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====The Vikings in North America====

[[File: Authentic_Viking_recreation.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|Reconstruction of a Norse Sod House at L’Anse aux Meadow]]

The Vikings are the first recorded Europeans to have discovered the North American continent, although it was a long process. Viking explorers left Norway in the early Viking Age, discovering and settling such isolated places in the North Atlantic as the Faroes Islands and Iceland. A Viking named Gunnbjorn Ulf-Krakuson first sighted Greenland around 900, but it would be several decades later when Erik the Red was forced to moved there around 985 after being declared an “outlaw” in Iceland. Hoping to entice Icelandic settlers to join him on the large frozen island, Erik named the land Greenland, although it should be noted that the climate was much warmer 1,000 years ago. Eventually, the Norse established three colonies in Greenland that despite the harsh conditions, thrived and became a source of exotic goods coveted in Europe, such as ivory from walrus tusks and polar bear skins. <ref> Haywood, John. <i> The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings.</i> (London: Penguin, 1995), p. 96 </ref>

Not long after the Greenland settlements were established in 985, a Viking mariner named Bjarni Herjolfsson was blown off course during a voyage from Iceland to Greenland and became the first of his people to sight North America. The tale of new lands to the west intrigued the inquisitive Vikings, who set to work to conduct a full-fledged expedition to the mysterious lands. Around the year 1000, Leif Eriksson, the son of Erik the Red, led the first recorded expedition to North America. The two Norse sagas divide North America by topography: Helluland (Rock Land) coincides with Labrador or Baffin Island; Markland (Wood Land) coincides with Newfoundland; while Vinland (Wine Land) remains enigmatic and a source of dispute among modern scholars. Both of the Vinland Sagas describe Vinland, but the Greenland Saga gives a more detailed description of its discovery. The passage describes how Leif and the other Vikings found their comrade, Tyrkir the German, who had wandered away from their camp by accident.

“‘I did not go much farther than you,’ he said. ‘I have some news. I found vines and grapes.

‘Is that true, foster-father?’ asked Leif. ‘Of course, it is true,’ he replied. ‘Where I was born there were plenty of vines and grapes.’ They slept for the rest of the night, and next morning Leif said to his men, ‘Now we have two tasks on our hands. On alternate days we must gather grapes and cut vines, and then fell trees, to make a cargo for my ship.’ This was done. The tow-boat was filled with grapes. They took on a full cargo of timber; and in the spring they made ready to leave and sailed away. Leif named the country after its natural qualities and called it Vinland.” <ref> Magnusson, Magnus and Hermann Pálsson, trans. and eds. <i> The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America.</i> (London: Penguin, 1965), Graendlendinga Saga, 4 </ref>