Leif Ericson — or, more properly, Leifr Eiríksson (Old Norse version) — and his crew landed in Vinland in the year 1000. Supposedly, that happened on October 9, but I always have to wonder how historians manage to pin down a date like that so precisely, when even the location of Vinland, or even if the Vikings were the first to set foot in North America was hotly contested right up until 1960, when Norse ruins were discovered at L’Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland, Canada.
Vinland was the name given to an area of North America by Norse Vikings. Recent archaeological studies suggest that this site is not all of Vinland of the Norse accounts, but merely an access point to a larger region called Vinland by the Norse.
The more I learn about Vikings and their explorations, the more impressed I am by their endeavors. They achieved some amazing feats, for the time and level of technology available.
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