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Updated: July 16, 2025
It was built in 1121, as we have seen, by Bishop Flambard of Durham, as a defence for the northern portions of his diocese. The necessity for its presence there was soon made apparent, for it was attacked by the Scots again and again; and by the time thirty years had passed. Bishop Pudsey found it necessary to strengthen it greatly.
His great rival, Donald of Leath Conn, did not long survive him: he died at Derry, also in a religious house, on the 5th of the Ides of February, A.D. 1121. While these two able men were thus for more than a quarter of a century struggling for the supremacy, a third power was gradually strengthening itself west of the Shannon, destined to profit by the contest, more than either of the principals.
The island of Estotiland has been supposed by M. Malte-Brun to be Newfoundland; its partially civilized inhabitants the descendants of the Scandinavian colonists of Vinland; and the Latin books in the king's library to be the remains of the library of the Greenland bishop, who emigrated thither in 1121. Drogeo, according to the same conjecture, was Nova Scotia and New England.
After the last-named followed Murhertach also of the Dalcassian house, at whose death the rule once more swung round to the house of Hy-Nial and Donald O'Lochlin reigned nominally until his death in 1121. Next the O'Connors, of Connaught, took a turn at the sovereignty, and seized possession of Cashel which since its capture by Brian Boroimhe had been the exclusive appanage of the Dalcassians.
Estoitland must have been Winland, the Newfoundland of the moderns; and the Latin books may have been carried there by bishop Eric of Greenland, who went to Winland in 1121. Drogio lay much farther south, and the people of Florida, when first discovered, had cities and temples, and possessed gold and silver.
In 1121 and 1127, Thorlogh triumphed in the south, took hostages from Lismore to Tralee, and returned home exultingly; a few years later the tide turned, and Conor O'Brien was equally victorious against him, in the heart of his own country. Thorlogh played off in the south the ancient jealousy of the Eugenian houses against the Dalcassians, and thus weakened both, to his own advantage.
The saga then goes on to say that trading voyages to the settlement which had been formed by Karlsefne now became frequent, and that the chief lading of the return voyages was timber, which was much needed in Greenland. A bishop of Greenland, Eric Upsi, is also said to have gone to Vinland in A.D. 1121. In 1347 the last ship of which we have any record in these sagas went to Vinland after timber.
It appears from the Icelandic Chronicles, that a regular trade was established between this country and Norway, and that dried grapes or raisins were among the exports. In the year 1121, a bishop went from Greenland for the purpose of converting the colonists of Vinland to the Christian religion: after this period, there is no information regarding this country.
A little farther on is a small heap consisting of shafts and capitals of columns, a stone sarcophagus and a brass plate stating that they are the "Derniers restes de la cathédrale d'Avranches; commencée vers 1090 et consacrée par l'eveque Turgis en 1121." The nave having fallen in, the rest of the edifice had to be taken down in 1799.
But it is said that Freydis who frightened the Skraelings committed many murders in Vineland among her own people. The Icelanders never returned to Vineland the Good, though a bishop named Eric is said to have started for the country in 1121.
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