AD1000 ----- AD1492 ----- History ! ----- Vinland !!
Substance and substantiations
Arrowheads recovered from near the banks of Pettaquamscutt River at a place I believe originally had the Narragansett name of Mettatuxet. They are two of a greater number recovered by a property owner there who informed me that he has no need to actively seek them out but finds them often while doing ordinary gardening chores. For photograph of more of his collection see below. This quantity within a small area demonstrates that the site must have been a residence and not a simple temporary encampment. This site is not listed in the survey on <Proofpage> but supports the theme of distinctive placement resulting from contact with some "advanced culture". We know from that survey that therefore these arrowheads were lost there sometime over 3000 years ago or more recently than "about 1000 years BP (before present)", the river rift being vacant of residence in the interim. The site is about a mile and and a half north and on opposite side of the river from where descriptions, aerial photographs, and other signals show the settlement of Hop appears to have existed.
Lingua Vinlandia: surprising commonality of language of Old Norse and Narragansett.
(First of two parts)
The foregoing pages giving insight to not only the possibility but the certainty that Vinland was in the same environs as RI1000, we can address the factor of language of the Natives for traces. Indeed, specialists in language aver that it is as powerful an indicator of man’s migrations as any other science. Merritt and Ruhlen have detected anomalies in the languages of Amerinds indicating at least some transmission of European language into American native language, and this study can demonstrate plausibility of at least one (post-1492) Narragansett word into English.
A factor to address is how the infusion occurred and it seems near certain that intermarriage took place from a predominately male group siring progeny with females taken, purchased, or escaped from an aborigine group who dwelt at some distance. Despite modern views of equality, this has been the way of the world from time immemorial, and especially Normen. Further insights come from analysis of the Vinland demographics where Viking women were too few and too valued to be allowed such freedom in the first generation. From that generation forward one would expect that a class differential would occur if these males maintained their dominance. Hence, we can see in the original group a class of infants being raised in households speaking their mother’s tongue, being strongly influenced by their father’s social and structural mores and perhaps picking up a word or two where their mother’s tongue would not suit. This is precisely what we do find in these myriad indicators.
We are indebted - again - to Roger Williams who not only spoke their language but actually wrote a dictionary of it published in London in 1643 (this language generalized in his title is actually Narrgansett more or less purely.) It is supplemented by the work of one Reidar Sherwin who wrote an analysis of Algonquin languages claiming over 4000 words in common between these Native Americans of New England/Nova Scotia and Old Norse of the Vikings. Sherwin makes an impressive case - usually finding a number of variations in varied dialects, thus tending to confirm what some advanced Vinland scholars have long suspected - that there had been additional voyages from Greenland and Iceland into the district after 1000AD. These suspicions originate mainly from historic port records of Reykjavic, Iceland, which identify a small Greenland vessel that put in storm damaged and with no anchor in 1347. It had as cargo timber from "Markland" which, if you recall, was one of the major landfalls of lands west and which was also specified as "not far" and "two days travel" from Vinland itself. It would seem near inexplicable to reasonable Vinland scholars if timber sparse Greenland and Iceland would send ship so far as Europe to buy or trade for wood when a shorter trip to America would find it free on the stump.
Well - language. Roger Williams’ original quotation seems ambiguous, commencing his theme with the thought that Narragansett language did not seem to him to have many, if any, words from Europe in it. He was enlightened by the (unnamed) Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam who did identify one - "Sackmackan" which had identical meanings of "Prince" in Narragansett and Old Norse. Now, to delve deeply into what might strike one as interesting coincidence, we might be aware that Dutch people were then, and are now, actually descendents and inheritors of Viking language and seafaring culture. That Governors’ (Peter Stuyvesant? Minuit?) awareness of the coincidental incidence of "Prince" in both languages indicates an intimacy of peoples on both sides of the equation. Netherlanders evidently maintained the trading post at "Fort Ninegret", so his intimacy with the language, Ninegret the man, and the people of the Narragansetts are easily deduced.
This word, apparently diverted into "Sachem", "Sagamore", and "Sangman" in other Amerind languages may well be the origin to English (from ON) to "Sage" just my own thought – most believe it to be from Latin "sapere" – the hard "p" would seem to be difficult to drop). The word also has significance in that the social attribute implicit is unusual in American Indian culture. Other tribes did not have "Princes" and in many cases even the concept of one. Therefore it is the kind of word that the mothers would not be able to describe, but which the fathers would use as a matter of course. It is true that individual sons of chieftains sometimes had an advantage in inheritance of a tribal position, but the main thrust of Amerind custom was to look towards men of individual abilities. Indeed, in many cultures, the position of Sachem was so revered that the chieftain was often the poorest man in the village by reason of feeling the necessity to tend and support less able individuals. In some tribes, the position was virtually bought with gifts to others - sometimes to impoverishment of the prospective chieftain. Narragansetts seem to have been alone in their hereditary titles and personal power up to and inclusive of the right to execute subjects. This is a sharply significant and distinctive trait. By itself it is a powerful indicator of familiarity with a similar culture, the nearest of which was in Europe. There, we know the social structure as "feudalism" – an abhorrent concept to the democratic and individualistic Amerind.
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From Williams’ point of view, we might wonder why he should think there should be any words in common in the first place. But we already know from his other writings that almost from his first visit to Pettaquamscutt in 1635 he had become a firm believer in the idea that Narragansett origins had been in Europe, so it would seem the mere suggestion by the New Amsterdam official would suffice to point him towards Iceland as the nation of choice.
From Sherwin’s point of view- and this is most interesting - he also noted , as did I - the dearth of words in common from this Algonquin group, but in his footnotes makes a most startling remark that amends the impression. Claiming that the general frequency of words in common throughout all Algonquin enabled him to not only detect several incursions of Norsemen at varied latitudes, he added that he could actually date them - that is, could determine the sequence of introduction of them into various groups. And here he remarks that among that sequence, Mic-Mac of Maine/Nova Scotia appeared the most recent and Narragansett the oldest of incursions because of the expected systematic corruption and loss of words over time. This is exactly what we might expect, if we accept that Leif Erickson and Thorfinn Karlseffni were the originators of the Vinland settlements and the much later findings that Cape Cod is a major impediment to coastal traffic, tending to restrict traffic in north and south directions. Until the completion of the Cape Cod Canal some 50 years ago, Cape Cod was considered even more of a navigational hazard than Cape Hateras - it is, and always has been, a major graveyard of sailing vessels. We should think that someone in search of timber from Greenland and Iceland would become well aware of the hazard and be as well satisfied with what could be taken free from "Markland" (Newfoundland? Nova Scotia? Maine?) with no barter or buying as would be necessary on a much longer trip to Europe
An insightful item of the language is that the letter "J" was virtually absent. (Linguists do admit that this was not exclusive but that in the rare occasions when it did occur, it seemed to have been in "borrowed" words from other languages.) Well, by yumpin’ yiminy, if my Dad spoke that way, I think I might pick it up myself! This particular sound is noted as a major impediment to Scandinavian immigrants into English speaking lands. Many first generation settlers never lose the transposition in sounds no matter how they try and the difficulty departs only in the second generation – and that only if there is a dominant cultural impulse toward the adopted language. This is true as we see in the modern incursion, but in the Vinland environs the small band of male fathers seem to only have left this peculiarity as a legacy while the language of the mothers predominated and eventually prevailed.
Another is the frequency of the letter "N" in major Narragansett identifiers including its own name - and for more on this see below. Vikings seem to have been partial towards that sound/letter as it occurred in their own favored "Norse", "Norsk", "Nordic", "Norman", eventually "Norway". As identifiers here we can find the words "Natick", "Niantic" and "Nipmuc" as sub-tribes of the main. These might reasonably be followed by "Nope" (Marthas Vinyard) and "NoMans" Island. It is widely believed that "NoMans" is, indeed, a corruption of "Norman’s" and the capital "M" being a later addition from a belief that it was meant to mean "No Man’s Land"; but the spelling has always left no space between "No" and "man" which evidences some confusion. Modern nautical charts capitalize it "NOMANS LAND" while the "Coasting Pilot" of Captain Cyprian Southack of 1717 has it as "Nomansland Island" sic). That it might be Norse in origin is not a far fetched idea, whether the custom originated a thousand years ago or 400. (It may have originated because of the runestone there.) Significances of these last should by no means be taken lightly, as Marthas Vinyard as Straumney must certainly have been as important Norse sites as Pettaquamscutt. Nomans Land Island is certainly a most ideal and typical Viking site. (And don’t forget that there are runestones associated at all three locales, that on NoMans Land at present in attempted recovery. See: http://home.att.net/~kmjviking/page6.html this website not associated with this one in any way.)
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A name at the "elbow" of Cape Cod is "Nauset", which, as we will see bellow, is a Narragansett place name, quite possibly meaning the same - "Nau" equaling "North".(?) and phonetically quite similar to "Nor". The Elizabeth Island chain of smaller islands just west of Marthas Vineyard were called by the natives "Nashanow" or "Naushanow" with the largest being "Naushon", with others being named Na(u)shawena, Nonamessett, and the adjacent mainland peninsula, Nobska. Other islands, or places upon them, were named Saconessett, Nanomessett, and Peshchamesett; all Narragansett names, the latter with added significance which will be addressed below. The entire area is exceedingly "Viking" in aspect - the business of living upon and otherwise exploiting islands being a noted Viking characteristic. Island living has its charms with the added advantage well known by nesting seabirds that one will not likely be disturbed there. The entire North Atlantic was the domain of Vikings for over half a millenium - they owned it completely, any other ship sighted offshore from, say, 600AD to 1300AD was certain to be Norse. Indeed, the entire world's oceans were theirs if they had the mind and time to go where the winds might carry them. Recorded voyages from Iceland span the equivalent distance along the American coastline as from Greenland to Brazil. The nautical outlook of Narragansetts was a close comparison to Viking seamen's and this is a trait we might expect to survive and perpetuate in such a mixed society as we have seen in the "Peoples Pages".
Amerind words in most of the specific languages seem to have been translated at using descriptive syllables into single words - a chaining together of ideas to describe a thing or place. These syllables are significant. Narragansett language did the same. A rather comic use by Narragansetts was to name animals by their sound as; "Honk-honk-suck" (goose) "Oink-oink-suck" for pig, and "Neigh-neigh-suck" for the new horses to which they quickly adapted without fear (several becoming blacksmiths and farriers). Thus, the syllable "--suck" must mean a living being of animal or bird-like persuasion - or perhaps simply "food". Place names were treated the same and a plethora of those names are still very much in existence all through New England while the Indian meaning of the chain is lost. They might refer to a place as, for example, "place where water flows over the rock". If we can examine enough names we might be able to decode some of the language as, say, "place" occurring in such a way as to identify its usage elsewhere. This leads us into a most interesting avenue of thought.
The practice of chaining syllables also happens to be a trait followed by most Teutonic peoples. Most of us are aware of some of this and the prevalent habit in Germany of naming companies and manufactories that might chain a name onto a following next page. Old Norse and Icelandic (not too far apart) do the same. Early on in my correspondence I was contacted by an elderly resident of Reykjavik named Skulli Olafsson who had been a Vinland Scholar for most of his many years, knew myriad details of the lost land, and was eager to share his wealth of lore as he neared the end of his days. He informed me in his small and crabbed hand - appearing to have suffered great pain in the process - that, as he wrote, "-many Icelandic scholars believed that Vinland had been in Rhode Island", because "Narragansett" could be parsed in Icelandic so: NARR (meaning "fool" or "deceiver"), GAN ("going" - meaning "trip" "voyage"), SETT (having rather a complicated etymology but in general simply meaning "place". It can also mean a settlement or an extended farmstead). Thus, in Icelandic or at least Old Norse, Narragansett is a recognizable word meaning "fool’s trip settlement" - a place or settlement to which fools or deceivers traveled or resided. Does this fit what we know of Vinland? Yes, it does, for recall the final episode of the Vinland Sagas where Freydis was condemned as much for deceit in her attempt to conceal murder as for the murders themselves.
As it happens, the suffix "—sett" has the identical meaning in Narragansett as it did in Old Norse and may still in modern Icelandic, meaning "place", "homestead" or "settlement". (actually, "saetr", the "r" signifying the nominative case as it does also with Leifr, or Leifur.) Curiously, I was also informed by a learned scholar (late) Dr. Albet G. Hahn, that it also seems to have been the origin of the suffix "--ster" in English place names from those days of old when Vikings dominated Ireland and the midlands of England.
Analysis allows us to take the theme further, indeed, much further, for it opens up interesting avenues when we compare what (archaic but not modern) Narragansetts themselves had to say of their own name. In general, almost universally, Amerind tribes referred to themselves in an egocentric way, with translations of their identification usually being translated into the order of "We", "Us", "The Human Beings", "The People". This indicates feelings of superiority to their neighbors and helps to explain their reluctance to form alliances and their prevalent sadistic behavior towards prisoners of war so common among Amerinds across the continents.
"Narragansett" does not fit this mold, being obviously something more complex. The word is usually translated to mean "People of the Small Point" and this seems to be the belief of modern descendents of the tribe. But their language declined at dissolution of the group after 1676 and became lost to themselves, being preserved mainly in Roger Williams' 1643 "Keys to the Indian Language". What they know of it is what has been recovered and apparently what their colonial benefactor Williams had to say about it has been overlooked. He had much to say of it and according to Williams the name had no meaning whatsoever to the people whose culture was the aim of the word! Think of it! Such a complex word that appears to have been lost to their memory by 1635 and which coincidentally appears in the language of Icelanders whose memory was written and therefore much longer!
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Now Williams (well educated, a graduate of Cambridge University in England) was intent on learning and interpreting the language. He spoke it on a day to day basis in intimate contact while he lived among and trade with them for over thirty years. The word was as important to him as it is to us and he actually made a trip - almost certainly accompanied by one or several of his Narragansett friends - for the specific purpose of tracing its meaning. He found, in fact, that it actually was the name of a small island which they revered and which apparently had some intrinsic cultural value to them, but to which the linguistic meaning had been lost to time. Modern historians can not ascertain just which island this may have been from the indeterminate descriptions left by Williams. Most have looked into adjacent Point Judith Pond (it is not a pond, but a salt water estuary, as is Narrow River, the very short entry to Pettaquamscutt River) which has six small islands. But the descriptions are even more potent for "Gooseberry Island" within Pettaquamscutt "Cove" (another misnomer - it's a lake, freshwater then, brackish salt now) by reason of the fact that Williams said he had approached it to within a "pole" (half a "rod" =16 ½ feet?). This name being so important to us, we might ask ourselves just why he should approach an island of such interest so closely and much effort and then not land? If he were wading, why not make a further trifling effort? If he were swimming it is even more of a mystery, and if he were in a boat even less. It seems likely that he was afoot and the island was that close to where he was standing at some accessible place. It happens that Gooseberry Island in Pettaquamscutt "Cove" has the narrowest straits of all the possible islands we can consider. I would judge it at about 25 feet from the nearest land - a running dive would bring an adventurer to the island itself, but apparently, Williams was not in that particular mood on that day, or perhaps too cold. (It is still popularly accessed by enthusiastic campers, some of whom reach it in just this manner. The first time I landed it a small campfire was still smoldering among the large rocks - bedrock, which is why it still exists.)
Therefore, it seems plausible that Gooseberry Island was a significant place in Narragansett culture and possibly the origin of their name. An aerial view of it reminds one of an arrowhead - even complete with a notch at the base. It is of such a small size that this viewpoint can be readily brought to mind's eye even by those who have no experience with bird's eye view. But it also must be considered that the Vinland Sagas also define a "point" at the settlement of Hop. (A "point" in modern nautical parlance is the same as "headland" but usually smaller. Headlands usually separate inlets of the seas called "bays" while a "point" might not necessarily do that – simply extending out into the water.) This particular point and its distinctive overlook so well described in the Sagas also still exist a hundred yards or so north of the island. Another revered place was Pettaquamscutt Rock, a mile and a half north. It was at this huge rock, so legend has it, that Roger Williams negotiated with Narragansett "Sackmackans" for both his trading post at "Cocumcussock" a few miles north, and also the lands now called the City of Providence even further north.
Next; Page two of Lingua Vinlandia