanship is "The skill, techniques, o ...

implies to avoid open and treacherous seas unless they are unavoidable. Moreover, appropriate

natural harbour A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be moored. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...

s would be required for the ships. This provides possible constraints to the routes taken.

Skepticism

Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad (the couple who found

), in ''The Viking Discovery of America'', take a sceptical approach. They argue that The similarities are also described by Mats G. Larsson. However, according to a 2012 article in ''Acta Archaeologica'', it is "now generally accepted" that the two sagas were written independently.

Fridtjof Nansen Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (; 10 October 1861 – 13 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and co-founded the ...

, in his ''I tåkeheimen'' (''In Northern Mists''), written before the discovery of

, conjectures that the Saga of Erik the Red was inspired by tales about the

Fortunate Isles The Fortunate Isles or Isles of the Blessed (, ''makarōn nēsoi'') were semi-legendary islands in the Atlantic Ocean, variously treated as a simple geographical location and as a winterless earthly paradise inhabited by the heroes of Greek myth ...

and, although admitting that it is indeed possible that the Norse reached America, considers the saga to not be trustworthy. Julius E. Olson of the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

strongly attacked this stance in a 1911 article (see also below), saying "If there isn't a substantial background of history to the Saga of Eric the Red, it is the most clever piece of literary deception over 'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''practiced in the name of history".

Suggested locations

The following suggestions for the location of Straumfjörð are gathered from both scholarly and popular literature. They are sorted by increasing distance from the Western Settlement,

: they make increasingly optimistic estimates for the distance travelled by Karlsefni and his company. Evidently, the headland, promontory or cape ''Kjalarnes'' is difficult to identify; for seafarers the keel placed there would make its identification obvious, but it is now lost, and Furdustrandir and Straumfjörð lay beyond this point. As will be shown in the following, ''Kjalarnes'' is sometimes, but not always, identified as

Gaspé Peninsula The Gaspé Peninsula, also known as Gaspesia (, ; ), is a peninsula along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River that extends from the Matapedia Valley in Quebec, Canada, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is separated from New Brunswick on it ...

, Cape North (Nova Scotia), Cape North/

Cape Breton Island Cape Breton Island (, formerly '; or '; ) is a rugged and irregularly shaped island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18.7% of Nova Scotia's total area. Although ...

and

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...

. Many, but not all, of the following suggestions can be placed some distance beyond these points, within four coastal regions:

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

;

Chaleur Bay frame, Satellite image of Chaleur Bay (NASA). Chaleur Bay is the large bay in the centre of the image; the Gulf_of_St._Lawrence.html" ;"title="Gaspé Peninsula is to the north and the Gulf of St. Lawrence">Gaspé Peninsula is to the north and t ...

;

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

; between

and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Ungava Bay

Hayne (2008) connects the extreme tides of Ungava Bay to the alleged currents or tides at Straumfjörð and ''Hóp'', without drawing any conclusions.

Sandwich Bay

William Hovgaard in ''The Voyages of the Norsemen to America'' (1914) takes into account the tales in the Greenland Saga. According to William Stetson Merrill, Hovgaard places Karlsefni's first winter at Sandwich Bay,

Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...

. It is not made explicit whether this refers to Straumfjörð.

L'Anse aux Meadows

Birgitta Linderoth Wallace (2003) places the settlement at Straumfjörð at

Sop's Arm

Jónas Kristjánsson et al. (2012) assume that the headland of ''Kjalarnes'' referred to in the saga is at

, suggests that Straumfjörð refers to Sop's Arm, Newfoundland, as no other fjord in Newfoundland was found to have an island at its mouth, and as pitfall traps of possible Norse origin were found at this location.

St. Lawrence

In an 1831 letter sent from

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

to the

Massachusetts Historical Society The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) is a major historical archive specializing in early American, Massachusetts, and New England history. The Massachusetts Historical Society was established in 1791 and is located at 1154 Boylston Street ...

, published in the 1880 ''Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society'', Rasmus Christian Rask gives a thorough account of the sagas and states, This would refer, it would seem, either to the

Gulf of Saint Lawrence The Gulf of St. Lawrence is a gulf that fringes the shores of the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, in Canada, plus the islands Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, possessions of France, in ...

or to lower

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrenc ...

, depending on naming conventions in use at the time. He refuses to propose a theory of the whereabouts of ''Straumsey'', claiming it "impossible", but hopes for future saga translations to illuminate the issue. H. P. Steensby ( da) held that ''"The coast lines were guides for the ancient Norsemen and they must also be ours"''. According to Merrill, Steensby's opinion was that

Baie des Sept-Îles

'' Cappelen's History of Norway'' (1976) suggests a location at Baie des

Sept-Îles, Quebec Sept-Îles (, , ) is a city in the Côte-Nord region of eastern Quebec. Along with Brador, Quebec, Brador and Blanc-Sablon, Sept-Îles is one of the oldest places in the province. The population was 24,569 as of the 2021 Canadian census. The ...

Chaleur Bay

An early 1920s book review by Sigfús Blöndal in Historisk Tidsskrift (Denmark), referring to scholarly consensus of the past decades and to the authority of

Gustav Storm Gustav Storm (18 June 1845 – 23 February 1903) was a Norwegians, Norwegian historian, a professor at the University of Oslo, Royal Frederick University in Oslo, Christiania from 1877. He was a driving force in the research of Scandinavian ...

and H. P. Steensby, places Straumfjörð at

, which separates

from

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

. Halldór Hermansson (1930) also placed Straumfjörð in Chaleur Bay, "where the tide rises from five to ten feet". Matthias Thordarsson, who authored ''The Vinland Voyages'' (1930), agreed with his views.

Mira Bay

Juul Dieserud (1935) placed Straumfjörð at Mira Bay,

Strait of Canso

Geraldine Barnes (1995) connects Straumfjörð to the Strait of Canso between

and mainland

, due to its high tides and the birdlife at nearby Isle Madame. According to a 1935 article by William Stetson Merrill in '' The Catholic Historical Review'', the opinion held by

was as follows:

Lobster Bay

While (1992, 1999, 2000) considers the Strait of Canso a candidate due to its strong currents, but notes that the currents do not extend to islands. Therefore, he considers Lobster Bay, off the southwestern tip of

's Municipality of the District of Argyle, a better candidate. He writes that

Samuel de Champlain Samuel de Champlain (; 13 August 1574#Fichier]For a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see #Ritch, RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December ...

named this bay "Baye courante ('Stream Bay'), i.e. the same name as the Norse one". Larsson further observes,

Bay of Fundy

The

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy () is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its tidal range is the highest in the world. The bay was ...

, between

and

, has the highest

tidal range Tidal range is the difference in height between high tide and low tide. Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and Sun, by Earth's rotation and by centrifugal force caused by Earth's prog ...

in the world, with a maximum of and a mean of . In addition, because of tidal resonance in the funnel-shaped bay, the tides that flow through the channel are very powerful, so the bay's criteria serve both the "Current-fjord" and "Tide-fjord" translations of Straumfjörð. Julius E. Olson (1911) pointed out that

, taking a very sceptical stance, was dismissive of the idea of Vinland being located at Nova Scotia, partly because he held that the birdlife there would not match the extreme abundance which the saga describes on ''Straumsey''. Olson points, however, to the Bay of Fundy and the isle of Grand Manan, and quotes

's observation of birds on islands by the Nova Scotia coast (in ''Original Narratives''):

William Henry Babcock William Henry Babcock (1849–1922) was an American author and poet. He was born in 1849 in St. Louis, the son of Jonathan Wells Babcok and Catharine Babcock (born Smith). In 1874 he married Ann Johns Earle, having at least 5 sons and 6 daughters ...

(1935) placed Straumfjörð on the firth leading into

Passamaquoddy Bay Passamaquoddy Bay () is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy, between the U.S. state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick, at the mouth of the St. Croix River. Most of the bay lies within Canada, with its western shore bounded by Was ...

, referring to the tides around the Bay of Fundy, and also places ''Straumsey'' at Grand Manan Island. The Bay of Fundy was also mentioned in a 2008 article in ''Weather'', but without any conclusions being drawn.

Environs of Mount Desert Island

William L. Traxel, in his explorative 2004 book ''Footprints of the Welsh Indians: Settlers in North America Before 1492'' connects ''Straumsey'' to

Mount Desert Island Mount Desert Island (MDI; ) in Hancock County, Maine, is the largest island off the coast of Maine. With an area of it is the List of islands of the United States by area, 52nd-largest island in the United States, the sixth-largest island in th ...

Acadia National Park Acadia National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located along the mid-section of the Maine coast, southwest of Bar Harbor, Maine, Bar Harbor. The park includes about half of Mount Desert ...

, United States, and consequently Straumfjörð with one of the nearby inlets: He bases this on an identification of

as ''Kjalarnes'' north of Straumfjörð, and on three candidate locations of ''Hóp'' to the south. Traxel refers to a number of archeological findings by Frederick J. Pohl at Follins Pond, and connects these to the settlement of ''Hóp''. He also reports that Robert Ellis Cahill found a Norse

longhouse A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from lumber, timber and ...

near Buzzard's Bay He also holds Pettaquamscutt River,

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

as a candidate for the location of ''Hóp''.

Bass River, Cape Cod

Buzzards Bay

According to the 1880 Sephton translation of the saga, Carl Christian Rafn and other Danish scholars placed ''Kjalarnes'' at

, Straumfjörð at

Buzzards Bay Buzzards Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) long by 8 miles (12 kilometers) wide. It is a popular destination for fishing, boating, and tourism. Buzzards ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

and ''Straumsey'' at

Martha's Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Isla ...

. Rafn suggests these views in a comprehensive treatment in the 1840-1841 '' Annals for Nordic Ancient Knowledge'', observing that the interference of the

Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida and up the eastern coastline of the United States, then veers east near 36°N latitude (North Carolin ...

by Barnstable would give significant currents in this area. He further identifies Hóp as Mount Hope Bay,

, suggesting that the

Norse language Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

name may have survived through "the Indians' Mont-Haup". He also mentions a nearby Egg Island as a candidate for ''Straumsey''. The suggested connection to Buzzard's Bay is reiterated by Benjamin Franklin DeCosta in ''The Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen'' (3rd ed., 1901) The methodology of the account of Edward F. Gray, author of ''Leif Eriksson: Discoverer of America'' (1930), appears to be particularly favoured in the 1935 review article by William Stetson Merrill. Considering all Vinland sagas as a whole, Gray suggested that it was not Karlsefni, but

who reached Straumfjörð. The currents of Straumfjörð, Gray holds, relates to the currents of Nantucket Sound, and he proceeded past

to build his Leifsbudir at Menemsha Pond.

Long Island Sound

Geoffrey Malcolm Gathorne-Hardy (1921) argued that Straumfjörð is identical with

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a sound (geography), marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York (state), New York to the south. From west to east, ...

, with ''Straumsey'' "at its eastern extremity", i.e. at Fisher's Island. To put this in context, he held Helluland to refer to Labrador and Newfoundland,

to refer to

, ''Kjalarnes'' to be at Cape Cod. This contradicted earlier estimates. William Paton Ker, in a 1922 book review published in ''

The English Historical Review ''The English Historical Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that was established in 1886 and published by Oxford University Press (formerly by Longman). It publishes articles on all aspects of history – British, European, a ...

'' favoured this view before that of

, who placed Vinland in

Hudson River

According to a 1963 article in ''Sunnudagsblaðið'', Charles Michael Boland, the author of the 1961 book ''They All Discovered America'' which suggests widespread pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact, held Straumfjörð to be the

and ''Straumsey'' to be

Governors Island Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk ...

. A December 1965 article in '' Folk og Land'' suggests that the Hudson River is Straumfjörð, and that

Manhattan Island Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the smallest county by area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entire ...

is ''Straumsey''. Reasons provided are that the name seems apt, that there were excellent natural harbours in this area, such as in the

East River The East River is a saltwater Estuary, tidal estuary or strait in New York City. The waterway, which is not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island, ...

and

New York Harbor New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States. New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay, ...

, that this location would be a good base for further exploration, that it is a land of plenty, that the winters on Manhattan Island are relatively cold, and that cliffs, described in the saga, can be found by the

Harlem River The Harlem River is an tidal strait in New York City, flowing between the Hudson River and the East River and separating the island of Manhattan from the Bronx on the United States mainland. The northern stretch, also called the Spuyten Duyvi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Straumfjord Vinland Sagas of Icelanders