The legendary sagas of the Vikings have always spoken of perilous, seaborne adventures to lands so far to the west as to literally drop off the edge of the known European universe. While some of these lands eventually became known as Iceland and Greenland, other parts would later be dubbed the “New World.” Yet, the discovery of the “New World” was attributed to Christopher Columbus. For centuries, legends persisted that Norse explorers came to the new world long before Columbus. In fact, rumours had it that the Norse made it well into the interior of the North American continent. For a long time, it was difficult for most archeologists and historians to prove if this was ever true. That was until 1968. That year two archeologists discovered a small cloak pin of Norse design in a location on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland-Labrador. This discovery triggered a massive archeological dig that would eventually come to prove that over one thousand years ago, and nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus’ infamous arrival in the West Indies, Vikings indeed arrived in what would become known as the “New World.”

Book recommendation: In Search of First Contact: the Vikings of Vinland, the Peoples of the Dawnland, and the Anglo-American Anxiety of Discovery by Annette Kolodny, Duke University Press, 2012.

https://www.dukeupress.edu/in-search-of-first-contact

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