The Norse in Newfoundland: L’Anse aux Meadows and Vinland

Via Medievalists.net:

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"One thousand years ago, the Old World and the New stood face to face in the Strait of Belle Isle. The landing of the Norse on the shores of North America was not the result of a sudden journey but the endpoint of a step-by-step expansion stretching over two centuries. This expansion began in southwestern Norway, where chieftains and minor kings jostled for power over a growing population. In such a competitive context, migration across the North Sea to the Scottish Isles and the Faeroes was an attractive alternative to staying home. The contemporary development of seaworthy ships, capable of safely crossing open oceans and transporting people, their worldly belongings and livestock, made emigration possible."

Read the full article by Birgitta Wallace at the Newfoundland and Labrador Studies website.

Into the West

Medievalists.net reports on an essay by Else Mundal in the new book, Isolated Islands in Medieval Nature, Culture and Mind, suggesting that other accounts of western islands besides the more generally known from the Sagas may be factual and based on further exploration of the North America by the Vikings. Read the full article here.