History of Province

The legend of St. Brendan (believed to have lived from A.D. 489-577) describes how he left Ireland near the end of his life to plant the seeds of Christianity in a far western isle. This legend may have been known by the European explorers, including Columbus and Cabot, who followed Brendan westward nine centuries later. Brendan himself apparently believed he was going to rediscover lands already visited by his predecessors including the early saint Mernoc. Nobody knows the actual fate of St. Brendan; but near L’Anse aux Meadows a lichen-covered stone with a mysterious type of writing has been found. The etching on this stone resembles an ancient Irish or Celtic style of writing that died out in the fifth or sixth century. The stone’s covering of slow growing lichens proves that the etchings are hundreds of years old. Legend suggests it may have been chiseled by St. Brendan the Navigator, the first Irish Saint; but further information is needed before the mystery of this “Ogham” stone is solved.
The sagas or oral stories of the Norse tell of Bjarni Herjulfsson, a Viking who was blown off course while traveling between Iceland and Greenland in 986. His reports of a wooded coastline were an irresistible lure to the timber-poor Norse. Leif Erikson, also called “Leif the Lucky,” following Bjarni’s route, became the first Viking to land in “Vinland.” Here he built sod houses and established the only known Norse settlement in the New World around the year 1000. The sagas describe how Leif the Lucky and later Norse settlers traded and sometimes fought with people they called “skraelings.”
The sagas say at least one child, Snorri Karlsefni, was born in Vinland before the settlement was abandoned. Although there are no other records of settlement, it is known that the Greenland Norse continued to visit Vinland occasionally as late as 1347. A century later, European fishermen were travelling to Iceland and other sites with Norse inhabitants. Norse settlements in Europe were another point of frequent contact. Some historians believe the continued connection between the Norse and other Europeans helped inspire the voyages of Columbus and Cabot.