It is well established that almost 500 years before Columbus set sail, a Viking named Leif (“the lucky”) Erikson visited, and temporarily colo-nized, a small village in Newfoundland, Canada. But the Norsemen may have been there even earlier.
According to the Norse Graenlendinga Saga, Vikings first arrived in the New World in 986 AD when Bjarni came upon a beautiful wooded area. He returned home and his tale soon spread, inspiring Leif Erikson to try to retrace the explor-er’s passage.
According to the Sagas of Icelanders, Leif got thrown off course by a violent storm and his first visions of Canada were not a pleasant forest but “flat and stony land,” perhaps modern-day Baffin Island. Leif and his crew continued their expedi-tion and ended up in an area with many trees, wild grapes, and grains.
They brought the grapes back home and called the land Vinland in honor of the fruit. Today, the area Leif settled has been identi-fied as L’Anse aux Meadow, on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland. Archaeologists working there have unearthed eight houses as well as food and hunted animal remains.
The Sagas clearly indicate Norsemen continued to explore the new land during the summer months for several years, making contact with indigenous tribes and trading and often fighting with them. Lacking resources and manpower to fend off the attacking locals, the Vinland settlement was aban-doned in less than 10 years. But no one knows for sure how far south the Vikings made it into the Americas.
