Action along the coast of Vinland
Rough analysis of the 1837 C.C.Rafn work.
The definitive work of the Dane, Charles C. Rafn seems little address in this modern era, yet in its day was a very well known and influential study. It appears to have been on the West Point Military academy curriculum near that time - at least it was quoted by no less a person as Colonel (Brevet General) George Armstrong Custer in his well known and well written "My Life on the Plains", first serialized in the Magazine "Galaxy" and later in book form.
Even less well known to those who have not seen it in original is that it was the culmination of a collaboration between several New England Historical Societies and the Scandinavian principal in a serious attempt to explain the numerous artifacts and runestones known from colonial times and many of which were still in existence in that day which seems so long ago to us. The runestones, identified as "inscription rocks" number 8.
Rafn places Leifsbudir in the Tiverton area of Massachusetts and Hop in the "Mount Hope areas near Bristol, Rhode Island. His entry to both these places are up the so-called Sakonnet River, which, however, introduces a first doubt of the theme. For the waterway - truly the correct Eastern Passage of Narragansett Bay, is in now way a river. It is entirely salt and has no fresh water current anywhere in it.
Quite scholarly and written in Latin, it should be recommended reading for serious Vinland scholars. It was republished in Germany in 1963 by one Otto Zeller with commentary in German.
Herewith, Rafn's map as it appears in the work.
The map is very difficult to show clearly, but note in particular the large spot between NoMans Land Island (bottom center) and the "Gay Head" area of Marthas Vinyard. This is one of eight signals of what Rafn termed "inscription rocks" well known in that day. This one, in midwater, seems to indicate the several times lost and recovered runestone on NoMans Land Island itself. It has been re-discovered and attempts to remove it for preservation are underway by a private organization.
See: < http://home.att.net/~kmjviking/page6.html >
An important item to address is the location of "Krossannes" which is here shown as near the Plymouth Harbor entry. An amazing consensus of Vinland scholars agree on this locale and is so readily compared that it would seem the most clearly defined of Vinland sites. A cautionary note is that in a theory forwarded by one William Godwin in "The Truth about Leif Erickson" he publishes a map which resembles this one and at first glance seems identical. However, in that one, which I believe is spurious (it claims the map as "attributed Rafn --) Krossannes is moved up to Boston Harbor to bolster Godwin's theories. The attempt is a disappointment from a man who made well financed and seemingly genuine attempts to contribute to New England ancient history. My hope is that Mr. Godwin's research source was responsible for the grievous error - one of very few in Vinland studies.