4 NES SR 
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The laying to of a Viking-ship. (Photo from the original) 
Taken from the Bayeux Tapestry, representing King William the Conqueror’s 
campaign in England, in 1066. 
Chapter IV. 
The great Vineland- ayoyage 1003—1006. 
W: now come to the records of the voyages to Vineland, of which 
much has been written in our days, as the trustworthiness of 
the Saga concerning them, has been greatly doubted, especially by 
Friptsor Nansen. The Norwegian Gustav STORM has already main- 
tained earlier, that the essence of Eric the Red’s Saga, regarding the 
voyages to Vineland, is right, and Finnur Jonsson has lately decisively 
expressed the same — even if one thing or another, perhaps influenced 
by the tales and traditions of the middle ages, is embellished or mis- 
understood. 
However it may be, America’s mainland was certainly visited by 
the Norwegian sailors five hundred years before Columbus landed at 
Guanahani, but these Norsemen’s discovery of the new world did not 
lead to any lasting colonization, and the accounts of the journeys - 
undertaken, were not known to the European world, beyond a limited 
Scandinavian circle. 
In С.С. Rarn’s big work “Antiquitates American’ (1837) is collected 
in one place all which ancient literature communicates of the Norsemen’s 
Vineland voyages, which is also the case with the work “Gronlands 
historiske Mindesmærker” (“Greenland’s historical memorials’’), which was 
published shortly after by “The RoyalSociety of the Northern Antiquaries’”. 
ADAM OF BREMEN is the oldest informant who mentions Vineland, 
he collected, whilst staying at the Danish court about 1070, accounts of 
the northern countrie’s geography. In his work it is written (IV p. 38): 
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