It is a fairly certain fact
that the north-west line of Scandinavian migration reached about A.D.
1000 to Cape Cod and the coasts of Labrador. It is equally certain that
on this side the Norsemen never made any further advance, lasting or
recorded. Against all other mediaeval discoveries of a Western Continent,
one only verdict can stand:--Not Proven.
The other lines of Northern advance, though marked by equal daring and
far greater military exploits, have less of original discovery. There
was fighting in plenty, the giving and taking of hard knocks with every
nation from Archangel to Cordova and from Limerick to Constantinople;
and the Vikings, as they reached fresh ground, re-named most of the
capes and coasts, the rivers and islands and countries of Europe, of
North Africa, of Western Asia. Iberia became "Spanland"; Gallicia,
"Jacobsland"[18]; Gallia, "Frankland"; Britannia, "England," "Scotland,"
"Bretland"; Hibernia, "Irland"; Islam, outside "Spanland," passed into
"Serkland" or Saracenland. Greece was "Grikland"; Russia, "Gardariki";
the Pillars of Hercules, the Straits of Gibraltar, were "Norva's Sound,"
which later days derived from the first Northman who passed through
them.
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