The main source of information about the Viking voyages to Vinland can be derived from two Icelandic sagas, The Saga of Eric the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders. These sagas were written down approximately 250 years after the settlement of Greenland and are open to significant interpretation. Combining those two, it seems that there were a few separate attempts to establish a Norse settlement in Vinland, including one led by Þorfinnr Karlsefni, none of which lasted for more than two years. The disbandment of the small Viking colony probably had several causes. Disagreements among the men about the few women that followed on the trip, and fighting with the skrælingjar (Native Americans) already living on the land, are both indicated in the written sources.
The story tells that after the settlement of Greenland by the Vikings, a merchant by the name of Bjarni Herjólfsson, who was on his way to Iceland from Greenland, strayed off course due to a storm and thus accidentally discovered the east coast of America in 985 or 986. He then afterwards told the story and sold the ships to Leif Ericson, who, according to the stories, sailed back to those areas. It was late in the summer, and he did not want to stay over winter in this new land, which he noted was covered with forests, so he did not land and managed to reach Greenland before winter fell. With wood being in very short supply in Greenland, the settlers there were eager to explore the riches of this new land. Some years later Leif Ericson explored this coast, and established a short-lived colony on a part of the coast that he called Vinland.
The first discovery made by Leif was according to the stories Helluland ("flatstone land"), possibly Baffin Island. Markland ("wood land"), possibly Labrador Peninsula, was discovered next (there is some evidence that the tree line in northern Labrador has been diminished or eroded since circa 1000) and lastly Vinland (commonly interpreted as "wine land", but interpreted as "pasture land" by others, see localization discussion below), possibly Newfoundland. The expedition included both families and livestocks and the aims were to begin new settlements. Straumfjörðr was the name of the northern settlement and Hóp was the name for the southern settlement. However, according to the stories it was cancelled soon due to conflicts with the "skrælingjar" (possibly the later Beothuks, or Dorset people). New voyages for woodcutting etc. seem to have been discussed even as late as the 1300s.
Until the 19th century, the idea of Viking settlement in North America was considered by historians to be the product of mere folk tales. The first scholarly theory for the idea was put forth in 1837 by Danish literary historian and antiquarian Carl Christian Rafn in his book Antiquitates Americanæ. Rafn had made an exhaustive examination of the sagas, as well as potential settlement sites on the North American coast and concluded that Vinland was a real place in North America that had been settled by the Norse.
[image] Those who believe Newfoundland is the location of Vinland generally think that settlements further south are unlikely, because maintaining such a distant lifestyle from the Norse homelands would have been far too difficult for the Vikings of the time. Iron and other European convenient resources would have been too difficult to sustain on any workable level, as the later English settlers in New England would later find. Costly fights with native populations so far from supply lines would have been another deterrent.
An argument for placing Vinland further south is Adam of Bremen's account. In his Descriptio insularum Aquilonis he wrote that the name Vinland comes from huge amounts of grapes growing there (Praeterea unam adhuc insulam recitavit a multis in eo repertam occeano, quae dicitur Winland, eo quod ibi vites sponte nascantur, vinum optimum ferentes). He received this information from king Svend Estridson. However, grapes do not grow in the sites commonly seen as possible locations of Vinland.
There are a number of theories to explain this discrepancy:
While the theory that Vinland was further south is a legitimate line of inquiry, for some the motivation to search Vinland further south could have been more personal to justify or romanticize the later (post-Columbian) history of Swedish and Danish colonization of areas in the present-day United States. There have been several instances where evidence of pre-Columbian presence of Norse explorers in the United States has been considered to be fake by most researchers, such as for example the Kensington Runestone. So far, the only evidence of the Norse in the United States that is generally accepted is the Maine Penny.
Some Neo-Nazis also use the name Vinland to describe all or part of North America, similar to Aztlán among Hispanics, and the Vinland flag has become a popular symbol among White Supremacist groups.
See also: Vinland map, Helge Ingstad, Maine Penny, Kensington Runestone