Adrian Payne spent more than fifty years guiding and hunting on the Great Northern Peninsula. The Vikings, who came to the shores of Newfoundland in the 11th Century, hunted caribou and trapped fur-bearing animals in this rugged, untamed wilderness. Generations later, outfitters like Adrian Payne believe they are walking in the footsteps of these legendary Norsemen, and here he pays homage to them with stories of adventure and daring rescue in the wild.

When the Vikings overwintered in the New World, specifically in Newfoundland, they had truly found paradise. The ocean was full of cod and other species, and the rivers were full of salmon and trout. The forest was full of fur-bearing animals. There were shiploads of timber to take back to their homeland. The mountains were plentiful with thousands of caribou. For hunters and gatherers, they had found the Garden of Eden.

Why the Vikings didn’t stay in Vinland, as they called the island of Newfoundland, is anyone’s guess. The decision to leave may have been influenced by the natives, who continually attacked them while they slept. It is believed by many that some of them stayed behind and married into the Innu and Inuit cultures in Labrador.

Adrian Payne was born in Parson’s Pond on the Great Northern Peninsula on November 11, 1940. His parents were Jack (John H.) Payne and Lucy Keough. He lived there until the age of four when his parents moved the family to Hawke’s Bay, where his father was employed with the Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Company. In the 1950s they moved to his father’s hometown, Cow Head. Except for living in Toronto for just four years, Adrian has resided in Cow Head, where he remains today with his wife, Carol (Darrigan) Payne, of fifty-five years.Adrian Payne entered the workforce as a logger with the Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Company at the tender age of fifteen. Upon his return from Toronto, he engaged in the fishery and spent the next thirty-five years as a commercial fisherman. While he was still a fisherman, he became an outfitter catering to non-resident big game hunters for nearly twenty-five years. In 2009, he and his wife retired.What began as a few stories for the grandchildren, so they could understand what life was like for their pop when he was growing up, has evolved into a collection of short stories of Adrian’s life from the time he was just a small boy. In the Shadow of the Long Range Mountains is his second collection of short stories. His first was Life on the Great Northern Peninsula (St. John’s: Flanker Press, 2017).

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