"Albania"

"Although in ancient times Britain bore the name of Alba, she was by no means alone in doing so. Tens of scores of place names derived from alb were scattered all the way from the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan to the Atlantic Ocean. A surprising number of these have endured into our times. I had no trouble assembling a list of more than three hundred contemporary place names containing an alb component, and many more are to be found in Asia Minor and in northern Africa...

The name was prominent in classical times, when several fullfledged countries bore some version of it. In addition to British Alba, these included the land of the Albii in the Alborz massif of northeastern Iran; Albania Superior and Albania Inferior in the Caucasus and Armenia; Olbia on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea; Alba in Romania; Elbistan in Turkey; the land of the Albicci in Liguria; Alba Longa in Italy; Alba and Albicet in Spain; and, of course, the Albania, which survives to this day in the Balkans.

The literal meaning and origin of alb remain obscure but, for reasons which will appear, I conclude it was closely associated with, if not the generic name of, the majority of the indigenes who inhabited Europe, Asia Minor, and probably also North Africa, until they were displaced from their lowland territories by largely Indo-European invasions. Thereafter it continued in use by those who survived in mountainous and other physically difficult regions where they were able to withstand the interlopers from the east.

But who were these people who left their name all across Europe and beyond and who have now mostly vanished out of memory?"

The text above is from an introductory chapter of this book, which I just reread:

The book has also been published in the United States under the title "The Farfarers."  Farley Mowat postulates that long before the Vikings reached L'Anse aux Meadows in present-day Newfoundland, this area had already been visited by "Albans" who had been forced westward from Northern Europe.

That hypothesis is unproven, but remains plausible and possible.

I have entitled this post (featuring a map of Newfoundland) "Albania" because of this passage from the book:

We are told that, to the south of Skraeling country, which was Baffin Island and northern Labrador, lay Markland (Woodland), the forested portion of Labrador. South of Markland was Vinland (Grassland) which, most authorities now agree, must have been eastern or northeastern Newfoundland.

"Next to [Vinland] and a little beyond [behind?] lies Albania, which is Hvitramannaland."

Note that Alba/Albania is next to Vinland, not south of it. Translators disagree as to the precise meaning of the qualifier. Some say “a little back from”; others opt for “a little behind”; and still others, “somewhat behind.” Regardless of which one accepts, it is clear that Alba, like Vinland, was in Newfoundland.

This is confirmed on a map drawn early in the seventeenth century by Icelander Jon Gudmonson, working from earlier maps which are now lost. Immediately south of the Strait of Belle Isle, Gudmonson depicts a land mass which can only be Newfoundland. It bears the single legend: ALBANIA. Not only does Gudmonson’s map show us where Alba was then believed to lie, it dates his original source to sometime before the twelfth century, after which Albania is generally replaced on Scandinavian maps by Vinland in honour of Leif Erikson’s famous voyage.

I'll add one more interesting segment from the book re the practice of slaving by Vikings.

Much effort has been expended attempting to cleanse the reputation of the Northmen, or Vikings as they are more usually known. The currently correct image is of rough-hewn, stout-hearted fishermen-farmers, who came west to the British Isles as homesteaders. It is admitted that there were piratical types among them whose deeds do not bear close scrutiny, but we are enjoined not to condemn the whole because of the few. Rather, we are encouraged to admire the Vikings for their pioneering spirit, their derring-do, their feats of seamanship, and their democratic ways.

This is not how they were viewed by those they came amongst...

The Vikings were primarily warriors and pirates, adventuring boldly on the open seas, looting, killing, feuding and harrying, blood-stained and blood-thirsty, wild heathen men from wild heathen lands. There were also settlers seeking new homes, and traders seeking to exchange fish and furs for wheat, wine and honey, but even those who travelled with peaceable intentions were never averse to gaining their ends by violence...

So much has been made of the Vikings’ undoubted appetite for precious metals, gems, and the like that we tend to assume lust for such things was the primary motivation for their pillage of Europe. The truth is that such goods were only icing on the cake. What the Vikings sought, first and foremost, was human booty. As John Marsden puts it in The Fury of the Northmen,

  "trading in amber, furs and walrus ivory was a prominent feature of Scandinavian expansion . . . but their predominant mercantile activity was slave trading."

Scandinavians became so engrossed in this lucrative business that they did not even hesitate to enslave their own kind. Circa 1070 Adam of Bremen described how Sjaellanders of Denmark bought a licence from their king to plunder foreigners but used it instead as a permit to enslave other Danes.

And as soon as one catches another, he mercilessly sells him into slavery, either to one of his fellows or to a barbarian.

Aesir society was anciently built on slavery and remained heavily dependent on it. As late as 1096 a census of Iceland listed only 4,560 free men in a population of at least six or seven times that number. Prosperous Norse households were seldom served by fewer than a dozen slaves.

Slaves not only powered the Scandinavian domestic scene, they were the backbone of foreign trade. The great Swedish trading centre of Birka was far famed for slave markets patronized by buyers from as far afield as Arabia. T

Enough.  A very interesting book to read.

See also The Amazing Value of the Walrus, reposted below this entry.