Numerous tales exist about places initially dismissed as mythical, only to later reveal deeper truths. Hvítramannaland, also known as Great Ireland and White Men’s Land, falls into this category.
Key Norse texts, such as the Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders, hold significance in this context. These sagas hint at Hvítramannaland, situated either six days west of Ireland or near Vinland, the term once used for the coastal region of eastern North America.
In the Saga of Erik the Red, the inhabitants of Hvítramannaland are portrayed as always clad in white, emitting loud cries, wielding long poles, and adorned with fringes. Some accounts even highlight albinism in the population, with "hair and skin as white as snow."
Gerardus Mercator, a Flemish geographer, referenced a similar land in a 1577 letter to John Dee, an English academic and occultist. According to Mercator, in the 14th century, eight men arrived in Norway from a distant land, claiming descent from the legendary King Arthur of Britain and asserting to be his fifth-generation descendants.
The actual whereabouts of Hvítramannaland remain a topic of scholarly dispute. Various theories suggest locations along the Eastern seaboard of North America, with Carl Christian Rafn proposing the Chesapeake Bay area and referencing Shawnee legends. Historian Farley Mowat presents a more elaborate theory, placing Hvítramannaland on the western shore of Newfoundland.
Mowat posits that Albans, settlers from the northern British Isles and considered the original Neolithic inhabitants, reached Iceland, Greenland, and North America before the Vikings. Displaced by the Celts, these Albans became skilled walrus ivory hunters and settled in Newfoundland due to its fertile land and abundant walrus population.
According to Mowat, the Albans predate the Vikings in Newfoundland by centuries, influencing Viking exploration. Leif Erikson's voyages, in Mowat's view, were attempts to raid Hvítramannaland, resulting in failure or hostile encounters with the native population.
The Albans are believed to have had connections to Europe until the early Middle Ages, but by the 14th century, European pirates forced their migration inland, leading to assimilation with other populations. Mowat's theory opens a captivating possibility, positioning the Albans and Hvítramannaland at the center of an unexplored chapter in pre-Columbian transatlantic contact and settlement in the New World.
