Helluland

E357714

Helluland is the name given in Norse sagas to a rocky, barren land in North America, often thought to correspond to Baffin Island or nearby regions encountered by Viking explorers.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Helluland canonical 5

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Norse exploration site
legendary place
associatedWith Greenlandic Norse settlements
Vinland sagas
category Legendary populated places in Norse mythology and folklore
Norse exploration of North America
certaintyOfLocation uncertain
chronologicalOrderInSagas first landfall west of Greenland
continent North America
culture Norse
describedAs barren land
rocky land
describedIn Eiríks saga rauða
Grœnlendinga saga
encounteredBy Leif Erikson
Norse Greenlanders
surface form: Norse explorers
etymology Old Norse for “land of flat stones” or “slab land”
explorationContext pre-Columbian transatlantic contact
followedBy Markland
Vinland
hasCharacteristic abundant stone slabs
cold climate
few trees
hasDebate archaeological correlates
exact geographic extent
hasRole waypoint in Norse westward voyages
hasStatus disputed identification
hasTypeOfSource medieval saga literature
historicalPeriod Viking Age
languageOfName Old Norse language
surface form: Old Norse
mentionedInContextOf Norse voyages to North America
partOf Norse conception of Western lands
possibleModernEquivalent Baffin Island
coasts of Nunavut
eastern Canadian Arctic
region Atlantic Ocean
surface form: North Atlantic
relatedTo L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site
surface form: L’Anse aux Meadows

Markland
Vinland
relativeLocationTo north of Markland
north of Vinland
south of Greenland
sourceType oral tradition recorded in writing
studiedIn Norse archaeology
Viking studies
historical geography
timeOfFirstMention medieval Icelandic manuscripts

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (5)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.