Leif And The Vikings Left A Geographic Puzzle Behind

The Vikings headed south once they were out of Helluland. Their next stop was a region covered in trees that came to be known as Markland, or "the land of wood." According to the sagas, Markland was located north of a third region that the Nordics called Vinland and south of Helluland. Markland is generally believed to have been a section of Canada's Labrador coast. We are aware that Greenlanders continued to go there well into the 1300s, wherever it was. This is due to the fact that a record from 1347 describes a ship that had just made a port call in Markland, albeit no precise information regarding its location is provided.

Vinland's location is a complete mystery. The sagas describe it as a huge region with a valuable resource: grape vines. There were also rumored to be natural grasses, salmon, and game animals. Leif's group established a settlement at Vinland, where they spent the winter before returning to Greenland. The Icelandic sagas recount further Viking incursions into Vinland. The Bishop of Greenland visited there in 1121 CE, according to other texts.

But eventually, the Nordic population stopped visiting Vinland. Even though historians disagree today regarding the location of the site, archaeologists discovered what turned out to be a Viking settlement in Newfoundland in 1960. The location is known as L'Anse aux Meadows, and radiometric dating indicates that it was constructed between 990 and 1030 CE and inhabited for roughly 10 years. That fits perfectly with the sequence of events in the Icelandic Sagas' Leif's account.

Is Vinland's long-lost hamlet located near L'Anse aux Meadows? Maybe. Some analysts argue that it was merely a branch of that fabled colony and would have been used as a rest stop by seafarers. Others speculate that the location could be Markland rather than any region of Vinland.