The story of Christopher Columbus discovering America has long been known and hotly debated. Can it be called a discovery when the land was already inhabited? What about the fact that he stumbled across South and Central America, which are not what we generally define as North America? These questions are valid, but often overshadow another important inquiry: Why do we credit the discovery of the Americas by Europeans to Columbus and not the Vikings…
Roughly five
centuries before Christopher Columbus even laid eyes on American land, it was “Leif
Ericsson”, a Scandinavian Viking who stepped onto North American soil, and now
it's believed that he was the first European to ever do so. Leif Erickson was
born in Iceland sometime around 970 A.D to the prominent Viking Explorer “Eric
the Red”, Eric had first lived in Iceland after his father had been banished
from their ancestral land of Norway from manslaughter but when Leaf was just a
boy Eric himself was exiled from Iceland for following his Father's Footsteps
and murdering a neighbour this meant that leaf spent part of his childhood in
Greenland where Eric had founded a new settlement, once in adulthood Erickson
made the decision to journey to Norway at which time “King Olaf the first Tryggvason”,
convinced the young Adventurer to convert to Christianity, the Monarch then
gave Leaf the task of going back to Greenland to convert his fellow Pagan
settlers, but what happens next is unclear that's because there are two sagas
that give us differing ideas of how Leif Eriksen spent his next year’s.
Sagas are Icelandic Legends originally passed down and
around by word of mouth, but later written down in the following centuries. In
the case of Ericsson, there are two sagas about the journey he took to the New
World, while both give a timeline beginning around 1000 A.D. The rest of the
details tend to differ in one Saga known as The Saga of Greenlanders. The Story
Goes that Leaf had heard Fantastical Tales of a mysterious land across the
ocean from a man by the name of “Bianni hell Yulfsen”, Yarni was a traitor from
Iceland who had sailed roughly a decade earlier toward what was supposed to be
Greenland but ended up being more in the direction of North America while he
never stepped foot on the land, he had spotted off in the distance he knew it
was there and that he had without a doubt overshot Greenland. Leif Eriksen was
thus profoundly intrigued by this idea of an Undiscovered land and decided to rally
a crew to join him on a voyage to this new world with 35 men and a ready ship.
Leaf was off to recreate Bjarni's Journey, the Explorer, and his crew managed
to sail successfully across the vast Atlantic until finally reaching the shores
of North America.
somewhere in what is present day Canada, Ericsson named his new
discovery “Hettuland”, which an Old Norse meant stone slab land A fitting name
for what the Vikings had at their feet, today historians have narrowed this
area down to what they think is Baffin Island but of course the Saga itself
couldn't specify what it did say next was that the Scandinavians now made their
way further south likely to modern day Labrador which Leaf thus called “Markland”
meaning Forest land for its multitude of trees and lumber resources this new
world was already proving to be quite a positive find and the Vikings became
even more entranced as they made their way to what historians believe was the
tip of Newfoundland this is where it seems that Erickson and his men set up
their base camp and spent the coming winter taking advantage of the more
tolerable weather than they were familiar with back home. The Vikings further explored
and unearthed vast Rivers filled to the brim with delicious salmon, stunning
Greenery all around and so many wild grapes that leaf terms the region “Vinland”
or wine land all of this sounds wonderful and like an Explorer's dream but
that's where the main foundation of the two sagas differ.
According to the
second, “The Saga of Eric the Red”, discovering the new world wasn't an
adventurous success; it was a mistake. This alternative version posits that the
leaf was actually on his way back from Norway to Greenland, and it was he who
overshot and stumbled across the American continent, whatever the reason for
the trip Eriksen and his men eventually made their way back to Greenland around
which time the death of Eric the Red made Leaf the new chief of the Greenland.
settlement from that point, Ericsson would never again return to North American
lands, leaving behind no permanent settlement or Colony where his Canadian
Adventure had occurred. Other Vikings, however, would continue to explore the
new world over the following years and multiple temporary settlements were
established only three years after Leaf's Expedition his brother Torvald had
been on an Excursion of his own in North America when ongoing conflict with the
native populations eventually led to his murder making him what many believe to
be the first European ever buried in American ground but that's still
technically speculation and many say that this whole narrative is yet unproven
in fact can we trust these sagas at all are they real history if you ask quite
a few historians archaeologists and the like yes we can trust the Icelandic
stories and they do include actual historical facts even if some of the details
may have been tweaked over the years evidence to support the stories of Leaf's
trip to North America have been found and it correlates tightly with the sangha’s,
back in 1960 “Helga Ingstad”, a Norwegian Explorer in the search of Viking
remnants in Modern Day Canada found just what he was looking for after
tirelessly probing the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland. Helga Unearthed
remains of a centuries-old settlement on the Northern tip of Newfoundland,
particularly in the Lance omedos, an archaeology team made up of archaeologists
from around the world was thus brought in to examine Inksters findings and the
subsequent excavation confirmed that these ruins did belong to Vikings and were
traced back to the same Century that Ericsson had allegedly settled in the area
furthermore according to a piece in a journal called nature scientists had gone
to the next level and tested three pieces of wood from the Viking ruins to see
if they could pin down the exact year that they had been used.
According to the
journal, the project was successful and the scientists were able to determine
that the lumber had been cut in the year 1021 A.D while this might at first
seem to contradict the sagas which puts Leaf's Expedition closer to 1000 A.D
many scholars say no it does nothing of the sort one in particular a Viking
specialist with the institute for Northern studies in Scotland by the name of “Dr
Colleen Beatty” notes that the existence of Vikings in North America in the
1020’s doesn't negate the fact that they could have also been there at the start
of the century according to Dr Beatty, whatever prompted the Vikings to cut
down those trees in 1021 could very well have been one stage of the occupation
activity not necessarily the first and it's important to remember that it has
already been theorized that a string of follow-up Expeditions had pursued Ericssons
whether the ruins found were built in 1021 AD or the lumber tested was part of
later repairs of an older structure we can't snow without testing the whole
thing but none of this disproves the sagas even if the timeline is slightly off
if anything this evidence further supports the entire narrative.
so, was Christopher
Columbus the first European to discover the Americas, or was it Leif Ericsson
and his band of Vikings? Did Columbus discover the South and Central parts, and
the Vikings found the North 500 years earlier, or can we even call any of it a
discovery, given the vast population of indigenous tribes that the continents
already hosted all of that is Up For Debate but it seems that the stories told
in Icelandic legends about a Viking Explorer finding the new world are no
longer debatable today, the remains of Ericsson's settlement in Newfoundland
are part of an UNESCO heritage site and in 1964 American president “Lyndon
Johnson” declared October 9 to be Leif Ericsson day marking the anniversary of
the 1825 Landing of the restoration bringing the first organized shipload of
Norwegian immigrants to the United States coincidentally early October also
holds the date of Christopher Columbus Day, and in 2023 both adventurers will
be commemorated on the same day Columbus and Erickson both brought European
life and death to American soil both intruded on the land of the Native
American tribes in the name of exploration and colonization but technically it
was the Vikings that discovered North America first….
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