Breaking news: Viking ships really did explore the coast of Maine. We’re proud to reveal four sightings—all in 2018.
Built in Haugesund, Norway, the longship Draken Harald Hårfagre slipped into Boothbay Harbor July 13-15. The dragon ship ravaged Rockland from July 22-25 before turning to Portland Harbor from July 27-30, tying up at Four Points Marina at 58 Fore Street.
One hundred fifteen feet long, the ship was launched in 2012 as the pet project of Sigurd Aase, a billionaire oil magnate and president of Crudecorp ASA, Stavanger, Norway.
Earlier Viking visits to our shores are harder to document. Time Magazine raised some eyebrows in August, 1957, when the “Maine penny” was discovered by Guy Mellgren while sifting through Native-American digs at Penobscot Bay on Naskeag Point in Brooklin. According to Wikipedia, the “Norwegian silver coin [dates] to the reign of Olaf Kyrre, King of Norway (1067-1093 AD).” To believers, it’s sparkling “evidence of Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact.” To others, it’s heads or tails.
In a story called “Nice Digs,” Dr. Bruce Bourque of Bates College floated the notion that the Viking coin is a miracle of trade, not travel: “During the late pre-history, people traded a lot. A stone like jasper spread all over the northeast like crazy. I think the Norse penny got caught up in this trade network. A lot of stone found in that same Brooklin site was from Labrador, and I think the coin was traded by the Norse people to the natives somewhere up north in Labrador, where the Vikings were active.” [Portland Monthly, Summerguide 1993.]
Sages through the ages channel the hope that Viking explorations reached this far south, including those of the retail persuasion. Remember The Viking smörgåsbord on Route 1 in Ogunquit, where you could design your own ice-cream sundaes? There’s even a rumor that the Vikings introduced the ancestor of the Maine coon cat to our shores. Sail into the mystery with Teig Tyrson’s The Vikings of Maine: The Hunt for the Norsemen in the Land of Norumbega. For many, pinpointing an early Viking presence boils down to how you define the word “Vinland” and its ambiguous boundaries. I’m pretty sure the Vikings made it to Hollywood.
But, hey, it’s Christmas. Cynicism be damned. Nobody can say the Vikings never made it to Maine—not after seeing these great pictures (for more, click here).
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