Voyage to Vinland
Leif Erikson · 1000 CE – 1001 CE · Earth
In the Greenlanders’ saga, explore the lands Bjarni Herjólfsson had sighted west of Greenland; in Erik’s saga, Leif comes upon them by chance on his way home from Norway.
Historical context
About fifteen years after the settlement of Greenland, Erik’s son Leif sailed west. Two sagas tell the story, written down in Iceland two centuries and more after the events, and they differ: in the Greenlanders’ saga Bjarni Herjólfsson sights the lands first and Leif sets out to find them; in Erik’s saga Leif comes upon them by chance, sailing home from Norway as King Olaf Tryggvason’s missionary. L’Anse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland, found in 1960, is the only confirmed Norse site in the Americas outside Greenland; wood cut there was felled in 1021.
The voyage, step by step
Leaving Brattahlíð
1000 CE
In the Greenlanders’ saga, Leif, Erik’s son, sails from Brattahlíð with thirty-five men in the ship he bought from Bjarni Herjólfsson, to find the lands Bjarni had seen in the west.
Helluland
1000 CE
Leif’s first landfall is the land Bjarni had seen last: bare flat rock running from the sea to great glaciers. Leif names it Helluland, the land of flat stones.
Markland
1000 CE
A level, wooded coast with broad white beaches: Leif calls it Markland, forest land, a source of the timber Greenland lacks.
Vinland
1000 CE
Leif winters in Vinland, the first recorded European stay in North America, by the Greenlanders’ saga; the only Norse site found in the Americas outside Greenland, at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, was in use in 1021.
Outcome
By the Greenlanders’ saga, named Helluland, Markland and Vinland, wintered at Leif’s Booths and brought home timber and grapes. The only Norse site found in the Americas outside Greenland, L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, was in use in 1021.
Leif Erikson
Norse explorer who, according to the Vinland sagas, made the first recorded European landfall in North America.
Sources
- The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985–1503: The Voyages of the NorthmenJulius E. Olson (editor); the Saga of Eric the Red and the Vinland history of the Flat Island Book (the Greenlanders’ saga) in the translation of Arthur Middleton Reeves · Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York (Original Narratives of Early American History); Project Gutenberg eBook 18571 · 1906
- Eirik the Red’s Saga: A TranslationTranslated by J. Sephton · D. Marples & Co., Liverpool; Project Gutenberg eBook 17946 · 1880
- Íslendingabók — Kristni saga: The Book of the Icelanders, The Story of the ConversionAri Þorgilsson and others, translated by Siân Grønlie · Viking Society for Northern Research, University College London · 2006
- The Norse in Newfoundland: L’Anse aux Meadows and VinlandBirgitta Wallace · Newfoundland Studies 19, 1 · 2003
- L’Anse aux MeadowsBirgitta Wallace · The Canadian Encyclopedia (last edited 2025) · 2006
- Evidence for European presence in the Americas in AD 1021Margot Kuitems, Birgitta L. Wallace, Charles Lindsay, Andrea Scifo, Petra Doeve, Kevin Jenkins, Susanne Lindauer, Pınar Erdil, Paul M. Ledger, Véronique Forbes, Caroline Vermeeren, Ronny Friedrich and Michael W. Dee · Nature 601, 388–391 (2022), published online 20 October 2021 · 2021
- L’Anse aux Meadows: The Saga of Vinland (ReCollections podcast, show notes and transcript)Parks Canada · Parks Canada
- Indigenous Sites — L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic SiteParks Canada · Parks Canada · 2025
- Leif Erikson — Wikipedia
- Pathfinders: A Global History of ExplorationFelipe Fernández-Armesto · Oxford University Press · 2006
Continue exploring
- Settlement of GreenlandErik the Red · 982 CE – 986 CE
- Treasure fleet voyagesZheng He · 1405 CE – 1433 CE
- Voyage to the CapeBartolomeu Dias · 1487 CE – 1488 CE
- First Atlantic crossingChristopher Columbus · 1492 CE – 1493 CE