The Vinland question reconsidered and a plea for early maps

A plea is made for taking seriously ‘early maps’ by map-makers from what are conventionally dated as the earlier and later Middle Ages. Too readily, perhaps, such maps are dismissed either as forgeries dating to later eras or as essentially not ‘proper’ works of cartography. This article will dispute such dismissal and argue for a continuing scholarly engagement with the maps involved, their origins, makers, influences, and implications. The main aspect of this appraisal will address two early maps of the North Atlantic known as ‘the Vinland Maps’, both often regarded as fakes, adducing specific evidence suggesting, however tentatively, that they are authentic creations with much still to reveal about the worldly spaces depicted and the times of their creation. A crucial point is that readerships – scholarly and lay – should think further before accepting theories about fake maps and indeed be prepared to take ancient maps seriously as representations of the geographical knowledge held by early seafaring peoples. Additional information will be offered about related debates over the exact location of the place that, upon landfall, the Norse explorer Leif Erikson traditionally named as ‘Vinland’.