This fits with all of the Viking Norse discussion.
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Interestingly, there have been some evidence of Norse exploration up the St. Lawrence almost all the way to Montreal... But there is a lot of pushback, especially from the Canadian Native population. Why? I have no idea. Maybe they think they are going to lose their claims or something?
Personally, I think it makes a lot of sense. If there was a river, the Norse were going up it!
Vinland could not have been in Newfoundland. Grapes didn't grow there. So the 'opinion' is that the Norse sailed down the North American Coast, maybe as far as Cape Cod or Manhattan, where grapes grew wild. This is probably correct. But the L'Anse aux Meadows site is also right at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. And a giant river would have been a huge draw to people who sailed their longboats deep into Russia and up the Seine to Paris... and the Rhine into Germany. IMHO, they could not have resisted the 'draw' of the St. Lawrence. And both butternuts and grapes grew along its banks as you got into the Maritime provinces and what is now Quebec.
Also, I'll make the assertion that the Norse were 'not' a seafaring people. They were a littoral people. Their boats were not made for open ocean sailing. They were shallow draft. Didn't have great keels or an ability to deal with large open ocean waves. Even during 'nice' times of years. Most of their routes hugged the coasts and they made 'island hopping' jumps across open water to Iceland, Greenland and then, of course, Labrador. Where they sailed south to L'Anse aux Meadows and settled for about 10 years.
With a 'base' available for a decade... access to bog iron (they had smelting/forges at their settlement) to make nails and fittings... they could easily have built the smaller boats needed for river exploration.
Sooner or later, I think they will find more evidence down the St. Lawrence. And find that Vinland was not necessarily Cape Cod or the Southern Maine coast.
The whole postulation goes against the current dogma of Norse exploration. But while I was watching the Labrador highway unfold in front of me for 1000 miles or so a couple of years ago... it just sort of dawned on me that the Norse almost certainly went as far as they could... perhaps only getting thwarted by the Lachine rapids (LaChine named by French Explorers 500 years later because they thought they had reached China -- La Chine). Even for the Norse boats, those rapids may have ended their exploration. Plus there was heavy "Skraling" settlement in the area and they would have been possibly reluctant to engage with them and trade with them (the Norse were first and foremost traders) after their experiences in Newfoundland.
Be fun to go to an academic conference some time and start some arguments. There are some excellent scholars on Norse exploration. Sooner or later I think one of them will look at the bigger picture and maybe stop writing off the 'discoveries' of nails and ironwork up the St. Lawrence. But some of those academic types sure have their Sacred Cows... And get all worried about losing their tenure tracks and grants if some 'other' theory pops up.
Oh well, back to enjoying a good cigar and watching Dexter... If there is some big breakthrough someday, you can say you read about it here first.
Then again, I'm probably wrong.
Cheers,
Sirhr
