Vikings in North America

In the tenth-century, Norse explorers undertook a remarkable migration, establishing settlements in Iceland and Greenland, and almost inevitably therefore reaching the shores of mainland North America.

According to the Saga of the Greenlanders, Bjarni Herjólfsson sighted America as early as 986 but did not land. Sometime after 1000, Leifr Eiriksson retraced Herjólfsson’s course, coming first to a land covered with glaciers and, between them and the shore, what appeared to be a high, flat expanse of rock. To this land Leifr gave the name Helluland (Flagstoneland). Sailing on, he next reached a level wooded land with many beaches of white sand and named it Markland (Woodland). Leifr then sailed in a southwesterly direction for two days until he reached land again. He landed off the coast on an island where the dew tasted sweet and then proceeded to the mainland, where he built houses and wintered. One day, the Icelanders discovered wild grapes and vines and set to picking grapes and felling vines and trees. Leifr loaded his ship with this cargo and, after giving the land the name Vinland (possibly Wineland), sailed in the spring for Greenland.

Helluland may confidently be identified with Baffin Island and Markland with Labrador; there are theories about the route Leifr may have taken, but the exact location of what he called Vinland is not known for certain. In 1960, archaeologists discovered the only known Norse ruins at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland.