Vikings in Sop's ArmStraumfjord
This portion of article points to Sop’s Arm. Certainly food for thought!”
After driving many times back and forth along the east coast of Newfoundland Jónas Kristjánsson, scrutinizing a map of Newfoundland, was struck by the idea that Straumfjord would indeed be a bay looking very small on the map, called Sop’s Arm, lying west from the head of White Bay. After this Jónas has been concentrating on this area, fi nding more and more arguments to suggest it is in fact the real Straumfjord. In support of this conclusion he points out the following:
(1) This is the first inviting place after you have passed Furdustrandir (the Northern Peninsula).
(2) No other place at the east coast of Newfoundland fits so well with the description of Eiríks Saga: “They steered the ships into one fjord with an island outside its mouth, where there were strong currents.“ In no other fjord that we have seen at the east coast of Newfoundland is there one big island outside its mouth. And in Sop’s Arm there is a strong current in the channel at the north side of the island.
(3) There were mountains there, and a pleasant landscape,“ the saga informs us. No mountains can be seen near to any of the fjords farther southeast. But from White Bay one can, of course, see the Long Range Mountains.
(4) In the saga there seems to be a remembrance of their seeing the same mountains from the east coast and the west coast of the land; this they experienced when they sailed north of Kjalarnes and south along the west coast. Unfortunately there appears to be an error at this place in both manuscripts, where both Hóp and Straumfjord are mentioned. But if our interpretation in Section 2.3 is correct the mountains could be the Long Range Mountains, seen from White Bay and from the west, and so points to Sop’s Arm being the same as Straumfjord. This could not possibly apply to any of the more southerly fjords on the east coast.
(5) Finally the pitfalls near Sop’s Arm that we shall discuss at length later in this article, may have been dug by Thor finn and his men. A local man, Kent Budden, drew the attention of Jónas to these pitfalls
These observations by an experienced explorer need to be taken seriously by archeology departments in Canadian Universities. The site needs to be professionally explored.
Has anyone contacted the Archeology Department at MUN. This could be a good summer project for some graduate students. They could look at the artifacts that have already been found, and identify potential dig sites.
Thank you for the comment. Yes, we have been in touch. Unfortunately, they have few students to send out into the field for this type of work, we were told.
Some believe Kent’s discoveries were taken from a specific site; thereby contaminating the site for archeological research. There was only one item he removed and that was the rune stone. One of the axe heads that was given to him was discovered in a bog. The rest of Kent’s finds were beach discoveries that he collected, brought to his home and researched. He paired many items to those that may belong to a Viking age boat builder’s kit.
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The journey of discovery continues. An interested archeologist is visiting Sops Arm this summer 2019. The rewrite of Kent’s book is in editing process. Things move slow, but one step at a time will bring us closer
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Hello All;
Thanks for staying up to date on what’s happening.
As of September 2020 I have met two young men with a keen interest in Norse history and Mythology. One is able to actually read runes. The re-write of Kent’s two books is in the editing process. Check out the face book page VinlandDiscovery for updates.
I would investigate any nice beaches with water nearby. Like that beach on NE side of Sop’s Island. Trees are lined up in interesting pattern. Trees would grow where there were middens.