There are many stories of places that have been deemed mythological, only for it later to be discovered that there is much more to these myths than was first thought. Hvítramannaland, also variously known as Great Ireland and White Men’s Land, is one such place.

Amongst the most significant and influential of ancient Norse texts are the Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders. These sagas allude to the island of Hvítramannaland, described as being six days sailing west of Ireland, or alternatively, somewhere near Vinland, the name once given to the coastal area of eastern North America.

In the Saga of Erik the Red, the native people of Hvítramannaland were described as always being dressed in white and that they, quote, "uttered loud cries, bore long poles, and wore fringes." Another source mentions albinism in the population, with "hair and skin as white as snow."

Gerardus Mercator, the Flemish geographer and cartographer who created one of the first world maps, also mentioned a similar land in a 1577 letter to John Dee, the English academic and occultist.

In the letter to Dee, Mercator mentions that, in the 14th century, a group of eight men had come to Norway from a distant land, claiming to have been part of an expedition sent by the legendary King Arthur of Britain, and that they were, in fact, his fifth-generation descendants.

The true location of the legendary Hvítramannaland, is a subject of scholarly debate, with several theories proposing locations along the Eastern seaboard of North America. Carl Christian Rafn suggests the Chesapeake Bay area, referencing Shawnee legends of "white men with iron instruments."

However, historian Farley Mowat offers a more detailed theory, placing the land on Newfoundland's western shore.

According to Mowat, European settlers from the northern British Isles, referred to as Albans, reached Iceland, Greenland, and North America before the Vikings. These Albans, thought to be the original Neolithic inhabitants of Britain, were displaced by the Celts and pushed to Europe's northwestern fringes.

Mowat asserts they were skilled walrus ivory hunters, which led them to discover and settle in Newfoundland due to its suitable land for farming and rich walrus population.

Mowat argues that the Albans' presence in Newfoundland predates the Vikings by centuries and that their settlements along the southwest coast influenced Viking exploration.

The Vikings knew the area as Hvítramannaland, and Mowat speculates that voyages by figures like Leif Erikson were attempts to raid this land, which either failed or resulted in hostile encounters with the natives.

The Albans are believed to have maintained connections to Europe into the early Middle Ages, but these links were severed by the 14th century as European pirates forced their migration inland, where they assimilated with other populations.

Mowat's theory is a fascinating possibility, placing the Albans and Hvítramannaland at the heart of an untold chapter of pre-Columbian transatlantic contact and settlement in the New World...