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How did Leif Eriksson’s voyage reach Vinland?
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Viking
Exhumed Viking ship; in the Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway.
Accounts of how Leif Eriksson reached Vinland vary between the two primary Norse sagas, which provide the most detailed information about Viking exploration of North America.12
- Grænlendinga saga (Saga of the Greenlanders): This account suggests that Leif Eriksson intentionally set out around 1000 CE to find land previously sighted by the Icelander Bjarni Herjólfsson, who had been blown off course while sailing to Greenland about 15 years earlier. Leif led a crew of 35 men, sailing southward from an icy region he named Helluland and a wooded area he named Markland, eventually reaching a warmer region he called Vinland.123
- Eiríks saga rauða (Erik the Red’s Saga): This version presents Leif’s discovery as accidental. It states that while Leif was returning to Greenland from Norway around 1000 CE, he was blown off course and landed on the North American continent, where he discovered the region he named Vinland.12
Archaeological evidence at L’Anse aux Meadows confirms that Norse explorers did reach North America, likely traveling as far south as areas where wild grapes grew, such as the region surrounding the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.123