A thousand years ago, a Nordic seafarer, carried off course on the North Atlantic, caught a chance glimpse of land in the far west. The story of the Nordic discovery of America, named “Vínland” by the discoverers, around the year AD 1000 has been preserved for a millennium in medieval Icelandic manuscripts. How Icelandic seafarers discovered the New World a thousand years ago. Was Vínland first seen by Leifur Eiríksson or by Bjarni Herjólfsson? Was Leifur “the Lucky” a Christian missionary, and where was he from? Who was the first European born in the New World? In her informative and accessible book, Anna Yates tells the story of the Norsemen in America, how they found a new continent and why they did not stay. Based on original historical sources, the work brings together various other knowledge and findings. Anna Yates (b. 1955) is a journalist and translator of mixed English and Icelandic descent. A graduate in history from the University of Bristol and in Icelandic for foreign students from the University of Iceland. She has lived and worked in Iceland since 1984.
The Viking Discovery of America
88 pp Hardback, 21,5×15 cm, b/w photos.
