As a result the Vikings and their exploration of what they called Vinland is now presented as little more than a footnote in world history. Yet in popular perception the story of the Vikings in America remains at the margins of history. Today we know for sure that the Vikings were there. The archaeological remains at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland leave no doubt that they established a substantial presence on the American east coast.
Yet it is not Columbus but the Vikings who should be credited with the first significant European exploration and settlement of America.Īround five centuries before Columbus, the Vikings both explored and settled in America. SO goes the school-room jingle, and so most people today perceive the dawn of European exploration and settlement of America. He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain. VIKING HUDSON BAY Vikings in America 1 Vikings to America King Harald I Fairhair receiving the ShetlandsĦ. Replica of a Viking Figurehead from Unst Boat Haven, Shetland No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the express written permission of the publisher.īritish Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Contents The moral right of Graeme Davis to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. And the name the Vikings gave to this New World - America. From New York's Long Island to the Canadian High Arctic the New World was a playground for Viking adventurers. For four centuries or more, from their first visits around AD 1000 to the eve of the Columbus voyages, the Vikings explored and settled thousands of miles of the coasts and rivers of North America.
In this groundbreaking new work by the author of The Early English Settlement of Orkney and Shetland, the true extent of the Viking discovery and colonisation of the eastern seaboard of America is fully examined, taking into account the new archaeological, linguistic and DNA evidence which supplements the historic account. When Columbus claimed to have discovered America in 1492, and the Borgia Pope claimed it as a New World for Catholic Spain, the Vatican started a 500 hundred year conspiracy to conceal the true story of Viking America. The first book to tackle the subject in forty years, the true extent of the Viking discovery and colonisation of the eastern seaboard of America is fully examined, taking into account the new archaeological, linguistic and DNA evidence which supplements the historic account.
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