INTRODUCTION 3 
year 1000, the annus mirabilis of medieval history, when 
Leif, the wise and stately son of Eric the Red, ‘made up 
his mind to go and see what the coasts to the south of 
Greenland were like.” He sailed from Brattahlid with a 
crew of thirty-five men. “First they found the land which 
Bjarni had found last. Then sailed they to the land and 
east anchor, and put off a boat and went ashore, and saw 
there was no grass. Mickle glaciers were over all the 
higher parts; but it was like a plain of rock from the 
glaciers to the sea, and it seemed to them that the land 
was good for nothing.” Leif gave the place the name of 
Helluland (flat stone land). He then sailed on to countries 
which he names Markland and Vinland. The location 
of these places has been a subject of the warmest contro- 
versy. Helluland, however, it is perhaps safe to say, was 
either Labrador or the northern coast of Newfoundland. 
This is not the place to describe the expeditions of the 
Northmen to Vinland, which took place after the return 
of Leif Ericson. At first there were several attempts to 
found a colony, but the hostility of the Indians and the 
jealousies of the settlers brought them to naught. In 
1121 Eric Gnupsson, who was appointed by Paschal Il 
“bishop of Greenland and Vinland in partibus infideliwm,”’ 
went in search of Vinland; it is so recorded in at least six 
vellums. His is the last Viking expedition of which we 
have authentic information. But it is extremely probable 
that there were voyages of which we have no record. To 
these daring sea-farers the sea had no terrors; in their 
beautiful open ships, which were probably stronger and 
certainly swifter than the Spanish vessels of the time of 
Columbus, they were accustomed to traverse long stretches 
